Fernie, BC March 10-11, 2023

[EMSC]

More annual guys trip fun. Mostly a very similar story to my Castle TR (Castle 2023 TR).

S or even slightly SE facing was not very good - with an exception of heavily treed S facing was fine with random chunky spots in small open areas. True E faces and N faces skiing quite good with ~6" to be found in trees and remote (eg traverse to get there) places. Fernie has a lot of similarities to Alta in that there are hugely long and hugely flat PITA traverses to get to decent chunks of the mountain. Also in that there are a lot of differing ski aspects despite the overall ridgeline running roughly N-S and 'on average' facing E-ish.

Though Fernie is run by RCR which is certainly not your modern Vail/Alterra operator. More of a discount Dollar Store style operator, really (do a google search on Mt Saint Anne in Quebec). The older day lodge esp has a 1970's feel to it with old, school style tables, a dungeon feel to the locker/wash rooms in the basement, etc... I watched several GS race courses get set on what felt like random trails, none of them with B-net on the sides (that's a huge no-no in the modern race world). We had a friend of my brother who has lived in Fernie for 8 years now show us around starting ~mid-am on our first day and when I mention that I was surprised the mid mountain hot-dog shack had not been turned into a real mid-mtn restaurant, I didn't even get the sentence completed before he said "but that would require investment by RCR".

Anyway, Day one and Day two were pretty different in the weather department. With cloud and snow falling all day on Friday the 10th and mostly sunny conditions on Sat the 11th. With my exactly one day in a huge storm and others also not having been to Fernie in a while we stumbled around mostly in fog and snowfall with pretty terrible visibility for an hour+ on day one. First all the way up to White pass then a very highly variable run back down to the base and eventually Cedar bowl where we knew the N facing ridge would have at least soft snow plus trees to help out. That's where my brother friend finally met up with us and of course knew all the places to go. Both in white-out but easy traverses and long sketchier traverses with trees for semi-visibility on the White Pass side. He was pretty surprised that much of the same S facing stuff as at Castle had gotten kind of skunked during the week as "last weekend was great conditions" and he didn't recall any super warm days during the week.

As to conditions over the course of a season some of his his comments about Fernie were:

• Cedar bowl gets more snow than anywhere else on the mtn
• White Pass lift area always gets much more wind than anywhere else on the hill
• Polar Peak lift is rarely ever any good (due to wind affects), even on the handful of days per year they open it. Frequently the best days on it are spring ski days, very rare to have good powder on it. Also that it often is only open 10-15 days per season. Of course the prior weekend he was on 10th chair and had a good soft run, but never went back to it since it would be all scraped off nearly instantly.

We hit a lot of the same areas on day one and two, but we could actually see where we were on day two. Plenty of variations in Cedar bowl both N side and some E facing stuff almost on Snake ridge, under boomerang chair, off the N facing ridgeline into Lizard bowl (the ridge between lizard and currie bowls), off both N and S (heavily treed) side of the ridge between Timber and Currie bowls, Also just past #8 on the ridge going from the timber bowl to the white pass lifts, etc... In similar manner to Castle a surprising amount of 6" leftovers and multi-turn sections to be found by putting in the work. On day one it also helped that ~2-3" fell on the upper part of the mountain (only 2-3cm was reported officially, but it was definitely more on the upper mtn.

Also, on day two we spent a couple of the first laps as a huge group. Most of the pics I post are when the 'fast group' breaks off, though we always take a couple runs with everyone at some point. This year day two at Fernie.

Very small amount of people skiing on the day one Friday. Fog, plus a forecast of 10-20cm that overnight dropped to a forecast of only 5cm probably helped keep crowds low. Due to the moist, overcast, snowy skies it actually felt much colder than the sunny day at Castle a day prior. Temps were ~upper teens F on day one and still chillier than predicted on day two with maybe mid-20's F at base and ~10F cooler up top.

We stayed at a full on ranch being rented out...

Not so good visibility... Thank goodness for our local guide in yellow. (top of White Pass)

There's a pretty decent drop off to lookers left in this pic... Couldn't see it live then, still can't see it in this pic either (cedar bowl traverse)

It's all good though... (white pass side)

(white pass side)

(cedar bowl side)

DAY TWO PICS

Tons of Elk near the ranch on the valley floor

Huge group early on White Pass

One of the next generation of guys then joined the fast group for the rest of day two...

local guides can be key...

I always feel at least some sense of irony to fly away from "famous ski state" Colo to go skiing

For reference this was only my second time at Fernie with the first time a huge powder day: Fernie Powder 2017

I also either forgot to post or had the pics removed during the forum conversion for some of the best powder pics that day as well:

 

[ChrisC]

Polar Peak lift is rarely ever any good (due to wind affects), even on the handful of days per year they open it. Frequently the best days on it are spring ski days, very rare to have good powder on it. Also that it often is only open 10-15 days per season. Of course the prior weekend he was on 10th chair and had a good soft run, but never went back to it since it would be all scraped off nearly instantly.

I have not been to Fernie since the Polar Peak addition. Why is it open for so few days? Avalanche hazard? Poor conditions?
Is it primarily used by patrol for control work?

It seems like Fernie mountain management would have been aware of a lot of these issues prior to building the lift.

The ranch looks pretty sweet.

 

[EMSC]

Poor conditions?
Is it primarily used by patrol for control work?

According to our local guide, nearly always bad, wind affected snow and scrapey/icy. But patrol does use it consistently to get up to the top of the ridge and do avi work above all the bowls.

In days of old patrol had to climb up permanently installed ladders near top of White Pass lift apparently.

 

[Tony Crocker]

It seems like Fernie mountain management would have been aware of a lot of these issues prior to building the lift.

I didn't even get the sentence completed before he said "but that would require investment by RCR".

ChirsC knows all about subpar ski area management from Telluride.

RCR was founded by Charlie Locke, who like ASC got over his head with leverage. Charlie was even stingier and more incompetent than the current management to whom he sold out.

 

[EMSC]

Charlie Locke

I actually met and had a conversation with Charlie Locke once. I think he may have changed slightly over the years as noted by his ongoing ownership of Lake Louise which does get occasional investment - note the replacement of the crummy poma to a new chair with a different alignment to get up to the very top a couple years ago for example.

Charlie Locke profile

 

[Tony Crocker]

I just read that profile. Charlie Locke was in charge when RCR doubled the size of Fernie in 1999 with Timber, White Pass and Currie Bowl. This was the era when Craig Morris was blogging daily reports from Fernie and I skied with him a few times. Craig said that RCR was overextended and not paying some local contractors for their work at Fernie. This is definitely where my negative impression of Charlie came from.