I drove to Island Lake’s parking as requested by 5PM Sunday in my new Helly Hansen snow boots. My ski bag arrived in Fernie’s Park Place hotel 2AM Monday. At Park Place breakfast this morning I chatted with a retired couple from Brisbane(!). The wife’s luggage had been waylaid in Vancouver by Air Canada on the way to Calgary. She wasn’t leaving the hotel at-25C until it arrived with her winter clothing, hopefully by noon today.
Though we only saw a little snow overnight at the lodge, it snowed 8-10 inches up in the ski terrain. There was some discussion of how difficult January had been in Canada, both for lack of snow and for developing instability. As in 2003, the occasional rain event at Fernie stabilizes its snowpack while many mountains farther north still retain their weak layers.
We started on the Baldy side north of the lodge with this view across to the Lizard Range.
It’s typical Great Gray North weather with the occasional sunny break. The light was good enough that I did not need to wear goggles. It was 20-25F, surprisingly warm in view of the imminent Arctic blast forecast. We soon moved over to those Lizard Range bowls as they expected we would be in the trees most of our second and third days. They did not take us to the highest drop points above 7,000 feet as the snow was wind affected up there.
We generally started skiing around 6,500 feet. I wondered if there would be a subsurface as at Castle over the weekend and at Island Lake last year, but happily there was not.
Guide Rick giving instructions at Lizard Pass:
And here above the aptly (for this tour) named Face Shot Bowl:
The snow was so good here that we skied three variants of Face Shot Bowl.
Zoomed view down to the lodge and the lake:
The open water is where they are aerating the lake. The lake’s outflow has the hydroelectric generator that powers the extensive lodge facilities most of the time.
We continued to work over the subalpine terrain on the Lizard Range side because of the snow quality and that it was likely we would not be back there on this tour.
As we crossed Lizard Pass we get a good view of the west side of Baldy where we will be skiing more the next two days.
Those runs are Big Woody and Little Woody.
Late in the day Rick torched a dead tree to kill its infecting fungus.
We skied 14,200 vertical of very consistent snow, which is a fairly high amount on a first day where you don’t start until after the transceiver drill. I told Liz that snow quality was much closer to her first cat day at Wild Horse in 2013 than to last year. But the best was yet to come.
Though we only saw a little snow overnight at the lodge, it snowed 8-10 inches up in the ski terrain. There was some discussion of how difficult January had been in Canada, both for lack of snow and for developing instability. As in 2003, the occasional rain event at Fernie stabilizes its snowpack while many mountains farther north still retain their weak layers.
We started on the Baldy side north of the lodge with this view across to the Lizard Range.
It’s typical Great Gray North weather with the occasional sunny break. The light was good enough that I did not need to wear goggles. It was 20-25F, surprisingly warm in view of the imminent Arctic blast forecast. We soon moved over to those Lizard Range bowls as they expected we would be in the trees most of our second and third days. They did not take us to the highest drop points above 7,000 feet as the snow was wind affected up there.
We generally started skiing around 6,500 feet. I wondered if there would be a subsurface as at Castle over the weekend and at Island Lake last year, but happily there was not.
Guide Rick giving instructions at Lizard Pass:
And here above the aptly (for this tour) named Face Shot Bowl:
The snow was so good here that we skied three variants of Face Shot Bowl.
Zoomed view down to the lodge and the lake:
The open water is where they are aerating the lake. The lake’s outflow has the hydroelectric generator that powers the extensive lodge facilities most of the time.
We continued to work over the subalpine terrain on the Lizard Range side because of the snow quality and that it was likely we would not be back there on this tour.
As we crossed Lizard Pass we get a good view of the west side of Baldy where we will be skiing more the next two days.
Those runs are Big Woody and Little Woody.
Late in the day Rick torched a dead tree to kill its infecting fungus.
We skied 14,200 vertical of very consistent snow, which is a fairly high amount on a first day where you don’t start until after the transceiver drill. I told Liz that snow quality was much closer to her first cat day at Wild Horse in 2013 than to last year. But the best was yet to come.
Last edited: