Craig's Report - November 18, 1998


Snow Watch

I have been getting lots of email from folks wondering about our snow and where my next report was.  I had intended to get one out sooner, but there wasn't a lot to report and then I was away for a few days followed by a touch of the plague.  I did stumble out for a quick look around today though.

This picture pretty much says it all.  There is snow at the upper elevations, but there is still lots of shubbery stick through even up on Bear.  The base area has no snow and the November 27th opening date is looking highly unlikely.  The hill says it will still open on that date if some mega dumps come our way.  Being Fernie that is certainly possible, but I wouldn't bet the farm, or my vacation, on it.


This is another view up the hill, this time looking into Timber Bowl from down by the horse barns.  The top of the new Timber Quad is just in the low part of the ridge in the center of the picture.  The base of the White Pass lift should be just about where the white trees meet the darker trees as you come back down the lift line.

 


The bottom of the Timber Chair still has a ways to go, but at least the concrete is now in place.  The hill is now predicting that the new lifts will be open on Dec 18th.   This is consistent with the persistent rumour that they were running about a week late and their original target of December 10th.  I'm sure they must be desperate to have them running for the Christmas holidays.

Since I don't yet have the energy for climbing up the hill very far, I thought I would toss in a picture of our new alpine suburbia.  This shot is from under the Elk Chair looking along the upper road in Highline Estates.  There are some very nice houses being built up here.

One of the more interesting houses being built in Highline is this house of straw.  The structural strength is provided by truly massive posts and beams which are apparently all from salvaged wood.

nov02986.jpg (17056 bytes)I thought the thick walls might have meant a rather dark interior, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  The straw walls will all be stuccoed on both the inside and outside.  The one interior wall that had a first coat was not flat, but had a pleasing sort of gentle hills and valleys to it.

It will be interesting to see how it turns out and Mike the owner is a very pleasant fellow who is more than happy to explain the ins and outs of straw house construction.

Since we are getting close to ski season, I will try to start posting more frequent but shorter reports and I will make a particular effort to get something out if anything significant happens on the snow fall front.  Please do keep in mind though that I just do this for fun and sometimes other things have to take precedence.

(Click on any picture for a larger version)

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