Craig's Report - May 29, 2005

All Quiet on the Pointy Front

There are times when one starts to believe that one is finally becoming immune to the scenery in these parts, but all it takes is a climb up the mountain on a gorgeous day like today to rekindle the wonder. Alas pictures and words can't come close to capturing the sensations created by the scale and grandeur of the peaks, the scent of the clean mountain breeze or the sounds of the rushing creeks and occasional eagle cry. Of course the lack of oxygen created by the slog up may also account for much of the euphoria.

It is quiet this time of the year and despite the beautiful conditions and being the weekend, the only folks I saw were a couple of mountain bikers at the Bear's Den and a few of resort employees. Although the buzz of chain saws is common on weekdays, no doubt terrorizing alders across the mountain, I am not aware of any major projects being undertaken. No doubt preparations for the July first opening of the biking season will soon begin and I understand that both the Elk and Timber chairs will run this season. Even without any maintenance, most of the trails I have been on are in pretty fair shape, although there is some run off damage and fallen trees in places.

We just received our season pass renewal notices late last week and apparently the deadline for the cheaper spring rates is June 3. Since this is approaching rather rapidly I thought I would mention it for those of you who are interested, but maybe haven't gotten the notice yet. Other than that I can't say I have much else to report, so this will be a mercifully brief missive.


Bear. The town of Fernie is just under the gnarled tree, with part of Cedar Ridge below it.

Lower Cedar Bowl in the foreground with Cedar Valley and Mount Fernie in the background. The Sisters are just peeking out from behind Mount Fernie.

Upper Cedar Bowl with Snake Ridge at the right.

Lizard Bowl with the bottom of the Face lift at the right.

Looking up to towards the top of the Face Lift from the top of the Bear Express.

The official snow level in the Bear snow plot would now appear to be about minus five cm. Note that whoever made this scale apparently didn't contemplate a year like this one as they don't even have fine gradations below one meter. The top of the pole is 550 cm, which would be nice to see, say next year. :-)

Lizard Bowl again, this time from the Tower Six road.

A sea of spring flowers graces Bow while below Lizard Trail runs down to the village.

This poor thing seemed to be dejectedly contemplating the little bit of snow remaining on the Tower Six road at the Dancer hairpin. Around the hairpin was mainly dirt with just the odd snow patch. I think his season is finally done.

This is the gully between Freeway and China Wall and while it is hard to tell from this picture, the chainsaws have been busy hacking the alders out of here. I fear this will only encourage the riff raff. ;-)