The past two days have been tough for wind closures of lifts in this region. Tseeb had it worse than I did at both Kicking Horse and Panorama. At Fernie the restriction was not upper vs. lower but new side vs. old side. Yes the new side goes higher, thus more wind exposure, but the old side still has 2,000+ vertical including Lizard and Cedar Bowls. The far north side of Cedar Bowl including Snake Ridge was also closed. I'm assuming that was due to caution about wind loading for above, which was also an issue at Island Lake yesterday.
Temps were in mid-20s F with thick overcast. At those temps I usually wear my glasses, but the first venture into Lizard Bowl told me I needed the goggles. Lizard Bowl viewed from Bear Chair:
Snow on the upper half of the old side (presumably upper 2/3 of new side if open) was excellent soft packed powder regardless of aspect (I tested Arrow and Sun Up, both with SE exposure, which must mean it was not as sunny Tuesday as at Island Lake. Near the base snow was crunchy, and the parking lots looked like they had seen some rain along with the snow.
I then moved into Cedar Bowl.
Mountains above the ski area look just like the ones a few miles away at Island Lake.
View across Cedar Bowl to Snake Ridge:
I saw no one there, only found out on my next lap that it was closed.
Returning to the Bear lift via the Haul Back T-Bar and Boomerang, I found very soft windpack in Bow. View down toward town of Fernie:
You can see the wind is reloading some snow.
This was my 10th consecutive ski day, and the cat skiing has worn me down enough that I have limited all of the lift served days to no more than 3+ hours and mostly groomers. Since snow was good I made a couple of exceptions today. I ventured into Deep Space under the Boomerang chair. Later I skied among the scattered trees of Cedar Ridge. Views up and down on that run:
I skied 17,400 vertical today.
Temps were in mid-20s F with thick overcast. At those temps I usually wear my glasses, but the first venture into Lizard Bowl told me I needed the goggles. Lizard Bowl viewed from Bear Chair:
Snow on the upper half of the old side (presumably upper 2/3 of new side if open) was excellent soft packed powder regardless of aspect (I tested Arrow and Sun Up, both with SE exposure, which must mean it was not as sunny Tuesday as at Island Lake. Near the base snow was crunchy, and the parking lots looked like they had seen some rain along with the snow.
I then moved into Cedar Bowl.
Mountains above the ski area look just like the ones a few miles away at Island Lake.
View across Cedar Bowl to Snake Ridge:
I saw no one there, only found out on my next lap that it was closed.
Returning to the Bear lift via the Haul Back T-Bar and Boomerang, I found very soft windpack in Bow. View down toward town of Fernie:
You can see the wind is reloading some snow.
This was my 10th consecutive ski day, and the cat skiing has worn me down enough that I have limited all of the lift served days to no more than 3+ hours and mostly groomers. Since snow was good I made a couple of exceptions today. I ventured into Deep Space under the Boomerang chair. Later I skied among the scattered trees of Cedar Ridge. Views up and down on that run:
I skied 17,400 vertical today.
