Craig's Report - December 25, 2006

Have a Happy Fluffy Holidays!

The folks of Fernie must have been particularly good this year, at least in some manner, for Santa Griz has been especially generous. Adding to an already excellent start to the season and the nice little fluffy surprise I mentioned on Friday, Saturday and today both brought additional offerings. While the snow today was a bit denser, it was still oh, so fine and capped three great days of skiing with my daughter. It also brought the realization that I had better get used the idea that I will soon be skiing in her tracks.

There really isn�t much to add other than the whole hill is in great shape. The easily packed denser snow down low did make things a bit bumpy, but I am stretching for a quibble. We even continued to be able to ski onto most lifts without pause, but I am sure that will change, if not tomorrow, then certainly for the rest of the week after that.

At 17:15 it is -1 C at the house and overcast.


Looking up Cedar Bowl towards a cloud shrouded Griz Face from Cedar Ridge. Cruiser is off to the right.

Although the Cedar Ridge snow was well chopped, it still had an abundance of grin producing turns.

Looking across Bow and Arrow towards Sunnyside from the middle of Lizard Bowl.

Even Kangaroo was pretty good, although it did require navigating this band of twigs and accompanying man eating moguls half way down.

In the trees on Boomerang Ridge - very sweet indeed.

The top of Cedar and Snake had been closed this morning, but opened from the Hut Trail just as we were about to head for the new side. We never made it. Snake Main with minimal tracks and delightful slightly dense powder.

I don�t know if I have ever skied the steep part of Steep and Deep this early in the season. The entrance is still intimidatingly infested with alders and the top does require picking the right channels, but where they cleared it farther down on the skiers right and the run out area, is now wonderful. It took surprisingly little time to acquire tracks though, so you might not hear much about it here after today. :-)

The view of the South side of Cedar Bowl from Steep and Deep. Spruce is the run at the left.