 Poster: A snowHead
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What was it like?? What with Whistler (which I know is hundreds of miles away and can be more badly affected by rain) having seemingly had such a bad time of it...
Just that - lured by the excellent current $CAD rate - Mrs MA and I have just booked Calgary flights for early Feb, plus three days' catskiing at Fernie Wilderness Adventures (FWA). We've skied with them before (two days) and loved it - they're a great set up.
The plan is a bit of a hire car road trip, with the catskiing towards the end of a 10 day holiday. Itinerary is to be finalised but we're looking at the catskiing plus places like Kimberley, Fernie, Nakiska and Castle Mountain.
We were last at Fernie in 2010. That was the same time as the Whistler Olympics had a snow shortage. We had no problems at Fernie resort though - and also had two days of fantastic powder skiing with FWA.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Isn't there a strong El Nino system for this coming winter? I think I read that means dryer, milder winters for Canada?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Hi @mountainaddict I have a feeling that the snow was not that great last season.
I went over for a couple of weeks from the tail in of November till 8th of December 14 .. You would not expect it to be that good really but I still enjoyed it.
Lake Louise .. we had a brilliant couple of days .. good conditions after a storm locked us in at Banff.
Kicking Horse was closed till the day before we left ... but it was very bad .. it had rained.
I went to Revelstoke for the 1st time ... I was really impressed how good it was for such a place with only 3 lifts.
I hope you have a great time and loads of snow this year ...
I'm hopping to get invited again.
I've booked up flights and rental cars with "Canadian Affair" in the past and had what I considered a very good deal on the car rental.
They were tied in with "Air Transat" who were very cheap .. but they have cut right back on the flights this year.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I was in Fernie about 6 years ago and loved it. Great snow and really nice terrain. I've since been to Revelstoke and Banff, and loved them too. I really want to revisit Fernie though.
I was in Canada mid to late Feb last year and it was indeed a mild/medium El Nino which it isn't good for snow, you get the 'pineapple express' a warm moist air current pushed in from the sea, supposedly la Nina is the one to look for its meant to be colder and snowier. On a slightly more positive note the locals all seemed to agree that a bad year is always followed by a bumper one. I boarded Revelstoke which was a giant Ice Toblerone, having had repeated rain/freeze thaw cycles. Banff was 'warm' at about -10 so what had fallen remained good, we had a couple of four inch falls so all in the trip was saved. I met people who'd come up from Fernie, bare lower slopes meant people were downloading on the chairs to get back to base. There were rumours of it closing at that point. 'Word on the street' was that Jasper had the best of the snow when I was there. If you can keep flexible it might the worth it, we nearly bailed from Revelstoke to jasper, but I prebooked/paid my lift pass, Motel onwards transfer etc.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Cheers rogg. Good idea - I think we'll hang fire on the accommodation front, although we've paid a deposit on the 3 days' catskiing near Fernie. Balance is payable only 14 days before so could cancel and lose the deposit in the worst case scenario  .
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