Fernie Alpine Resort, January 16th thru 17th, 2006
Island Lake Lodge, January 18th thru 22nd, 2006

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.

The silly "Mike-Jacques" video, with a little explanation, is below.

Video of Mike following Scott (8mb)

Mike

Greg

Bill

Scott

One bad-ass cat.

The lodge where we ate dinner.

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.

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)