Craig's Report - November 30, 1998


Maybe Yes, Maybe No

When we left on Friday for our fall Costco run (Fernie is definitely NOT a shopper's paradise) the odds of the hill opening this coming Friday were looking pretty grim.   Almost immediately after I penned (okay keyed) my last cautiously optimistic report it started to rain and proceeded to do so for a couple of days.  The lawn was bare again by Friday.

When we returned yesterday, there was some new snow, but just a few centimetres. However it did start to snow hard just as we arrived.

For a while it looked to have the makings of a good old Fernie dump, but it petered out during the evening.  It did make the ground white again, but the lower part of the mountain, here represented by Lower Dipsy, still needs another good dump to open.

The good news is it may be coming.  Environment Canada has issued a heavy snowfall warning for tonight and the ski hill folks are banking on that to let them open on Friday.   Apparently Wednesday is the decision day.

Farther up the hill things are in much better shape.  One of the dots in the picture above was a snowboarder who had started out at the top of Face Lift and she reported that the conditions up there were 'fantastic'.

Even half way up the Elk Chair things weren't looking too bad.  This is a shot up Lizard Trail from Dipsy and while there are a few weeds sticking up, the folks who made the tracks didn't seem to mind.  The snow seemed  fairly light and was probably good fun.


From nearly the same spot I took this shot of upper Dipsy with Lizard Bowl in the background.

The snarly threesome of Decline (shown here), Sky Dive and Stagleap are still not ready for prime time, but they almost never are at this time of year.

The concrete flying helicopter (sounds like something out of Popular Mechanics) was back and they appeared to be ferrying the stuff up to the area of the bottom of the Whitepass Chair.  Nice day for pouring concrete.  (For those who care, please note the correct usage of concrete rather than cement.  I have been basted for misusing these in the past) :-)

The base of the Timber Chair continues to grow new pieces, but is going to need a healthy growth spurt to meet that December 18th deadline.

At 7:30 PM it is -2 C and snowing lightly.  Yes!

(Click on any picture for a larger version)

Get this report by EMail Past Reports Unofficial FAR page
Elk Valley Forecast Official Ski Report Official FAR Page