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Who's up for some turns Friday, Sat or Sun?
Kicking Horse opening day tomorrow, but they are recommending that people download from the Catamount chair to get back to the base. That doesn't sound too tempting.
Castle opening day is delayed since there is very little snow at the base. And Fernie sounds reeeeeal good. ;)
Anyone? Somewhere?
If I don't end up working this weekend, I'm up for either SSV or the Lake. Doesn't look like fresh is in the cards, so it matters not to me.
I'll be up in the hills on Sunday but I'm going with the UofC Avy course instructor to get some learning done.
Anyone taken a course through the Uof C before? What kind of day can I excpect for the field learning? I'm excited to get out there and soak up as much info as I can.
Took the advanced rec two years ago and it was good. Taking the basic rec? Do you know who the instructor is. I had both Albi and JAmes, I think it was james or Jamie.Quote:
Originally Posted by sherpahigh
Ya, it's the intro course. Looking through some more info it looks like Albi will be the instructor. At least that's the contact name they have on the site.Quote:
Originally Posted by DougW
I'm thinking of heading to Fernie this weekend.
Any word on conditions? The writeup on far.redtree sounded a little cryptic, almost like he was trying to convince himself that conditions were decent.Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Gunn
For anyone who doesn't know about Craig's ReportQuote:
Originally Posted by PlayHarder
http://far.redtree.com/cgi-bin/far/index.py
At best it sounds like it's not terrible. ;) But if anyone dares go to Fernie, give us an update and comparison to the snow at SSV and LL.
Doug, are you at SSV this weekend?
Will be there on Sat at least maybe Sun.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eldo
merlyn and I will be at SSV on Saterday and SUn too?
L7 is at panorama with Atomic
Thinking of the Smith-Dorrien or Fortress. I think I saw some of you guys up at Sunshine last Saturday. Waiting in line behind me on Standish before they opened the chair. I figure it had to be you guys, I saw spatulas.
Someone over at Biglines posted that there is now a chain at the bottom of the Fortress road, on the bridge. I don't know if that is true or just a rumour.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PlayHarder
Yeah, I would agree with you that the conditions at Fernie are sounding a little sketchy. I'm now thinking that LL and SSV might be a better choice for this weekend. Some of my non-maggot friends are planning on driving to Calgary tonight. I'm not sure what the plan of attach is for skiing just yet.
If no work and I get out it'll probably be LL, got a couple non-maggots with rcr passes coming along.
I was at LL on Wednesday. We went all over the hill so as to check out how things are doing.
Front side (if you care) has good coverage on all the open runs, it's not even too icy.
Eagle trees are still pretty closed in, I ducked into them and thought I had missed my normal line as it was a lot tighter than usual.
Eagle Flight was pretty good, still a lot of rocks exposed around the side, but the main run was fine.
Larch, only did one run over the side and it was still pretty treed.
Paradise Bowl was very nice. Not very many rocks left except in the usual spots.
Backside of Summit. Boomerang was good, filled in nicely, but the traverse boot/pack is in th wrong place and doesn't get up to the top of the cornice.
North Cornice needs a bunch more snow along the top. We had to take the skiis off in one section and my friend ripped a good gouge out of his ski in another. But once you dropped in it was pretty good. Still some rocks poking thru where it marrows between the cliffs.
Attached see a pic of the top gondy station. It is basically coming right up to Ptarmigan.
I'd be interested in Louise if anyone else was going there. When will you decide if you can ski, or have to work? And what day were you thinking?Quote:
Originally Posted by PlayHarder
Thinking both days, I have to get some time in to prepare for next week. I won't know about work until later this afternoon. I'll send you a PM as soon as I know what's up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Eldo
check out Larch trees if you are at the Lake. they were deep yesterday! I'll be up there tomorrow coaching, so don't be too surprised if you come across a group or 8-10 ripping your line. We use to try and keep the kids out of our good lines, but now we just have to fight to keep up.
both hills are pretty tracked up, but it's been so warm that the conditions are still soft.
I'll be at SSV working but not skiing for the next 3 weeks while the ligament in my ankle (hopefully) heals :( To add insult to injury it is apparantly typically a snowboarding injury!
:cussing: :cussing:
I think the Bow Valley is the bad luck valley for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Gunn
Yeah things are pretty sketch here the rain really threw a fuck into fairly decent early season conditions last friday :mad:
I think the Lake is probably a better choice this weekend.
Spats, ya that was me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mex
Shit, mntlion - you're ALREADY back from skiing? :nonono2:
How was the Lake?
Will see you tonight. Backcountry tomorrow, unless I can talk the redhead out of it (I reckon conditions are going to suck ...) SSV on Sunday.
Give me a call at work this afternoon, if you get a chance.
Don't know where your going BC, but there was evidence of slides pretty much on all aspects around LL when we were there on Wednesday, and on some pretty low angle stuff in places. Hell it even slid pretty much next to the summit poma. Avalanche hazard is still up there and the warnings are still on for easy triggering by human action. Hell the only reason we were at LL was because we decided that anything BC that was steep enough to ski was going to be way to risky.
elder eldo
elder e -
Thanks for the info - there's a good chance we'll be riding the lifts at SSV tomorrow instead. I just have to see what the gf thinks ... ;)
Cheers.
The word on Fernie.
Its pretty sketchy at the bottom but the upper bowls are pretty decend for crusing. Off piste is really sketchy due to a major rain crust. Early this morning when I was skiing to work( in the dark), I could see sparks from skis of the guys ahead of me, so bring rockers to if you come to Fernie.
^^^ Sparks flying from skis! Not what you would expect at Fernie. More like a Banff TR. But the good thing for you guys is that one storm and everything is back to normal - in other words awesome pow.
I ended up at Louise today. Looked around for Playharder and friends but didn't see them anywhere. Had a super fun day bombing all over the hill. Really good coverage - I was pleasantly surprised. And absolutely no one there. It felt like a Monday and not a Saturday. Skied right onto every lift.
At around 2:30 I was reminded that being in shape to ski Sunshine and being in shape to ski Louise all day are two totally different things. We had 30,000 vertical by mid-afternoon without really trying.
Now we have a good base, so bring on the storms to freshen things up for the holiday season. :D
raining and windy in banff today, I didn;t go up. Did anyone ski? rain/snow line was at 6,000 at 10am acording to SSV patrol.
Mtnlion, there are a few posts about today's conditions over at Biglines. It sounds like it was a freakin gong show. Most lifts at Louise and Sunshine closed due to winds.
I wasn't at the hills today, but I just talked to a friend who had headed up to Louise this morning from Calgary. She didn't get further than the Castle junction before getting stuck with the road closure. I guess the highway was a huge skating rink with freezing rain and snow.
The web cams at Kicking Horse looked like there was some big time snow coming down all day long, even at the base. Tomorrow could be a good one there or high up at Sunshine or Louise. Sunshine cam at 7 pm look nice and snowy.
I was out in Kananaskis today with the Avy course and it was most definitly a gong show out there. The drive up was something else... Lots a rain making the road very much like a skating rink. Up around Burstall rain turned to snow which was nice since we were standing around all day in the weather.
Winds were unreal, snow blowing around all over, we went for a bit of a tour but had to turn back out of the trees due to the wind snaping trees and general shitty conditions. Dug around in the snow and learnt a lot about snow conditions and general Avy knowladge.
Good day, even without any skiing. I would imagine there'd be some good conditions at the Lake and Sunshine with the snow out there today. Hopefully KH got a bunch as well.
ok, one month and 2 days til we head up to interior BC..it better start picking up. Although alot can happen in a month, I'm thinking I should have gone later again this year..even though Late Feb last year was pitiful as far as warm and no new snow.
Things suck here out in Cali..too...nothing going on for the last 2 weeks, nothing going to happen for another 1-2 weeks either.
How are the other resorts like Red and Whitewater doing? (without checking snow reports)
Sorry Eldo, ended up waiting for the phone to ring all day Saturday and ended up neither working or skiing.
Headed up to the lake on Sunday, kinda like opening day all over again. Only one chair running due to winds. The rain turned to snow about 10:30 and came down off and on all day, started dumping about 3:00. Should be pretty nice up there today.
30 new at Kicking Horse, 3 new at Fernie. I wonder which will be better today? ;)
Also looks like lots of pow for your cat skiing the next few days. We'll want a TR with photos!
Skied LL on Saturday, the conditions still felt like it was the middle of November and not the end of December, but we were still able to find some sweet turns. We partied it up in Banff Saturday night and tried to ski SSV on Sunday but with the parking lot being packed and only 3 lifts operating we decided that it probably wasn't worth it.
From looking at biglines you made the right decision. Sat at SSV was good.Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Gunn