Fernie Expanding up to Polar Peak

Tony Crocker

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
I'm not sure whether Admin picked this up on the News, but I didn't find it. Detail from Craig Morris at http://www.redtree.com/far

Craig Morris said:
Although apparently common knowledge, word of the new Polar Peak chair lift did not filter into my cave until just a few days ago. Being lazy, I waited until the weekend when I could cheat and use the Timber Chair to provide most of the elevation, before heading up to take a look.

They have already done some preliminary clearing work at the bottom station, which will be just by the flats at the top of Currie Powder, after the corner from the cross bowl cat track.

The chair, which I hear will be the old Gold triple chair from Nakiska, will run right up the rocky ridge to the very top of Polar Peak. I have a pictures from the to and bottom of the lift and will include them in a followup posts.

They have also started a cat track up to the saddle, which must require hiring an excavator operator who is incapable of looking down. From the slope of this track near the end of what has done so far, this will be the Kitzbühel of cat tracks. It will be interesting to see how they construct the switchback on such a steep slope.

Certainly nothing about the area opened up by this lift will soften Fernie’s image as a tougher than average hill and indeed given the relatively small area, South facing aspect, steep slopes and now easy access, I rather doubt the new skiing will be all that great much of the time, although occasionally it will probably be outstanding. However I suspect a key motivation for this lift is to provide safe access for the patrol to the summit so they can conduct avalanche control. That could be a major asset.
Click to expand...

Fernie's slow avalanche control is a chronic sore point after storms up until now due to the exposed terrain above the existing lifts. Hopefully this situation will improve with the new lift. And while the terrain under that lift may face south, presumably once up on that ridge skiers should be able to ski off the east side of Polar Peak into Lizard Bowl above the infamous "meat hook" surface lift.
 
A touch of clarification on this story that I found out on this a couple weeks ago while talking to a Fernie rep.

The original story from Admin makes it sound inevitable and that the new lift is already in the parking lot.... Actually that lift in the parking lot was a different lift that was simply being stored there temporarily by Summit Lift co. Instead the lift that will actually be installed to Polar Peak was not fully permitted/approved at the time of the original Admin story. Obviously a few weeks later all permits were done and it ended up looking like a PR head fake when it really wasn't...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top