Road Tripping BC’s Powder Highway. Part 3, Fernie. Travel
Mountainwatch | Reggae Elliss
In part three of our Powder Highway road trip we backtrack east to Fernie, reconnecting with a place we first visited 25 years ago.
The drive to Fernie required back tracking via Golden, but it was another awesome drive, although through different type of country, the road winding by cattle ranches and lakes, always with the mountains in the distance.
Fernie is located on the Elk River, the town and resort surrounded by the spectacular Lizard Range which tower above the resort and town. The last tie we were in Fernie was 25 years ago when Amanda did a season there and I had forgotten how good a mountain it is. It’s more of an all-rounder than Kicking Horse and Revelstoke and the lower mountain caters well for beginners and intermediates.
However, there is no shortage of advance and expert terrain with five open bowls, plenty of tree skiing and long groomers. The peaks above the resort loom large from the top of the higher chairlifts, constantly drawing your gaze. Fernie’s upper bowls – Timber, Siberia, Currie, Lizard and Cedar – offer an excellent mix of on and off-piste terrain, Timber and Currie Bowls offering steeper lines while the popular Lizard bowl is mostly intermediate.
We were staying on mountain at the ski-in ski-out Lizard Creek Lodge, with easy access for first lifts. We had fine weather for the first three days, spring-like with mild temps and a melt-freeze cycle on the lower mountain, so we stayed up high each morning, using the Timber Bowl Express quad chair to access the higher terrain.
On our first morning we thought it’d be firm off piste, so we headed over to Siberia bowl and skied Falling Star, a super long groomer with beautiful dry corduroy on the top half, turning hard-packed at lower elevations. It was the perfect warm up, the bottom winding through the trees before taking us back to the base of the Timberbowl Chair and that became our opening run each day to fire up our legs.
Timber Bowl is accessed from the same chair but faces a little north and was in shadow, holding some fun dry chalky snow in the trees. Despite the mild daytime temps, the snow was pretty dry up high, with White Pass quad chair taking us to the best snow on the mountain in the north-facing Currie Bowl. It was our go-to off piste spot, the elevation and northerly direction holding cold winter quality snow with a soft layer of wind-blown on top. It has a great pitch with a variety of lines including some nice trees towards the bottom.
There’s a lot of variety across Fernie’s 2500 skiable acres and a number of linking cat tracks make it easy to get around. Mid-morning we’d head to the other side of the resort towards Currie Bowl where there is plenty of off piste lines and some steep tree skiing. There is a good mix of fun on piste runs, including Linda’s Run, a black run that has a perfect steep pitch on the upper half.
In many ways Fernie has an old school vibe, including a day lodge where you have the option of buying food or bringing your own lunch, which many local families do. Then there is the Griz Bar at the base of the mountain, which bills itself as Canada’s number one après bar. This an old a school pub venue with live music and no minors from 3pm, cold beers, pub food, people dancing in ski boots and having fun. Every ski resort needs a bar like this!
The town of Fernie has to be one of the coolest towns in BC, with plenty of galleries, an array of retail shops, bars and restaurants. Fernie has maintained it heritage architecture and you have a real sense of the town’s history as you stroll the streets.
There is close small-town community and we got a feel for that as our visit coincided with “Griz Days” a three-day festival that “honours the community’s connection to the legendary Griz, the mythical creature said to bring snow and winter fun to the region.”
It’s a celebration of Fernie and the community and one of the biggest events on the calendar. The community was out in force across the weekend, the street parade, the “extreme Griz” competition, live music, and fireworks all attracting big crowds out to have a good time.
Skiing around the mountain all I could think was I want to be here on a powder day – it’d be awesome. We had a teasing taste on or final morning, a cold change dropping 5-10cm of light snow. We did our usual morning lap, a warm up on Falling Star – which I reckon that morning was as good as a groomer can get – before squeezing three laps in on Currie Bowl that served up untracked freshies and soft underneath. “Imagine if we had another 10-20 on top of this,” I said to Arkie. “I did when I was here in December,” she replied. “It was awesome. You need to come back”. I’m sure I will.
Our BC roadie was a quick two-week trip, four days in each resort which was just enough but left us wanting more. I’d love to make time to do the full Powder Highway circuit or at least hit Red Mountain and Whitewater as well… Next time.
If you missed them, make sure you check out the first two legs of our awesome Powder Highway road trip to Kicking Horse and Revelstoke.
*Note: Having the right vehicle is important for a winter trip like this and we rented a mid-sized SUV with all-wheel-drive with winter tyres from Budget and the car rental area at Calgary Airport is conveniently located across the road from arrivals. Winter tyres or chains are mandatory for most routes in British Columbia from October 1st to April 30
Find out more about Fernie here.
British Columbia’s Power Highway is located in the Kootenay Rockies, find out more about this beautiful corner of Canada here.
