Fernie, Feb. 26, 2020

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
Tseeb woke up today with a stiff back muscle that did not respond well to shock absorbing ski moves, so he was uncharacteristically mostly looking for groomers. My legs felt better than the previous day but I still needed to pick and choose my spots to expend energy.

Wednesday to Friday were supposed to be warm by Canadian standards, around freezing midday with some sun. The temperature forecast was accurate but Fernie had thick overcast all day including surprise snowfall from 1-3PM and some wind high up.

We started with Heartland and Falling Star groomers off the White Pass chair. Both of these are mostly south facing so the soft packed powder snow demonstrated the upside of the persistent Great Gray North weather. The first test of ungroomed was Shakey’s Acres under White Pass.
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Tseeb’s back was not pleased with this, so we next skied the long Currie Powder to Gilmar Trail down Currie Bowl. This was soft ego groomed skiing all the way with minimal skier traffic on a quiet Wednesday, so Tseeb opted for a repeat.

This time I thought I would look for something sporting off the Reverse Traverse, but in the bad light I missed it. I traversed lower down with this view up to where I had planned.
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The Polar Peak chair was moving but there was no chance of it opening in that thick fog.

From the same spot here’s the view along the ridge separating Currie Bowl from Lizard Bowl.
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I was too low to attain that ridge but I got a nice steep run in soft snow on Currie Creek down to the Bear Connector.

We rode Timber and turned left to Siberia Bowl. Tseeb skied Shooting Star while I traversed to Mars. View down Mars:
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For our next lap we went up White Pass and skied Down Right to Diamondback. Diamondback was Liz’ favorite powder run two years ago but last year it was heavily mogulled. This year it had been groomed a few days ago so Tseeb liked that.
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We had lunch about 1PM and it was dumping when we came out to try Fernie’s old side so no pictures from there. We skied Cedar Centre in variable light and then North Ridge. Tseeb wanted to take his last run on Down Right/Diamondback. This time I found the Reverse Traverse gate under the Polar Peak lift and made the long trek (comparable to Alta’s High T) to the end of the ridge. The direct run Skydive looked like huge moguls.
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I diverted left into the Window Chutes, which opened up into a wide field of soft snow.

I finished the day with 25,800 vertical. Later from town I took a picture of this area.
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The cut runs left to right are Stag’s Leap, Skydive and Decline. I skied into the tree’s looker’s right of Decline but eventually into the unnamed diagonal open area farther right.

This was not a photogenic day but snow quality was excellent at all aspects and altitudes. I told Liz that snow conditions reminded me of her first enthusiastic day at Fernie in 2013.
 
Not many pictures to add, only this one of Tony Crocker skiing Mars while I stayed on Siberia. I thought I was in good place to catch him, but he didn't see me and came down further lookers right than I expected.
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A correction to his post is that the run I repeated (3x) in Curry Bowl was Down Right to Diamond Back. Not only did it seem to have been recently groomed, but by the end of the day had another 1" new to smooth it out and cushion it further.
 
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