Craig's Report - January 11, 1997 - 4:30 PM

It was a beautiful clear day in the Rockies today, with temperatures of around -10 C at the bottom. It seemed cooler up top, but was quite tolerable. There was no significant new snow.

Various entanglements meant the only real runs I got were down Sunnyside and Sky Dive. Sunnyside seemed to have a lot more hard slick patches than yesterday, perhaps due to the weekend traffic

The big news was that the clear weather let them use the helicopter to blast the ridge this morning, so the Face Lift opened today Here is a shot looking up the Elk Valley towards Fernie from the top of the Face Lift

I was accompanied on my Sky Dive run by some friends from Alberta who regularly ski Fernie.. A couple of them are motoring down Sky Dive in this picture. They pronounced the Sky Dive snow delightful, but I would only have rated it as OK. I found it rather cut up and lumpy to merit any superlatives. Farther down there were even some hard patches.

This points out that you shouldn't take my reports too seriously. Not only am I rather picky about snow conditions, but my impression of the conditions might vary with mood, if I got some particularly sweet turns or if the cat bite me when I got home. What's more, what I like you might not and vice versa. You have been warned!. <g>