Bernie's Report - January 15, 2003

Looking more like Fernie everyday

Awoke yesterday morning (Jan 14) to snow falling and cooler temperatures (-6C). Just the right combination for a promising day. Shovel snow or hit the slopes? Ski of Board? What will I do? Decisions! Decisions! After a couple of cups of coffee and bowl of oat meals, the decision was made. It would be a soft boot day on the intermediate runs. Snow fell heavily most of the ski day. In total, we received another 12 to 15 cm. of the fluffy stuff. As would be expected in these conditions, the riding was excellent.

The snow coverage continues to improve. The lighter snow is still being scraped down to an icy surface on the well used intermediate runs (Lower North Ridge, Wallaby, parts of Bear and Lower Heartland for example) but the less steep and less used intermediate and green runs have improve immensely. In the morning, Lizard Bowl was a blast. The snow seemed deeper than the numbers would indicate. Visibility was restricted due to the falling snow. Bumps formed quickly but they were soft and forgiving, for the most part. At least they cushioned my many falls!

By mid afternoon the snow fall started to diminish and visibilty improve greatly so I headed up to the White Pass. By now I was feeling a bit more comfortable on the board (only second time out on the board this year) so I headed over to Milky Way. Normaly when I�m on the board I stay as far away from the trees as possible, but the combination of great loose snow and the intermediate pitch of Milky Way was too much to resist. I was rewarded with the best run of the day in mostly untracked powder. I had intended to stop and take another photo halfway down Milky Way but I was having too much fun and I forgot to stop. ;-) In summary, sking on some runs is still limited due to the dense and tall (too tall) alder growth but all in all, conditions are very good to excellent.

Sorry about the tardiness of this report. Snow shovelling and a prior commitment gobbled up my time yesterday evening.
At 6:30 a.m. its -6C and overcast. I think! (It�s still dark)

Bernie - bernie@far.redtree.com


Looking back down the White Pass Chair

Lower Heartland

Highline... Groomed and busy!? :-)

Looking up Highline

Joe the Mountain Host with his guests in the morning snow.