Fernie/Big Mtn.

To the hard-core snowboarding community:

I'm planning a trip in early March for 10 days and thinking about a combo Big Mtn, Montana and Fernie (and nearby mtn's), BC - anybody done that or had experience with either one. I'm from New York and have been to Utah, Colorado, Lake Tahoe, CA, Jackson Hole and Grand Targee, WY, and, of course, all over the East Coast. I went to Whistler last year and loved everything about it - terrain, the people, the village, the prices, the snow, but I still have a couple of reservations - the elevation and weather (snow quality- not lack of it) and the potential for crowds (although I am usually in the trees or in the bowls - I hate lift lines) I am wondering if I have stumbled upon a find or not. I enjoy going to smaller resorts to find untracked power because it is tough to shell out 500-700 bucks a day for heli-boarding. I have tried and loved Snowbasin, Utah, A-Basin, CO, Sugarbush and Stowe, VT, Norstar at Tahoe, and Mt Rose, NV

What do you think?

Big Mountain is great, but can be foggy...but the crowds are small. Fernie is growing fast and so are the crowds.

I was in Fernie in January this year and IMHO it wasn't as good as its reputation here in Oz led me to believe. There were a lot of lift problems and it was a lot busier than i thought it would be. The snow wasn't great when we were there, but it did improve a lot a few weeks later (there had been a lot of rain in January). We also went to Silver Star (near Cranbrook) and that was ace, empty, great lifts, appx. 15cm fresh every day . Big White, Panorama, Apex and Red Mtn would also be worth looking into.

Good luck and don't worry I'll be jealous wherever you go !!

Slime

I was down in Fernie all last winter, and yes, January was wetter than Ideal. In those conditions, they have a new lift - the White Pass Quad - above the rain line, it and the high speed quad going up to there are on the new side. One of the best runs from White Pass is through Curry Bowl which often has utterly amazing powder. When Curry was closed, I stayed pretty much on the old parts of the hill and there are tons of great lines to follow there.

I've got an article about Fernie at http://www.nosegrab.com.

There are lots of great resorts in the rockies - you should have more than enough fun at any of them.

Did they get the lift problems sorted ? the White Pass Quad was closed a lot of the time we were ther making a lot of the new terrain hard to get to. On the old side, I loved Bear, cool run

Slime

After going to fernie once a year at christmas i must agree with the crowds getting bigger, but you dont notice it because everyone spreads out so much. Also, go around christmas time,(Dec.10 - 21) it is usually pretty dead.

Did they get the lift problems sorted? Hmm, mostly yes, although I was in the middel of a shoot riding up White Pass Quad and it died, and I was halfway between stations, hanging about 100 feet or more in the air. Good thing it was a warm sunny day. The electrical system on that lift is not the best, it was a surge that knocked it out when I was stuck, but that only lasted 15 minutes or so. Otherwise, it was running pretty good from Feb to closing. No big hour long evac's like the first week.

On the other side of the bowl from Bear is a run called Dancer - in pow (which was most of last winter) it is just unbelieveable.