Monkey

I went to Fernie Alpine Resort for a couple of days on the way to Island Lake Lodge with Bill, Greg, Scott, and Peter. We stayed in the Lizard Creek Lodge which was nice as usual. We roll in around lunch time on Tuesday and the idea is to warm up for ILL by riding Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday. I’ve been nursing a bum knee, though, so I took it pretty easy and called it a day about half way through each time. Snow quality up top was very nice: light, but well tracked. The bottom third to half of the mountain was crap, though: clearly rain affected. On Wednesday, based on some friendly tips, we ventured out of bounds into Fish Bowl where we found plenty of quality untracked powder in the upper half of the bowl. The bottom was crap, but it was worth it so we lapped it again. All-in-all, a good warm up for ILL.

I went to Red Mountain on the way to Island Lake Lodge this year, with a day at Fernie in-between. We met up with the full Island Lake Lodge crew in Fernie.

We pulled into Ferine on the evening of 1/15, and awoke to clear skies and very cold temps the next day. I didn’t take a lot of pictures, and only skied for the first half of the day. Got first tracks into Cedar Bowl, which had been closed since the storm that dropped 27cm.

Overall: 14,720ft in 11 runs.

We spent 4 days at Island Lake Lodge in late January after a day and a half at Fernie Alpine Resort. Fernie was nice, with decent snow (and even a bit of pow) on the top half of the mountain and a little firmer on the bottom half. We rode long and hard even though we were there for a brief period of time.

Island Lake Lodge was fantastic as usual. Deep, light powder for 4 days. Fresh snow the first 3. We rode some runs that hadn’t seen tracks all year. The lodging, food, bar, spa, and service were once again amazing. We had the same great tail guide as last year, Steve, and our lead guide Wayne was excellent.

We spent 4 days at Island Lake Lodge in late January after a day and a half at Fernie Alpine Resort. Fernie was nice, with great snow on the top half of the mountain and hard pack/ice on the bottom half. We rode long and hard even though we were there for a brief period of time. They opened Cedar Bowl on our second day there, and normally the conditions there would warrant a detailed report with pics and video. But the experience at Island Lake Lodge set a new standard…

It’s probably impossible to really convey just how great Island Lake Lodge was. Deep, light, cold smoke powder for 4 days. 50cm of new on the second day. Bottomless. Tight trees. Glades. Open fields. Runs that hadn’t seen tracks since December. Temps never got above about -5c. Sun 3 of the 4 days. The accommodations, food, bar, and service are 5 star total luxury. The massages at the spa every day were blissful. The cats clean, comfortable, and fast. The guides top-notch and super fun to hang out with.

The pics and video immediately below will give you and idea of the conditions. There are some pics and video of a huge slide they triggered heli-bombing on the first morning below.

Video of Mike following Scott (8mb)

Heli-bombing

On the first morning they took an opportunity to do some heli-bombing of their ridge line. It was the first time they’d seen it in over two weeks. These photos and video show a large slide they triggered in a high-alpine bowl. It was amazing to see in person… I’ll probably never see something like it again.

FYI, these pictures are huge. Be patient, and click on the “full size” link to see the details.

Video of the slide (3.8mb)

“Mike-Jacques”

So, it turns out that for some strange reason if you leave me alone behind a video camera and I get bored something a little odd happens. I end up imitating Jacques Cousteau with a stupid fake French accent. I don’t know why… I only vaguely remember watching some of his shows on TV when I was a kid. But, for better or worse, it happens. It turns out I got a little bored waiting for Scott and Bill to come through a specific spot one day. It turned out they ended up a little right of where we expected them, and I got bored waiting for them with the video camera. The result is the video below. It’s fairly amusing…

Jacques.wmv (13.2mb)