February 17, 2000

Learning to love the chopped

I got reamed out today out in an email from a reader who pointed out that I was a whiny, selfish, whimpering local for my harping on how quickly the powder disappears these days. Okay, guilty as charged, but the point was? He went on to point out that mountains like Fernie were for the taking and open to the public to enjoy. Apart from a small quibble noting that much of the hill is private property and only open to the paying public, I would agree and hope the fact I have my web page and reports suggests I am not trying to hoard the hill for locals. However this report is simply my biased opinion of the moment and I certainly make no attempt to disguise the fact that my skiing preferences are probably different than most folks and I am definitely picky about both my snow and space. I might well complain about crowds that others would consider light and trashed snow that might be considered excellent. On the other hand I received another email today politely noting that they found the heavy snow of last week that I said was pretty good to be like skiing in cement. This did not surprise me for I have a rather perverse affection for heavy snow, but it is yet another warning that readers should take these reports with a grain of salt. They are my ramblings and nothing more.

So keeping that disclaimer in mind, I will now report that the skiing was very good to excellent today for the most part. There were still lots of soft turns, and while most of it was of the sliced and diced variety, it was still pretty sweet turning. I found the moguls on the upper mountain very nice, but down lower, the bottom of Diamond Back comes to mind, there were large scraped of spots between the fluffy lumps. The groomed runs I was on were all very good.

I was with my men's day group and did not get over to the old side at all except for a final run down Easter. This had a mix of powder and chopped turns that was a bit variable, but definitely nice. However the traverse over from Currie still isn't great. In order to stay high enough to make it to Easter one has to negotiate some significant rock hazards and one of my companions got a nasty little gouge in his ski from a pointy peril lurking in the new snow. I recall this route being much better last year and assume our somewhat lower base this year is causing the problem. Okay, okay, I am whining again. :-)

At 7:45 PM it is -11 C at the house and clear.


The lower part of Puff.

White Pass chair passengers dangle above Timber Bowl

Super Dave slinks his way down under the White Pass Chair

Lizard Bowl from the top of Easter.