Craig's Report - April 21, 2003

Super Slurpee Send Off

The Griz has been burning his snow bridges behind him and putting the ski season to bed with a blaze of bright sunshine and summer heat. This seemed to call for one final report, but with Jay and Bernie off frolicking elsewhere and Heinz just a teeny bit broken, I guess it falls to me to finish things up.

Spring skiing is not normally my favorite, but even I was seduced by today's beautiful weather, which was about as hot as I can remember skiing. In fact when we got back to the house, my shaded porch thermometer was reporting a balmy 22 C! This of course took its toll on the lower slopes and finding a route to the bottom could be a significant and damp challenge, but things were surprisingly good up top. It was best on well trafficked routes where the corn may have been a bit like the way I remember my grandmother's cooking, overcooked and mushy, but unlike granny's, this was still pretty tasty. Even on Sunnyside where the moguls were huge, the cruising was pretty sweet.

Less travelled areas were a bit variable though and 1-2-3 was even a bit crunchy in the late afternoon, despite the high temperatures. There were some unusual hazards too, such as wondering which chunk of snow would be the next to collapse into the creek under the snow in the bottom of the Currie gully, but that just added to the fun.

Normally the hill would have closed right after the weekend, but apparently due to a British tour with a strange sense of timing, it, or at least the old side, will be open for one more day tomorrow. Things should then be pretty quiet on the hill until the lift opening in late June heralds the return of the armoured boys of summer trying to commit hari kari on their alloy steeds.

All in all it may have been a less than stellar season, but it was far from our worst one (an honour held firmly by that dismal season of a couple of years ago). We had some very nice powder days and innumerable fine turns to once again make the point that even a mediocre season in Fernie is still a pretty darn fine one.

Finally I have to give a big thank you to Bernie, Heinz and Jay for taking over the writing of these reports and allowing me to put scary stuff on their computers to post them with. I think they did a great job and writing this final report just emphasized how much I appreciated skiing camera free this winter. :-)

At 8 in the evening it is still 13 C at the house with a thin cloud cover.