Craig's Report - December 12, 2006

Don't Be Discouraged

It was raining yesterday evening and while the radio predicted snow overnight, the morning brought the discouraging sound of dripping and a freshly rinsed driveway. Still the ski hill report urged folks not to be discouraged by rain in town as they had 13 cm of new snow overnight on the upper mountain and indeed the trees appeared to be white down to below the Bear�s Den. It turned out to be good advice for there was some fine skiing out there today and very few folks to share it with.

I don�t think I could call any of it powder, but that didn�t keep the ankle deep soft whip from providing a very pleasant powder like ride. Below the Bear�s Den things became rain wetted and not so pleasant, but by that point I was usually on a groomed run in transit to a lift. There was the odd blemish on the lower runs, but nothing of any real concern.

At 15:40 it is 2 C at the house and snowing.


In the early afternoon upper Lizard and Cedar remained closed for avalanche control, but Currie was open except for the high traverse to the Currie Chutes. This is the sign line along Cruiser.

No need to wake Mr. Snowblower from his ongoing slumber today. This certainly doesn�t look inviting for skiing, but it goes to show how conditions at the bottom can be deceiving.

Sunnyside. I will have to try and remember that tree fang after the next dump hides it.

The bottom of Silver Fox is pretty ugly, but this is certainly not representative of the other groomed runs.

Looking up Currie Powder with Polar Peak in the background.

I have been avoiding the North side of lower Currie as I thought it might be rocky. I actually made it down with no problem, but I don�t think I would yet recommend it to someone who doesn�t know the parts to avoid.

Fernie is well known for its steep and scary slopes, but guest services goes out of its way to help with any problems these might cause.

The search for untracked can sometimes lead to traps. As it turned out the run down was very nice as channels, admittedly sometimes rather small ones, kept just appearing as needed. This is above lower Barracuda, so might even be part of Barracuda.