Fernie Frivolity

I woke up this morning fully clothed.  Last night was downright dangerous at the hostel in Fernie.  $3.50 pints of quality beer, and a whole lot of nothing to talk about, we soon found ourselves 8 deep in this liquid gold.  I was quite frankly amazed that I managed to remove my contact lenses without dropping them on the floor.  My bed was a different story and I had no initiative to actually put the sheets on at this point, so I must have concluded in my stupor that it was a good idea to sleep with my clothes on.

Upon awaking it became quickly apparent that this was going to be an epic ski day.

Downtown Fernie Tuesday Morning

After a long slog up to Tunnel Ridge, we were far from disappointed.  I eyed an opening in the cliff band that runs along the middle of the north face of the ridge, and did a quick ski cut.  Some sluffing issues, but otherwise clean white dream down to the bottom of the chute and into winter wonderland.

I love the feeling of the cold on my face, eyes shielded by the lens of my goggles, still breathing hard from the descent, breathing the crisp, fresh, moist mountain air.  My hangover is gone and I am exactly where I want to be.

Today I decided to dedicate each run to one of my friends.  This one was for Paul & Shy.

After some huming and hawing, we decide to ascend the steep slope back to the ridgetop.  This does not go as planned.  Foiled by an aggressive melt/freeze crust under the storm snow, we are forced to descend what turned out to be another amazing run that I really, really enjoyed.  Short and sweet, I dedicate this one to my friend Candice.

Ruben and I are both stoked on this north ridge!  Really good skiing with just the right amount of sluff, so we ate our hummus pepper salami cheese sandwiches and laid a track in to the top of the ridge via a different route.  It has become apparent to me that I did not have a favorite run of the day.  They were all amazing and I love them all, just like my friends.

This particular line teased the edge of some spruce trees in a big avalanche path.  Just sooo good, wide open turns, freedom, and fun, this run is dedicated to Alaina Lorriman (hope you climbed that 11 for me!).

On the way back up, I noticed another chute beside the one we skied first; eyed the tiny entrance and prayed that I could line it up from the top.  This run is dedicated to Ian Sherrington on account of it was certainly the most adventurous and risky line of the day.  I spied what I thought was the entrance, and scoped it out... "I think this is it... yeah.  Pretty narrow.  I hope this is the right one."  It was.  I put in a ski cut at the top and watched the sluff go straight and fast exactly down my ski line.  Noted.  I'll have to watch out for that.  I knew there was little margin for error, so I skied with complete confidence, fast and furious down another perfect line.  Unfortunately things did not go so smoothly for my partner, who had a bit of a yard sale near the top and slid down a large portion of the chute whereupon he caught a tree with the underside of his chin.

All is well after a short gear recovery session, and we go back up for a final run to the car.  We found a perfect, untouched, sustained powderkeg that would lead us straight to the car.  Ultra fun, and with little risk of injury, Erin Hayzelden, this is for you.  Ironically, this is the only run where I managed to fall during the entire day.

So that is all for now, more news to come after we go for a big long treed ridgeline tomorrow.  John, this one's for you!  Photos below, more photos here.

~Yuri