Those of you, who were lucky enough to get to go skiing and boarding during our down-under Summer, will know what an abundance of snow there was both in Europe and North America. OK, so the season started late but made up for it with record snowfalls in several resorts.

I arrived in Fernie, British Columbia, (that's the western part of Canada, for those who don't get out much) at the end of January where I spent the next 3 weeks with an assortment of Australian friends. Since my last trip through Fernie, in 1997, the skiable area has doubled, the vertical drop has increased and the number of skiers/boarders has also increased. The 2 new quad chairs have opened up 3 new bowls and ridges, more suited to the advanced snow plougher.

In my opinion, Fernie now rivals Jackson Hole for terrain. There are numerous open bowls, much tree skiing and a swag of steep ridge runs. For those who can never get enough, there is also some serious climbing available, when safe to do so.

Our first week in Fernie yielded up a metre of new snow and this on top of a base already over 400cm deep. The second week was a little better and the third was no disappointment. The only draw back to 16 days of freshies in 3 weeks skiing was that there was only about 10 hours of sunshine during the same period.

Most of Fernie was off piste skiing & boarding - probably due to the fact that as soon as a run was groomed it was snowed upon. The other disadvantage to so much snow was that there were whole days (or more) when some section or other of the mountain was closed due to avalanche hazard. Not that this restricted the area or type of terrain available, it just meant a greater concentration of tracks through the remaining areas.

Lift lines in Fernie, although sometimes worse than we had previously encountered, were insignificant when compared to any other snow resort with comparable snow or terrain. We once waited 3 minutes in a queue. Others said that the teething troubles encountered with the 2 new lifts caused longer delays but I was lucky not to be involved.

There were 2 days when I found some steep untracked that was thigh deep but mostly the freshies were boot deep. OK, so I’m around 188cm tall (over 6 foot) which means that for the average snow-freak the snow was somewhat deeper. Local knowledge was a distinct advantage as the snow conditions could vary greatly from one bowl to the next as the wind and snowfalls never resulted in a uniform cover over the whole resort. Generally the snow was quite light and only on 3 occasions did I find it gluggy (Fernie being fairly low, altitude wise, can get rain and wet snow).

Apparently there are big plans for Fernie. Some locals told me that Fernie, now under new ownership, will be the 4th largest snow resort in North America within 5 years. I can certainly see the potential. Real estate appears to be booming and the Timberline Village Condominiums where we stayed (on the mountain) is expanding with brand new condos still being completed.

Obviously the word is out about Fernie. In 1997 we hardly meet anyone who was not Canadian. This year there were significant numbers from Norway, Sweden, Germany, UK, South Africa, USA, New Zealand and Australia.

If you want to know more about snow conditions at Fernie (and see some great photos), I would strongly recommend Craig’s web page  http://far.redtree.com/cgmrep.html

Wait up! After 3 glorious weeks at Fernie we picked up a rental and 4 of us dropped into Panorama for a week. Cruelly some call it Ice-arama. What it doesn’t get in snowfall, compared to Fernie or some other resorts, it makes up for in vertical. Over 4000 vertical feet and great panoramas (I had to say it). We arrived to hard packed conditions (not ice) and the news that there hadn’t been a significant snowfall for 3 weeks. I for one, enjoyed the sunshine and the chance to use my edges for some real carving feedback. But that didn't last for long. Day 3 it snowed. Day 4 it snowed. Day 5 it snowed then rained. May be we just brought it with us?

The numbers on the slopes at Panorama were insignificant compared to most resorts. In the new gladed area of "View of 1000 Peaks" we found nobody. Yes, there were some rocks around on the entrance and some log piles beneath the snow (the nickname ‘Trash City’ comes to mind) but the absence of people and the acres of untracked boot to knee deep snow kept drawing us back in. We found untracked stashes all day long.

After using up our film and video tape in Panorama (not used in Fernie due to constant overcast conditions), we spent the last day of the trip at Lake Louise (en route for Calgary airport). And yes, it snowed all day. The Saturday morning lift lines looked absolutely disgusting but in actual fact were faster than they appeared. Louise was having another good season and as we left one of our group there to stay on for a few more days, I was wishing I could have done the same.

With so much powder skiing (and not to mention the reactivated shoulder injury) I brought my body back to Australia for a much needed rest and recovery before our season begins in June. Yes, I did have a great time and I will be returning to Canada again next year, especially Fernie.

Due to much slackness on our behalf, many of the photos I wanted to show here will be showing later in the year on the Photo of the Moment web page.

If you are still wondering about the title and where the ‘grizzly’ bits are, then you need to spend some time in Fernie. There you may hear about ‘Griz’, the legendary mountain man,  and how he is responsible for the snow. You can see his face on the mountain in the title photo at the top of this page. Griz has a big smile on his face - almost as big as the smiles on the faces of the skiers enjoying all the fresh powder.

Richard. (benefactor to the chiropractor)

And thanks to the staff at the Powderhorn (Griz Inn) for the attention each lunchtime.

For more photos of Panorama and Fernie - Click here