Powder baby!

The 20cm rule was out in force today. That basically means that if there's 20cm of fresh powder on the mountain, the unwritten law states that the locals can skip work for the morning and go shred the mountain in the morning, making up the time later on... oh yes! Now thats my kind of working lifestyle!


Me, Martin and Leon all headed up on the first bus and took a couple of runs down the Timber Express lift line, scribing some S's onto the blank canvas between the trees. The snow was heavier today as the temperature had risen close to 0 at the base, which made it extra hard work. We met up with Wendy at 10am for our lesson and found out Jenny, our host would be joining us for the morning. We headed up the old side and hit some nice lines through Lizard and Cedar Bowl. Finally the hard work seems to be paying off and i'm making some good alterations to my skiing which is definately helping my powder skiing technique. After a great morning trying to replicate Wendys and Jennys smooth flowing style, Jenny parted ways after a testing run down Kangaroo and we headed for dinner.


Wendy's 'snownar' was going off the hook today and there was no way she was letting us off easy. The first hike was up Siberia ridge to access Mitchy Chutes, a great gladed black diamond run for the powder hounds. Then we traversed across to Easter bowl and found more fresh snow, along with nice jump off a cat track. Unfortunately the snow was too heavy and i stuck to it, throwing me out the front door and into a big heap face down in the snow, much to the amusement of Martin, who caught it all on camera.

Winning...

...Failing.

A ride up the White Pass chair put us at the base of the hike up to Knot Chutes. Not very far but breaking trail on every step makes it pretty hard work!

The start of the Knot Chutes hike (Extreme Terrain - LOVE IT!!)

Coincedently, the other group was riding the White Pass and Katie got a shot of us hiking up the ridge

Our first bootpacking hike over, it was only right to claim it!

Good photo overlooking Fernie, with the St Bernard of Ghostrider mountain watching my every move (i'll explain that one later)

Earning your turns is a sure fire way to find untracked powder, and Knot Chutes was no exception. Although not very long, they were a good reminder of what you get if you're willing to work for it! Time for another run off the top of Polar Peak, and boy is that a good run! Cutting across onto the ridge into Lizard bowl for a 'warm down' run at the end of the day, Wendy chose a run called Decline, which is the right hand finger visible from the town. Warm down?!?! It broke us: 

We even managed to tire our instructor, no-one stayed on their feet!

A well deserved hot tub and meal were in order, with just enough energy to manage a beer at the Kodiak bar to celebrate Australia Day! An merry end to a pretty epic day in the mountains of Fernie Alpine Resort.