Red Tree Lodge, Fernie : Review
Posted by on Thursday, March 13, 2008
I've looked into NonStop Snowboard quite a few times; they're a company that specialises in providing instructor courses and improvement courses in Canada. One of the resorts that they operate from is Fernie.
While we were out there I received a couple of emails from Tom Gordon-Walker at NonStop; it turns out he was reading my blog, sweet! Nice guy actually, and after chatting some, I figured it would be worth checking out the Red Tree Lodge, seems as though it's run by the NonStop peeps and he asked if I could let him know what I thought...
The Red Tree lodge offers both a restaurant and accommodation. Given that we were already sorted as far as digs go, Ciara and I were there for the food and drink only.
The first thing that I noticed was the atmosphere; a fairly young vibe, fresh and relaxed. The service was prompt and friendly, and continued to be so throughout the meal.
The food was good and there was a selection of local beers on offer. What was refreshing with the Red Tree Lodge was the menu itself - a little more varied than can be found elsewhere in Fernie.
To top it off, the price was nice. Nothing expensive, simply a fair meal. It's often the case that when new restaurants open they get some of the simple things wrong. Not so with the Red Tree. I was impressed throughout and would definitely recommend a visit it you're in Fernie!
As we were leaving I took a little look around the place. Having not stayed there I can't say much about the rest of the lodge - so here's the official scoop from NonStop:
Red Tree Lodge:
We are proud to be the new owners of a 40 bedroom ski lodge in the centre of Fernie. The ski lodge in Fernie, has undergone £500,000 and has a comfortable welcoming atmosphere with numerous social spaces and fantastic facilities.
As the owners of our own ski lodge and restaurant we can be confident that NONSTOP Ski is the only training company to not only offer first class ski coaching but also fantastic accommodation, meals and recreational facilities.
Bedrooms:
The ski lodge has spacious bedrooms each with brand new modern furnishing, queen size beds and ensuite bathrooms. Bedrooms have stunning views of the local mountains and some have private balconies.
Communal Sitting Rooms:
We wanted to ensure there are plenty of communal social spaces in the lodge where our clients can meet and socialise, chill out playing cards or watch a DVD. There are four communal sitting rooms spread throughout the lodge each of which has:
- Comfortable sofas and armchairs
- Cable TV & DVD player
- Wireless internet
Swimming Pool:
Yep, that's right... no ski lodge would be complete without its own indoor swimming pool and spacious hot tub and ours is no exception. So after a hard day riding powder you can loosen your muscles with a few lengths of the pool and a sociable soak in the hot tub.
Restaurant:
The lodge also has its own 100 seat restaurant and bar. We have designed this space with a really comfortable homey feel so that it becomes as popular a space to read, play cards and socialise as it is for eating. With a wood burning stove, plenty of comfortable sofas, dining tables, a well stocked bar and fantastic food this is the heart of the lodge. The restaurant is open to the public and serves dinner and breakfast for all our course participants prepared by our team of professional chefs.
Movie Theatre:
Films are good - especially after a hard days exercise on the mountain. We have therefore dedicated a whole room for watching movies. With an overhead projector and rows of comfortable chairs this is the place to sit back, unwind and enjoy an evening in with a good film.
Tuning Room:
If you want high performance it's important to keep your equipment in good shape. We have a room dedicated to tuning your skis or snowboard with tools and supplies for waxing, edge sharpening and gouge repair. Each of our courses includes a training session on how to tune your gear so you get the most out of your skis or snowboard.
Labels: canada 2008, review
Now That I'm Back, What Next?
Posted by on Thursday, February 21, 2008
It's almost been two weeks now since I returned home from Fernie. Since then I've spent a lot of time at work, including both days of last weekend, which has delayed any updates here.
So what next?
If you've been reading my posts over the last few weeks you'll know that we were really lucky with the weather in Fernie - we had awesome snow. So good in fact that what I'm about to say doesn't really bother me that much.
You see, during the three seasons previous to this one, I've always had at least two trips planned. In those situations, returning home from the first trip never feels bad, because you know you're going away again. Then, when you return home from the last trip of the season, you still don't feel bad because you know you've had a good fill...
This time around though, I'm done. I knew Canada was going to be more expensive than the usual trips to Europe, but to be honest, it was more expensive than what I thought was a conservative budget.
And I'm content. Actually, more than content. Stoked. I only need to think back to one of the many powder days we had and I'm happy with this season's riding. Happy that I chose Fernie.
As well as looking back however, my thoughts are now starting to focus on what I'm going to do inbetween now and next year. What am I going to do in the off-season? Will I set myself any goals?
- First, there's good riding to be done here in the UK. Last year I kept a tally of days riding and it totalled 9. That was between April and January, which is roughly 1 day per month. That's not bad, but considering I was aiming for 2 to 4 times per month, I want to do better this time.
- I'd like to land some clean 5s on Halifax's kicker. In fact, I'd like to set out some trick goals for the summer - but I'm gonna give this some more thought...
- I'd like to get out on my skateboard more. Last year was abysmal. I missed it.
- I'd like to continue reading about avalanche safety and get in some more practice with my beacon - particulalry with multiple burials. Along the same lines, I'd like to do a review on the Tracker DTS using some video.
- It would be nice to get some riding in on a glacier sometime. I've been to Deux Alpes in summer and Les Diablerets in late autumn - I'd go back to either in a flash. I also think Ciara would like to try an all girls camp.
- Late last year I wrote a couple of reviews for the World Snowboard Guide - UK slopes. If I get the opportunity I'd like to write some more.
- I'd also like to invest in some better camera equipment, perhaps for stills, but more likely for video. It's expensive though...
Labels: canada 2008, uk riding
Fernie Day 15: Steep And Deep
Posted by on Friday, February 08, 2008
Friday: Our last day on the hill - it was pretty awesome, I'm stoked that we signed the trip off like this...
Mart and I started by heading up into Lizard Bowl; I'd have liked to be first in the queue, but the day before was fairly heavy on the hill and we finished things off with quite a few beers in the evening. Lizard wasn't fully open the day before, so we knew it was going to be fresh at the top. We weren't dissapointed:
That first run through Lizard was sweet. The top half was fresh all the way, while the bottom half was more tracked, but still yielded nice fresh turns - you just had to pick and choose a little.
Back on the Bear Chair, and when we got to the top we found Cedar Bowl had been opened - the first time in a few days. It was looking deep.
We made a bit of an error when we dropped straight into the bowl - the top part is pretty mellow and when it's deep like that it's not really possible to get anything going. Still, we turned up on one of the shutes from KC Shutes and it was still looking good:
When we got to the bottom of the bowl Mart decided a quick binding set-back was in order. He was on his DH; keeping it afloat is difficult when it's deep - just like the T2. I was already rocking my front binding set back by about 1 1/2 inches, which makes a big difference. Sick!
The loop back to the top of Cedar is pretty long: use the Haul Back t-bar, ride down the Boomerang chair, ride down to the Bear Chair and then take that to the top.
We were set on traversing further across the bowl to drop in on steeper terrain. We decided that seems as though we hadn't yet travelled down Snake Ridge, we'd make the full traverse and hike to get there...
It was easily worth it! Snake Ridge can take you down to the run called Steep and Deep - a slogan for Fernie itself. I'd have bought the day's lift ticket purely for that first decent down Steep and Deep. We weren't the first to go that way - but it was just about fresh. Totally awesome. With the terrain being steep it was so easy to just float your way down. Huge face shots. Probably my favourite run in Fernie, except maybe for one of the decents on the Cat Day.
As soon as we got to the bottom Mart decided to head back for The Fish. That's what it's made for so I couldn't argue. I hooked up with Ciara to take a run through Lizard and pick up some snacks from The Bear's Den. I had no intentions of coming off the hill for lunch!
It didn't take Mart long to get back to the top, at which point the three of us met up with Simon and headed back towards Snake Ridge. No doubt this terrain was a learning experience for Ciara, but it was worth it. It can be hard to commit to a steep line but she did get a few decent turns in. Still so much fun just to try it.
Here's a shot of Snake Ridge. We also got to take a look at Fish Bowl.
We ended up taking four runs down Snake Ridge. We dropped into Steep and Deep twice and Red Tree twice. By far the first run was the best, but the others were still worth the treck. I took a little bit of video on my still camera the third time through. Even with quite a bit of traffic through there you can still see that there're great lines.
We were pretty wrecked by the end of the day. Mart and I took the last run by ourselves. We wanted to hit it one more time but we couldn't make it with the lift timings for getting back; probably a good thing.
What a way to close things out. Fernie is awesome - steep and deep!
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 14: Unbelievable
Posted by on Thursday, February 07, 2008
Thursday, 18:00: I'm sitting in the apartment, the Internet connection has been back up for a couple of days now, I've got a can of Kokanee and a bag of BBQ crips - it's been an epic day.
I woke this morning and let the alarm clock tick over on snooze for around 40 minutes. Yesterday was a good day, fully packed, Mart, Ciara and I just lapped Siberia Bowl. It was empty, had some decent fresh snow in there, and there're lots of good hits to jib on. Great.
Going to bed last night I had this winding down feeling; there're only two days to go, we've been so lucky with the snow, let's just cruise the last couple of days and try to get some photos/film. Mart had said yesterday: wouldn't it be sick if we had a nother big dump before we had to go back? Naturally my response was yeah! But I also said I thought it was unlikely, given how much snow had already fallen. That's why I was snooz'in this morning...
The I heard a knock on my door: Gav, wake up, it's dumped big style. I was up like a rocket. How much? And it went from there. Looking out of our window there's a childrens play area just underneath - it was full of snow, at least a foot deep. How is it possible to get this much snow?
I wanted to take photos. I wanted to get the video camera out. But there simply wasn't time. We wanted to be first in the lift line...
As it happened, we were the 6th chair up. That's 20 people on the mountain before us. The first run this morning was out of this world. We headed up the Timber and then down towards the White Pass Chair. 30 - 40cm of fresh. I had my stance set back this time and was rocking it. Whoops all the way. Probably the best day yet on the hill.
Like I said before I was really wanting to get some pictures or some film; but given that it was a week day, it was too quiet to not get everything you possibly could. Seriously, after getting off the first chair and making our way down to the next chair (White Pass), I looked up at the first chair we'd been on, which is a four-man. It was: empty chair, two people, one person, empty chair, another single...
Epic powder and hardly anyone on the hill.
I didn't wait in a single queue all day long. Unbelievable.
Curry Bowl opened mid-morning but we didn't hit it. Everyone was lining up while we were taking fresh lines through the White Pass area all morning long. There's this face that takes a five minute walk to get to and it keeps just about everyone away, especially when it's mid-week. It's steep and deep. Mart, Simon and I took seven runs through there this morning, and we only saw one other group take our line - once. How is that possible when you're riding in-bounds?
I rode a fresh line every single time. It was the best yet. I wish I had some pictures to show how good it was. My bad. The powder was too good to pass up.
The line we took led us onto a cat track that Mart and I started dropping barrel rolls from - into deep fresh - right under the chair. It was a good feeling. We got some decent whoops from the lift. I rode one of them out clean. Sweet.
Epic day, probably my favourite yet. I even got two fresh runs through Lizard while people were having lunch.
Gotta go now as we're heading into town for dinner. There's one word to describe today: Awesome!
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 11: The Griz Returns
Posted by on Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Tuesday: We headed straight up to the kicker this morning. It was still in good shape and there was a good dusting on the landing, which was encouraging. I hiked it a few times to smoothe out the run-in and then Mart and I started to session it...
We had the unfortunate job of having to turf a couple of guys off. You see, after being there for around 15 minutes, two guys rocked up and decided to hit up our kicker. At this point I was still getting the run in sorted, which was full of fresh snow. This guy takes a line, spins a wild three and then starts hiking back up. He walked straight up the run in - trashing it with every step. I asked him to use the boot pack that I'd faithfully put in the afternoon before! He was still drunk - so he said. Anyhow, after he hit it one more time Mart and I asked him if he would mind leaving it to us...
To be honest, they were ok about the situation. They understood. After spending a couple of hours building a kicker, sorting the run-in out and laying in a boot pack, it's bad craic for someone else to rock up and session it; especially without asking. That's just the way it is.
After that it was a good morning. Hiking a kicker isn't easy work, and with just two people, if you want some shots and photos, there's some waiting around. But it was so much fun. Pleased with our creation we tried some decent airs. I think we got a few nice clips - not all makes by a long shot - but good clips non-the-less.
It was hard leaving it. We knew that once we did others would circle in like vultures and shred up the landing. It's so true.
But here's the crazy thing. As the morning went on, the landing got better. It was snowing pretty hard, so each jump was counter-acted with fresh snow. So sweet. We left the kicker at around 13:30, and as we set off down the hill we were riding fresh! Can you believe that? Session a kicker and all the while the snow is building up. That's Fernie at its best!
We had a quick bite and then headed back up to shred some of the soft stuff. I can't believe it. Taking some laps we spotted quite a few people taking runs at our jump - but it's fair game once we leave it. Shame. I'm hoping the landing will be super soft tomorrow; maybe try to spin some fives.
Fresh snow in the afternoon. 15 cm deep on top of the piste. So much fun.
To top it off, the apres beers were all that. We've met up with some of Mart's friends in resort and today was their last day. They're staying in the up-market Lizard Creek Lodge, so after beers we headed over to their out-door hot-tub... words can't describe! Lying in a hot bath, beer in hand and looking straight up into the black sky while the fresh snow continues to fall. Awesome.
Here are some photos and clips from the kicker:
Building the kicker.
Arriving at the kicker this morning - you can see a good dusting of fresh snow had fallen overnight.
Rockstar energy drink on chill.
This is the state of the kicker when we left it. You can see that a good amount of fresh snow was falling during the session.
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip, video
Fernie Day 10: Kicker Action
Posted by on Monday, February 04, 2008
Monday: We built a kicker this afternoon. It was a good time to get some construction going because no one was particulalry feeling it after lunch - so building a kicker was time well spent. The landing in the spot we chose was ok. Not great, but not bad considering it's been a while since a substantial snowfall.
It was actually snowing as we were building, and the hope now is that fresh snow will fall overnight and soften up that landing some more... we will find out for sure tomorrow morning.
It didn't take too long to build, maybe an hour and a half in all, including getting the run-in sorted and taking the first hit. There was a natural mound for us to use to we had slightly less to shovel. It turned out pretty good.
I hit it up first and was surprised by how much air I got. It's a little whippy and it sure does kick you up. You can get some decent air. Mart and I tried a few straight airs, then I thought I'd try popping a front 3...
The lip kinda caught me off gaurd as I rotated and sent me a little corked. No doubt I wasn't as off-axis as it felt, but half way round I was fairly scared - I thought I was gonna land on my head :) But the rotation continued and made it all the way 'round. Maybe I'll have to try doing that on purpose! I'll post the footage soon
We're hoping to get a good session going tomorrow morning, and hopefully some good shots/clips to go with it.
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 10: Photos From The Cat
Posted by on Monday, February 04, 2008
Moday: We got hold of the photos taken by the photographer on the cat boarding trip. A few friends had bought copies of the CD so we ended up with our own copy too - bonus. Here are some pictures and a mini clip of Mart taking a pretty sweet barrel roll :)
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip, off-piste and backcountry
Fernie Day 9: Fresh Groomers
Posted by on Sunday, February 03, 2008
Sunday: I saw the mountain today, clearly, for the first time since we've been here. It was blue skies throughout and a fair bit warmer than it has been. I could see all the different runs and we were riding groomers. It was a big change...
It really hit home today how lucky we were with the conditions over the first week. To ride fresh powder 6 days in a row is just about off the scale - so the groomed pistes today really did feel strange.
With the snow being packed down, more and more hits started to emerge. We simply took laps on the Bear Chair this morning hitting things up on the piste. The additional jumps were great, but it took some time to get reacquainted with landing on hard snow.
Lots of fun. There was one hit in particular that was good for working on that frontside 3. I stomped one super clean that prompted me to get the camera out in the afternoon. It didn't quite go as smoothly as I'd have liked after that, but the progress is promising. Head and shoulders are in much better position and it's making the rotation pretty easy. The one I rode out clean was super smoothe - a real slow rotation. Sweet. Under the lift line too, which is always a bonus.
We took a run through Cedar Bowl and ended up sketching our way through KC's Shute, a run that Simon and I hit last week when it was full of fresh and I had no goggles (the eye-lid-freeze episode). It was refreshing to see what it looks like in full sunlight and packed out hard. It reminded me of how sick it was to ride the first lines down there in close to a meter of powder. Steep and deep. Awesome.
I took a few knocks today - no doubt some of which due to the harder landings - so I'm eagerly anticipating the hot tub that will come later this evening. The Internet connection is still down in our room so I'm sat in the reception area of the Griz Inn Hotel, writing this post. My last visit here was much nicer - I brought a couple of beers and some crisps... apparently that's a big no - no. There's someone different working the desk this time and she told me I needed to get rid of the beers! Damn it. I wouldn't need to sit here if they got their service working properly!!
Conditions are great, we're ripping the piste and there's more snow forecast. Awesome. Here's some video of a couple of three's that didn't quite make it. Hopefully there'll be more footage taken over the next week. The second one in this clip is bigger; just imagine one slightly bigger yet and totally clean - that's the one I made earlier in the day...
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip, video
Fernie Day 8: Down Time And Internet Down
Posted by on Saturday, February 02, 2008
Taking a day off isn't something that I like doing, especially if my limbs aren't especially tired. But that's what we're doing today.
You see, the weekends are normally much busier here in Fernie, with a lot of weekend'ers travelling from Calgary and other places nearby. Given the huge amounts of snow that have fallen over the last week and add to that a childrens ski race, the place is choca-block. Check out the lift line for the Elk at 09.00 this morning.
We've got one day left on our 6 day passes and two days to use it. Originally we were planning on just taking the morning off. Get an extra bit of rest after being on the cat, sort some stuff out and then head up on the hill this afternoon. Get a half day pass and then use the last day on the other pass tomorrow. But a half day pass is $61 compared to the $75 for a full day. That's crap!
Looking out the window at 11:30 and the queue hasn't really gone down. We're gonna take the full day off.
The Internet connection in our room has been down for the last few days and those in charge here haven't been moving too fast to get it fixed. That's why there haven't been any posts recently. It's supposed to be sorted today. I'm using this down time to sort the little bit of footage taken yesterday and get the posts I've written up there on the web. So there should be a bunch of posts from the last few days all appearing around the same time. We can use the wireless in the reception area of the Griz Inn, which is where I am now...
Actually, just before I headed over here I started to re-adjust my bindings - set the stance back to twin after the cat action yesterday. As it happens, I noticed that I cracked one of my baseplates and it's pretty much done in. It's kinda lucky that we're having the day off as I can head down into town and hopefully get a replacement :), but maybe have to get a new set :(
As I think about it, perhaps I will benefit from taking a day off (either that or I'm just convincing myself). Looking through the photos on my camera I stumbled across a few that were taken last night, after I fell asleep in the lounge. I must have been tired; I didn't wake up once during their game of what the f**k a-roo. I can hardly believe it...
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 7: On The Cat
Posted by on Friday, February 01, 2008
Today we went cat-boarding, with Fernie Wilderness Adventures. It was an exceptional experience, but not everything was quite what I expected...
An early-ish start, we were collected at 7:45 outside of the Cornerstone Lodge and driven by bus to the Fernie Wilderness Adventures lodge. Talk about being lucky with the weather this holiday? Not only was there untouched, mega deep fresh waiting for us, we also hit a blue bird. Bingo! There was coffee and breakfast waiting for us at the lodge, then we had an introduction to the days events, people who didn't have beepers were given them, and then we all signed a waiver. After a quick safety lesson on being around the cat, getting in and out etc, we loaded up and set out with a fully loaded cat of 12.
We drove for around 30 minutes and then stopped for some brief guidance on how to use transceivers. To be honest, the info given on how to use them was pretty thin - but the most important thing for the guides was that everyone had them on, so they could be found if needed. I don't think there was any intention of taking us into dangerous terrain: these guys know the weather, they know the lay of the land and they don't need to take risks. But of course, we all still need beepers, and a brief introduction is better than nothing. Note: when the guide hid his beacon, my bca tracker found it first, that beach practice paid off :)
And then it was off for the first run of the day; run one of of 8. Rather than describe each run, hopefully the photos should help with that, I'll just unload my thoughts of how it went down...
First off, I sucked. I've ridden some deep powder before, but nothing like this. It was constant. Every part of every run was deep. Like thigh/waist deep. The guides were saying that it's difficult for them to pick runs as with the depth of snow they really need to have steep pitches - but anything too steep is too dangerous. The shallower pitches are safe, but way too slow...
I'm not a bad snowboarder, I'm quite good at some stuff, but in some ways this was a humbling experience. I'm not going to blame it on my board, at least not fully. But I did waste the first two runs rocking my wide, twin stance on a 155cm board with a short nose profile. On the widest stance setting the back foot is already as far back as it can go, so I just figured I'd blag it.
So wrong. I was falling a lot, and each time into deep powder, sometimes on flat bits, I was covered, frustrated, tired and quite simply looking like a complete novice. After the second run I brought the front binding back as far as possible. After the third run, I turned both my base plates 90 degrees so that I could move both bindings an extra 6/7mm backwards. Boy did it make a difference. My nose diving plank of wood suddenly became half passable as a freeride board. Now I could start to enjoy the runs.
It's worth noting that it wasn't just me that was struggling, although I think I was hit the worst. Even the guides were taking some falls, and the lead guide was often beating a trail out at the start of a run, where we leave the track, rather than just skiing off. Although I was taking my time over the first two/three runs, I was at least pleased that I wasn't holding things up. The group is only as fast as the cat, which can take a while to get to the bottom...
The next thing that made things difficult was the number of trees. Just about every run at some point led us between big trees with not much space between them. With the snow being so deep, in these tight areas it was just about a necessity to follow the guides tracks. And you still had to be going fast. For example, you head down a open face keeping as uch speed as possible, head into a dense set of trees, go around a few blind turns, again keeping your speed to avoid sinking and then bam - someone has stopped on the strail.
In this situation, which happened a lot, we found there's no room to go around them so you had to stop. Tree wells and deep deposits of snow don't make for a good stopping point on a snowboard. You sink and it's hard to get going again. It was a trade off between leaving a big space between you and the guy in front, but not too much that you'd get left behind, or miss your partner getting into trouble. Skiers definitely had an easier time of this. The dense trees were frustrating for all the riders.
Was there too much snow? Maybe. The guide seemed to think so. He commented that the riding was much better when there was slightly less...
But some of it was epic. Truly epic. The second from last run, everything came together. The whole day was worth it just for that run. The face opened up and I was purely surfing on waist deep powder. With my new stance I had much better control of the board and it didn't take all my energy just to keep the nose above the snow. I was bubbling around, dodging trees, taking a little air and making some sweet turns. Mart was my partner for the day ha was right behind me on The Fish - just ripping it up. That was the only time during the day that the two of us opened it up together on a face and cut deep, fresh tracks. It was awesome - truly awesome.
The run ended by heading into some small, dense trees, just before the pickup point. We both found our way straight into a tree well :) Nothing dangerous as we were together and the trees were small and also in shouting distance of the guide waiting at the bottom. We were fairly stuck mind. But that's not the point. For me, that run was the best. I rode it properly. The speed I took and the stance on my board let me ride the pow. Sick!
All in all the day was a fantastic experience. Not just the riding, the terrain, the snow, the guides, being in the cat - it was great. Also an eye opener. Without doubt, for Mart and I, this we the first real backcountry powder that we've ridden. The tour last season in Lenzerheide was not even close with regards to the depth of the snow - and that was all open faces, no trees. For sure we've ridden deep stuff inbounds here at Fernie, but not the sustained depth and freshness that we experienced today.
For this type of terrain I need a different board. Like I said above, I'm not blaming it all on the board. Half of the problem is that I'm simply not that good at riding deep powder.
I think I would have preffered it had there been more open faces. Some of the riding through the dense trees was great, but a lot of the time it felt like we were negotiating half of the run. A more competent rider probably wouldn't have been troubled by this.
After the last run the beers were handed out. They went down so well on the 30/40 minute drive back to the lodge. There was a quick debriefing and we watched a slide show of photos taken by the photographer who followed the two groups around during the day. There were some nice shots in there but I wasn't that impressed. I didn't pay the $50 for a CD!
I'll definitely go cat-boarding again. It's fresh powder all day long. Who can argue with that? It is fairly expensive though, we paid $367, and when the snow in resort is amazing, I don't think there's a need to go again anytime soon. The day isn't really set up for taking photos and video, but I did manage to get some clips - mainly just to show what the terrain is like. Here's a quick compilation of the days events...
Labels: BCA Tracker DTS, canada 2008, fernie trip, off-piste and backcountry
Fernie Day 6: It's Still Snowing
Posted by on Thursday, January 31, 2008
Day 6 now. We had a few beers last night and some late hot tub action in the neighbouring Lizard Creek Lodge, so I didn't get a chance last night to post anything.
So yesterday, which was our fourth day on the hill, was supposed to be greeted with around 20cm of fresh snow... It was more like 30. To get to the White Pass area you first head up the Timber Bowl Express and then ride down to the White Pass Chair. That first run was all fresh, and easily 30cm. It was going to be another good day.
Things actually turned out to be a little slower than the first three days. We formed a larger group than normal in the morning and we also had the cameras with us. It was more stoppy-starty, but we did get a few nice shots and a little bit of good footage. Note to self: riding follow cam in thigh-deep powder results in a seriously wet camera!
In the afternoon, Martin, Ciara and I took a few laps in the Lizard Bowl, which was still deep and fluffy in a fair few places. Second note: this mountain is littered with hits everywhere. Something I've always liked about Chamonix in the past - it's similar here. Great fun. I've been getting some decent air at times. We then headed back to the appartment to get shovels and over to White Pass to look for a kicker spot.
Unstrapped from our boards, we did a good deal of hiking around in the soft stuff, which was hard work. By the time we found something we liked the look of, it was time to head down off the hill. We just didn't have enough juice left to get up to where we think the run-in will be, so it's going to need checking out this morning.
The last run down off the hill was great. Simon took us a run we hadn't been on before - the sides of which were still yeilding really good snow. Tracked for sure, but still soft and knee deep, good enough for getting slashes and nice turns. There was also fun to be had in and around the trees.
Here are some pictures from the day:
View from balcony.
Mart working on the barrel roll - he stomped one of them into the pow, so sick!
Ciara picking out her line.
Me getting some fresh in this line.
This is a frontside 3 off of a cat-track. It felt pretty big, but the best part is that I stomped it as clean as you can get. It's taken a few rag-dolls to hammer home the land with more weight on the back of your board message - but I nailed this one. Gonna try and get a few on the camcorder...
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 5: Lost For Words
Posted by on Wednesday, January 30, 2008
It's our fifth day in Fernie, it's 7am here. My Blogger settings are still configured for the UK, so sometimes the day number won't match the post date... Today will be our fourth day on the mountain; yesterday was our third - which is what I'm going to tell you about now (I was way too tired last night!)
There was more fresh snow yesterday morning when we set out, enough to get us excited. They'd also opened most of Lizard Bowl which meant new, fresh powdered terrain to explore.
Ciara, Simon and I were looking for some fairly open terrain to get Ciara used to really picking the speed up in powder; with it being so deep here, it's a totally new ball game for her (and me, kinda).
We found it, dead easy, just next to the Bear Chair. There was so much snow we could just lap it... Some deep bits, real fresh going through the trees, nice cat tracks to get air off, so good.
And that was the story of yesterday. Quite literally it was powder all day. You see, it didn't really stop snowing at all. Tracks that were there at the start of the day were filled in by 2pm. By 3pm it looked like a fresh dump. Seriously, during the course of the day there was comfortably 6 inches of new snow!
Lapping in Lizard bowl in the morning, we moved to the White Pass area in the afternoon and continued to get fresh. Mart has been saying that he's probably only ridden 6 runs or something since he's been here - but it's been powder all the way. I still don't even know what this mountain looks like. I haven't seen any groomed runs. It feels like I'm away from the runs all the time, but when you check the trail map at the end of the day you see that you've been on a marked piste!
And yesterday the snow was special. I've never seen anything like it. We were all lost for words. It was so light and fluffy, like cotton wool. I tried to take a picture of it, but I don't think it does it justice.
Looking now at the data for the last 24 hours, Fernie is reporting another 20cm of fresh snow. I knew it. The forecast for yesterday was 3cm, and we got 20! The Griz heard us calling all right! That's a full meter since Saturday when we rolled into town.
There's no way I can shave this beard off now - despite the pain of facial freeze. I'm sure the Griz will understand that I trimmed the 'tash a little :)
Oh, I forgot, I also dropped a pretty sweet cliff yesterday, just under the Timber Bowl Quad. Mart had his camera out and I got a pretty nice shot. Yeah! The landing was steep and fairly soft, but not as soft as I would have liked. We dropped a smaller rock formation earlier in the afternoon and the landing was untouched, steep, and easily 40cm fresh. That's more like it.
Here are some other pictures Mart took with the 30D... pretty cool. Will today simply be more of the same? It just won't stop snowing, so why not, eh?
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 4: Morning Update
Posted by on Tuesday, January 29, 2008
8:30 here. About to head out to the lift. We don't know which bowls are open yet; if they've opened Lizard and/or Cedar that's a whole lot of fresh pow to be ridden. We might also see groomed runs for the first time today :-0
Checking the weather forecast it looks like it's going to be cold again: -23. Ouch. I wonder whether there will be fewer people on the hill today than there were yesterday?
Amazingly it seems like the snow is going to continue to fall:
I wouldn't be surprised if the actual amount turns out to be more!
On a different note, I'm getting some dodgy jetlag. It's either that or this head cold that I picked up on the journey out here. The first two nights I was awake at 2am, then 3, then 4, then 5 and then getting up at 7am. This morning was slightly better, I woke first at 3am and then at 5. The difference today was that I couldn't get back to sleep. Maybe I'm too excited? :)
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 3: Epic Powder
Posted by on Tuesday, January 29, 2008
So much snow.
The official snow report shows that Fernie had 71 cm of snow in the last 48 hours. Awesome. There was so much snow up there today. It was everywhere. Heading for the Elk chair first thing this morning, Simon, Martin and myself stepped out of the Cornerstone basement - the door was practically snowed in. The visibility had cleared up and we were hoping for some of Fernie's steep and deep.
71cm. So lucky that we arrived when we did. Similarly to yesterday, it took longer for the lifts to open. We had a 15 - 20 minute wait for the Bear Chair to open, which is what took us up to the beckoning powder.
Our first run of the day was off of Cedar Ridge. Simon's knowledge of Fernie has been a huge benefit. I wouldn't have known where to go first on the last two powder days. We stopped at the side of the piste and Simon said "right, we're going down there to the left." No way. It was steep and straight into the trees...
I wanted to stop and take some photos; to catch the scale of the whole situation. But people were literally racing to get the fresh lines, so all I managed was one quick snap.
That first run this morning was the best powder I've ever ridden. It was so deep. After the trees it opened up into a wide powder face. Quite a few times I just dug in, followed by a supreme rag-doll. When stopped, given the gradiant of the slope, the snow was up around your chest. When getting it right it was pure surfing. Huge slashes of powder; up and above your head. It was the real deal.
Remember me saying this morning that it was going to be cold? Well, it was around -24. Absolutely freezing. Taking your gloves off to take a photo on the lift - you've got like a minute before your hands feel like they're going to drop off.
My beard froze. I'm not kidding. I first noticed it on the first lift. It was starting to get a little sore. But once I was in the snow and slashing powder around my face, it really took a beating. It made my face blead where I lost some of the hair. So cold. The type of coldness where your skin starts sticking to stuff... I've never experienced this cold. Check out this picture:
So Martin took the Fish out today - for the first time. He was hating it at first. Just not versatile enough. But after a few more runs he was starting to feel it out. Simon and I watched him tear up terrain that we'd struggled with. The Fish has its place and Mart was knocking on that door today. Pretty sweet. I was going to test it out but feared that I would end up wanting to go buy one if I liked it...
Despite the epic conditions, the three of us all had problems today. First of Mart was suffering from the dreaded goggle-steam/freeze. It was almost impossible to avoid it. Any moisture on your lense and it froze. No way to thaw them out on the hill... simply too cold. Luckily he had a spare lense, but it didn't take long before the reduced visibility was back.
Simon had a snapped binding strap. Not sure if it was cold enduced, but definitely an annoyance.
Along with the facial-freeze, I also ended up with goggle freeze. However, I decided that I'd try riding without goggles as there were runs that I wanted to take, and I wanted to be able to see. That's a mistake in deep powder. As soon as the cold snow splashed up into my face and eyes it started to freeze...
Which leads me onto the second best fun of the day. We were riding near Cedar Ridge and Simon spotted tracks heading further into Cedar Bowl, which was marked as out of bounds. We were quite far down so we couldn't make the full traverse, but we got far enough to ride down KC's Chute. We had to walk/hike about 75 meters, which was so hard. The snow was waste deep in places. We were crawling at times.
Then we were at the top of the chute. It was at this point that I gave up on my goggles - they were frozen up, un-recoverable. I had to ride the chute with no goggles. It was steep and I'm sure the fesh snow was close to 90 cm in places. Strapping in after the hike - it was hard to even get started. I just burried in the first three times I set off. I ate up half of the chute with rag-dolls and kart-flips. But then I opened things up and just let the speed pick up. It was amazing. Overall it wasn't as good as the first run of the day, but the second half of that chute was the best ever. Insanely deep and I was just floating - slashing snow everywhere. Simon let me hit it first and he said that as soon as I made one turn I was lost from view; snow everywhere.
Riding it out towards the next lift up, I was trying to look over my shoulder and check Simon's line. He caned it. My eyes were practically frozen shut. By time I got to the lift I could hardly open them. I had to warm up the ice before my eyes would fully open again. So cold. So good.
It doesn't take long for things to get tracked out around here. Everyone seems to know the best places to go. But there's still quite a few areas of the mountain that haven't been opened, and they're still fresh. Maybe we'll get to hit them tomorrow.
After finishing up today we headed down into town. Simon needed to get a replacement strap and we all needed to stock up on some food. This is me, this evening, checking the days photos and writing this post. 60 cans of Canadian Kokanee, all cold, and serving as a decent laptop stand. I've been in these snowboarding boots for around 12 hours. I'm happy. Pizza is on the way, we've had two great powder days and the beer is cold. There's still loads of good riding to come...
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 3: Morning Update
Posted by on Monday, January 28, 2008
It's stopped snowing. It's around 8am here, getting ready to go out. According to the weather information it dropped around 27cm last night. Looking out of the window confirms this.
That's like 55cm in the last two days. I can't wait to go out today.
It's gonna be cold mind with a temperature high of -11, need to wrap up :) Not sure if the helmet cam is gonna work; apparently anything less than -10 is a no-no. We will see :)
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 2: The Griz Doesn't Disappoint
Posted by on Monday, January 28, 2008
I woke this morning to the sound of a cat passing by our window. Man I was excited; like a child at Christmas...
With good reason too. After arriving in resort last night, the snow continued to fall throughout the evening, and then through the night. We were chatting with a local who was predicting 25 - 30 cm of fresh. This morning the result of the new snow was closer to 40 cm. The Griz came through on our first day. Sweet.
We had to wait around some before they opened the lift, something like 30 minutes, while they made things safe up the top. At the start of the day there wasn't too much open, two or three of the bowls were closed. But Simon took us to a pretty quiet area in White Pass that we lapped all morning, and it was close to fresh throughout. It was all good.
Excellent in fact. Some of the best powder I've ever ridden, and it was so good riding through the trees. Such a great first morning/day. I can't wait to see more of the mountain.
The avalanche bombing contineud as the day went on.
After lunch I took the helmet cam out to give it its first run. The results were mixed. The quality is good enough, no doubt. But I had the positioning on the helmet a little off, and it showed. With lots of movement the video recorded isn't exactly smooth, but it is good at times. Tomorrow, I think I'll try using the camera in the hand, and see what those results are like. I might end up trying to tape the camera to the helmet in hope of achieving a more stable finish.
We were all pretty tired by time the lifts closed, so we hit the hot tub; loosen up the muscles ready for tomorrow. It's really good that they've got one here at the Cornerstone Lodge, it makes a big difference.
It has snowed all day and it's still snowing now. The temperature is also dropping. Tomorrow should be great, especially as the weekend has now gone, the slopes will be much quieter. More powder...
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
Fernie Day 1: Getting There
Posted by on Sunday, January 27, 2008
It's been a long day.
We set off this morning, UK time, at 02:45. By the time we'd collected Martin, dropped the cars off and arrived at the airport it was 06:45, for a 09:30 flight. The flight upgrades we'd opted for came in handy as we jumped straight to the front of the queue. But it wasn't all plain sailing.
The upgrades are booked with Inghams, the tour operator, but the airline is Monarch, so that's who we were checking in with. There's definitely a disconnect between the two, as the guy behind the counter was telling us that we were gonna have to pay £20 each to take snowboards because it didn't eplicity state on the tickets that we'd paid for this... What? After paying £220 to upgrade. No way. The following discussion ended in us checking our boardbags for free; it turned out that he was a nice guy.
I was however right to be concerned about the weight of my bag. It came in at 34.5 kg, with the absolute allowable weight being 32. He was fine with me diverting items to our other bags that weren't heavy, so after a quick bit of re-packing in the middle of a crowd we were set.
Well not quite. Manchester airport has the worst system I've ever seen for dropping off your over-sized luggage. A real bottleneck. Every person with a big bag queues to get into a small room, where they lift their bag onto a conveyer, wait while it is scanned and then have their boarding card checked. It took ages.
By the time we'd been through security there was around 30 minutes left before boarding. I was kinda hoping for a relaxed breakfast.
And then there was the flight itself. It wasn't all bad. The perks that come with upgrading are quite nice: bigger seats, free drinks and a healthy selection of films to watch. The food was good too.
There was also this cool view out of the window as we flew over Greenland.
But they ran out of beer! I had one can and then the next time I asked for one it was all gone. Damn it! What's more, we were flying into a 200 m.p.h. headwind for a large portion of the journey which added an extra 1 hour and 45 minutes. Total flight time was just shy of 10 hours.
I'm writing this on the coach transfer from Calgary to Fernie. There's an hour to go and it's just gone midnight, UK time. Given that I only slept for two hours last night before setting off, I'm pretty tired. In fact, we're all sick of the journey.
At least the views have been good.
But you know what? I'm stoked. We've already ordered our passes and they'll be delivered to our room later on, so no hanging around first thing tomorrow morning. We've also been given the info on booking a day of cat-boarding, which we hope to do towards the end of the week, maybe Thursday.
And it's snowing. It's snowing here on the road and we're told it's snowing in Fernie. Local time is now 17:00. There should be plenty of time to get things sorted tonight and I'll wax my board too. Awesome.
We just spotted three Cayotes... It's time to turn the laptop off.
Note 1: the terrain out here is amazing. It's totally different to the UK (I guess that's obvious). Calgary and the towns we've passed so far on the road look really cool. As the plane was decending the land was almost completely flat, and then all of a sudden, the Rockies spring up.
Note 2: the lift tickets out here are mega expensive compared to Europe, especially France. I budgetted £350 for twelve days, and that won't quite cover 10. Oops.
Labels: canada 2008, fernie trip
The Legend Of Griz
Posted by on Thursday, January 03, 2008
It was snowing in Newcastle today. Amazing. There was snow on the ground when I woke this morning, and it actually continued to settle, on and off, throughout the day. I headed out at lunch time and was caught in some pretty heavy snow/hail stones... walking through the slushy snow in the streets got me pretty stoked!
That said, it was all rain by mid-afternoon, and the reality is that this light dusting is nothing in comparison to the large amounts of snow falling in resorts all around the world, Fernie included.
With the reports showing that the snow continues to fall, I'm hoping that nothing changes! So, in an attempt to help keep the white stuff coming, I'm appealing to Fernie's Powder King, Griz, with an offering. I'm growing a beard.
Spurred on by my friends, the idea is to grow something grizzly, in honour of the great Griz himself. The unfortunate truth however, is that even at the age of 27, soon to be 28, it's not that impressive. Still, it's early days yet, and if the Griz stops bringing the good stuff, I can alway sacrifice the facial hair to win back his favour :)
On a completely different note, the lunch time outing led to the cheeky purchase of Almost's Cheese and Crackers. Even if you don't particularly like skateboarding it's worth watching because the mini-ramp action is pretty amazing. It's a short DVD, but it's fairly cheap at £7.50... if you don't want to buy it (boo!), there are plenty of clips on youtube.
Labels: canada 2008
Is It Going To Fit?
Posted by on Tuesday, January 01, 2008
I'm pretty well rested after the Christmas break. Normally I would work over this period, choosing to keep the days for something else, namely snowboarding. But not this year; the rules where I work mean that everyone is off between Christmas and New Year.
It's been nice. Despite the enviable snow reports, the Christmas break also had the benefit of distracting me from the count down to Fernie. Compared with being at work, the days go much quicker when you're whiling the hours away eating, drinking and opening new snowboard toys.
Mind, there has been one, more grounded thought churning away over the last few days. Is all of our luggage going to fit?
I'm talking about the journey from the North East to Manchester airport. There are five of us in total, four starting out from Newcastle/Gateshead and one being collected in Huddersfield. Two cars, five people, five board bags.
With four people in one car and a driver plus the boards in the other, it should work out fine... But then again, 3 of the bags are pretty big, which could make it all a little tight.
I performed a quick test, mainly just to see if a long board bag (185cm) would fit, but also to give an idea of how much room there's going to be overall. I could have rounded up a few more bags and filled them up, but that seemed like a little too much work given that it's Christmas!
Labels: canada 2008
Fernie And Stuff
Posted by on Friday, October 12, 2007
I've been reading a few magazine articles about riding in canada: secret powder stashes and the like, and it's all really promising. The more photos of the terrain that I look at, the more excited I get. It looks awesome.
There's one snippet that I've heard/read that I hadn't really thought about that much - the temperature. I'd heard that it's cold, especially in January, but I didn't think about how this might effect your riding each day.
Normally I'm up for first lift - but a couple of sources seem to be suggesting that you're better off waiting a little until it warms up... I guess we'll just have to wait and see, but that doesn't sound like something I'd like to do... but maybe I'm being a bit naive :)
Anyhow, Fernie's official site is starting to show some nice activity on their webcams. I'll be keepting an eye on that.
There's also a pretty cool unofficial Fernie report out there: Craig's Unofficial Fernie Alpine Resort Page. Simon showed this to me a while ago, and there's some great info on there. The archives go way back, so you can check out when there were massive dumps in the past. But one of the things I like best about it is that there are plenty of photos of the mountain without snow.
I reckon that knowing the mountain when there's no snow cover has got to give you a different perspective when it comes to riding it in the winter...
Apart from that, I've hooked myself up with a pretty sweet pair of Analog pants. Nice! Hopefully I'll get around to posting a picture or two :)
Labels: canada 2008
Interesting Fernie Photos
Posted by on Thursday, August 16, 2007
I've been out of touch with snowboarding over the last few weeks. I definitely haven't done any riding, but my mind has been forced elsewhere too. Well, I was looking around for general stuff about Fernie and I came across a pretty cool aerial shot of the resort on the RCR site.
The photo was taken by Robin Siggers. I like it because you can pretty much see the whole resort and overlay the piste map, or should I use trail map :) on top of it.
To be honest I'm not sure I've ever seen an aerial shot of a resort like this before... On on hand I think it makes it look kinda small, probably because you're not used to seeing everything at once; but the open bowl areas at the top look awesome (and big).
There are some other good photos there too: a mixed bag, but definitely worth a look.
Labels: canada 2008
Mid Summer Stoke
Posted by on Friday, July 13, 2007
A couple of weeks ago we decided that we're going to Fernie next winter. Fernie was amongst the handful of resorts in Canada that we were looking at. In the end it won out due to its steep and deep terrain, the catboarding opportunities, Fernie town, and its proximity to an airport. Not that I know about any of this first hand; the two main sources of information being the good old Internet and my chief partner in crime on this subject - Simon.
Since then we've been looking for somewhere to stay... all the while flight options seem to have been getting worse. So last night four of us sat round a table and decided to either book a package, or book a flight. It ended up being the first option: we're set to stay in Cornerstone Lodge, right at the bottom of the slopes.
Once things were set I was fairly excited. The piste map came out. We started talking about some of the good areas, the backcountry, new kit we'd all like to get our hands on, drinking in the bar... it was like we were going next week, but it's still only July.
With all the talk of powder I started to think about some of my off-piste gear. I'd kind of like to get a new rucksack for next year because mine is a little on the small side: with a shovel, some water and my camera bag there isn't much room left. I also took a look at Simon's transceiver. I just borrowed or hired last Season in Laax, which is probably what I'll do next year too, but sooner or later I'll get one.
I can't wait. I'm even looking forward to the flight - but that's probably because the drinks are going to be free :)
To round it off, fresh from the More DVD case, Scott Sullivan made it into the car for this morning's drive to work. He's got some great music - keeping me in a snowboarding frame of mind...
Labels: canada 2008
Kicking Horse Video: From Treepilot.ca
Posted by on Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Someone in my previous post pointed out a video showing some riding at Kicking Horse. I checked it out and thought it was worth re-posting here - it looks pretty sweet.
So the video is from Wade who runs an online photo journal (treepilot.ca). I've enjoyed looking through the most recent entries there, it's definitely worth checking it out. Some awesome backcountry terrain and riding. The personal riding goals are really impressive too.
Labels: canada 2008
Kicking Horse?
Posted by on Monday, June 11, 2007
Simon and I have talked about Kicking Horse a few times, but I haven't really looked into it that much. To be honest, I was kinda put off by the "freestylers might be a little bored here" (edit) comment in the World Snowboard Guide, so I didn't give it too much thought, especially as there're a lot of other resorts to consider...
Simon's suggestion is to visit Kicking Horse for a day or two, rather than spend a full two weeks there, which is an option if we go to Banff. And so it was that this link made me think about it again today. Lots of snow.
In fact, it was apparently named in the top 10 hot powder spots worldwide, back in 2004, sweet. There's a useful review of Kicking Horse on the wsg website along with some other details. Although I they hold back some of the resort info back for the guide itself, the wsg website still has a lot of good stuff to look at.
Kicking Horse could make for a great day riding powder and challanging terrain...
Labels: canada 2008
Fernie Trail Map & Terrain
Posted by on Wednesday, June 06, 2007
I've been looking at various trail maps for resorts in Canada and I thought I'd start with the map for Fernie. [If you click on the picture below, it will take you to an image that you can actually see - at www.skifernie.com]
It's an interesting terrain map: lots of bowls, lots of tress and well spread out.
To be honest, I'm not sure if there's some special significance to a bowl? I've always just assumed that a bowl formation of terrain is good for powder conditions, supported by the term powder bowls. Whether or not that's even close to the mark, Fernie has a fair number of them, and is renowned as having loads of deep, fresh powder; the annual snowfall is close to 9m. Sick.
What Fernie isn't renowned for is it's park. It's for this reason that I was surprised when I looked at the pictures of last season's setup.
Maybe I'm naive as to how good some of the other parks are in Canada? I'm not saying that the Telus park in Fernie is amazing, but it does look good. It looks like you could have a lot of fun there.
It also seems that Fernie's a good place to get some cat boarding in, which is definitely something I'd like to do...
Labels: canada 2008
Resort Options List: Canada 2008
Posted by on Wednesday, May 30, 2007
So this is the list of resorts that I'm looking at for next year:
- Fernie
- Red Mountain
- Big White
- Lake Louise/Mt.Norquay/Sunshine Village (staying in Banff)
I reckon a lot of people would ask why I'm not looking at Whistler, and to be honest I'm not sure why I'm not considering it... but right now, I'm not.
So what am I looking for in a resort? Well, in the season gone I got a great taste for riding off piste, so a resort with good snow and good terrain is high on the list. Some of the resorts above also have great parks, which again is a big plus. Quieter slopes are always nice, and, when you're staying with in a group, being close to the slopes can be handy. I should also say that a hot tub would really sweeten the deal...
Labels: canada 2008
Canada 2008, But Where?
Posted by on Monday, May 21, 2007
So I think we're going to be snowboarding in Canada next season, which I'm already very excited about. I've never been before and everything I've seen, read and heard seems excellent. What I don't know yet is where we're going to ride...
We've got a handful of options that we're going to consider over the next month or two, so I'm going to look at some of them here on this blog. That way, if any of you have any information or ideas, you can let me know. I'll file everything under Canada 2008, for easy access.
But before I start any of that, I'm gonna post a review of the World Snowboarding Guide. Whenever I'm scoping out a resort, I usually look there first. So I figured it's time for a quick review...
Labels: canada 2008
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