Island Lake TR 2/03/06

[skideeppow]

Island Lake Lodge TR

Four days in Fernie BC, Island Lake Lodge. YB informed me a couple weeks ago of this potential trip. This was another empty seat that I was more than happy to fill. A close watch of the weather showed that this could be an epic couple days. It was hard to make the decision. The snow in Aspen was pretty epic with the forecast looking even better. General rule of thumb, don’t leave powder to get powder. I broke with the rule and was treated to the best four days of untracked steep tree skiing, never crossing another track and was treated to some of the greatest terrain I have ever seen. Combine this with a super passionate group of guys and two of the best guides I have ever skied with, the game was on.

My inviter, pilot and driver. YB

Entering Fernie

The parking lot for Island Lake Lodge guests. Light was unreal.

Yeah, there was no snow up here.

Me enjoying some deep snow

and great lines courtest of big Steve


Our Host enjoying his first couple laps in the deep pow.

Big Steve handing out some Sleemans after the first day. This guy was 220, 6’3” and absolutely killed it. He let us go wherever we wanted (guiding me into some great terrain and airtime) with no reservations. Highly recommend him and his girlfriend as the guide and tail guide if you head up there, they work great together and the dynamic is perfect.

Big Steve prior to dropping into the Backsides’ Left Hook, 1800 feet of 40 degree gladded trees with bottomless powder.

SDP getting into the alpine and having at more untracked powder.

The lodge buried in snow.

A great view of Island Lake and the Lodges

Candice our tail guide

Mike enjoying Left Hook of the backside.

Day 4 went code blue. A fresh coat of paint and this place was ready to go off!

The obligatory point

This is pretty funny, I was stepping off the cat and I was looking into what I thought was a snowbank. The light was super flat. There was a fluorescent post there (I thought it was to mark the trail). I turned around and jumped off the cat’s track backward and started sliding down on my back and head first into a sink hole (yeah the post was there to mark the sink hole, not the trail). For a couple seconds I thought, holly shit what have I done. Visions of guys falling off of cornices in Alaska and sliding a thousand feet entered my mind. Luckily I stopped.


Inside our ski lift.


Heading out


Wheels up at 7pm, missing the super bowl was a small price to pay for unlimited virgin pow.

[MOHSHSIHd]

NICE!!!!


I gotta visit there someday...looks awesome!

[Trackhead]

Looks pretty damn nice up there!

[LeeLau]

its a testament to your group that steve let you guys go rip. He wont do that for just everyone. Was rochus guiding that week?

[jpcski]

Nice. Reminds me of my time there, though I never got any blue bird days.

[Karl Stall]

sickkety, sicketty, you friggin rock star. Some guys have all the luck .

YB - I want next year's tour.

See you guys this weekend.

[Shredhead]

Nice TR, I am sure you guys had a good time. We had the main lodge booked out for Hanley's wedding many moons ago. Did you guys land in Kalispell or is there a strip closer?

[bad_roo]

Reminds me of Craig Kelly. RIP.

[gonzo]

titties. i hate you and your friends with small planes!

[raddam]

looks like you enjoy skiiingdeeppow
fuker

[Knockneed Man]

Titties!!! Fuggin' game on! Nice...

[freshies]

nice! love that place, me and 7 friends spent New Years 99/00 there skiing ILL for 4 days, and then skiing Fernie for another 3, was an epic storm cycle too....have wanted to gte back but just haven't been able to swing it. Is Steve K. still the lead guide there?

[eastcoast]

fuck the super bowl, I'd miss my moms funeral for that shit

[hemlock hiker]

The super bowl sucked this year, Fernie did not. Get some!

[Crinkle]

daaaaamn!!!! YB wheres your actions shots? Another stellar TR.

ps nice shot in Freeskier too.

[YB]

Attachment 10703
This was in Left Hook at the bottom where it's pretty mellow, the top of that run is really good. We hit it a couple of times non-stop from the top, some of the deepest snow of the trip, and nice and steep for the first half of the run.


Maybe my favorite run of the trip was Stump Fluff, which I was calling Fluffernutter in honor of the sandwich. The far right glade opens and gives a perfect roll off 10' ledge which you can hit with speed because of an open landing area. We hit it a number of times.

We had never skied with Big Steve but in the past we skied with Rochus Schneble and maybe that's where Steve picked up yodeling. The yodel when you're skiing with a guide is really helpful for tree skiing because it allows you to relax and look for your own lines. Anyway they said Rochus is now guiding closer to home, maybe Selkirk Mtn. Experience? He likes the yo-yo thing.

This trip is an annual deal my cousin from NYC puts together and it's usually half family, half friends. I have a cousin here in Aspen who couldn't go so the slot opened for Skiddy. Last year we got canceled-- no snow, but this year we scored storm skiing for basically the whole trip. Steve and Candice were low key and made sure we had a great time with all the snow, and our cat driver was cool and very smooth. I'm blanking on her name just now but maybe Ski Deep remembers.

[meatdrink9]

Very nice. Looks ike you guys scored on the snow. Holy crap.

[Xover]

noice MR!!
i had some good days a few years back with their "neighbor's" (at the time - sno-much fun). i think the last i heard, island lake ended up buying sno-much out to get their terrain.

[Fucked]

spent this season in Fernie but couldn't affort to cat ski. That looks awesome buddy! Maybe next year.

[BenWA]

Whoa, I missed this thread the first time around.

Nice TR, I'm super jealous! A cat trip to Island Lake has been on my wish list for better than 10 years now. What does it cost per day for their operation these days?

Wheels up at 7pm, missing the super bowl was a small price to pay for unlimited virgin pow.

Where did you fly to Fernie from? US or within Canada? What type of aircraft? That panel looks pretty nice (full right seat gauges), and it looks like it does 225+ knots cruise speed by the looks of the airspeed indicator...pretty high performance whatever it is.