Fernie or Panorama????

A snowHead

Having secured teenager sitting for two weeks next Feb, we now have a dilemma. Spydie wants to go back to Fernie. We went there 3 years ago and had a brilliant time. However, I thought it would be good to have a look at another resort and Panorama looks rather good. Feedback and recommendations please.[/b]

A snowHead

Kitty, i've been to Panorama with mates but did not ski-the bar is good! They loved it, huge vertical aswell, snow is consistent. Resort looks good.

But terrain wise it is awesome. There is a bowl they raved and raved about-taynton bowl. Meant to be awesome.

Sorry i cannot be of more help.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Kitty, I can't find the thread now, but I can remember posting that I had been to Panorama a few years ago and, whilst the skiing was great, it was a gastronomic desert. The restaurants were few in number (and only a single one at altitude)and deeply uninspiring - things could have improved on that front by now - but it was not even possible to self-cater imaginatively, because there was only one tiny convenience store in the resort, selling mostly processed rubbish. Someone else posted that there was still only this one shop. Call me greedy, but I do like to eat decently on a ski holiday, without having to drive for miles to find a shop that sells fresh veg!

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Kitty, You will probably get bored with Pamorama after 5 or 6 days unless you hit good new snow. We did 9 days a couple of years ago but the snow was not good. Tayton Bowl was closed and the ski area shrank by the day. There was stiil some good glade skiing and the main pistes were well looked after. Saying that it was not February but late March.

The accomodation was very good, outdoor pools were fab, the bars and restaurants were okay but it is all a bit samey there as it is all run by Intrawest ( I think ). It is a bit Disneyesk.

I have booked Fernie for next February already - just hope we get good snow!!

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I found the skiing at Panorama good. On piste is not fantastic, but the large areas of in bound off piste are excellent value, easily accessible and connected to pistes. The resort has a reputation for being icy; it was fine when we were there, but other snowHeads have found it a problem. The 'village' (it's a self contained resort) is not good, however. There's little choice for eating or drinking (the heliskiing base is the best food by miles, the other places were OK, nothing more), and the place is generally dull, dull, dull. The nearest town is several miles awy, and is also dull, dull, dull. I doubt that we'll return for that reason, but if you really don't care about apres and grub, then it's a good bet for a week.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

If not Fernie - Kicking Horse & Revelstoke - stop in at Panorama if you want to check out what its like but as your not carrying a family with you who need to stay slopeside why restrict yourselves?

After all it is free

richmond,

Hurtle, à or de? seriously.. if it is "de" why is not not à ?

to answer the thread, I can't add because I know that Kitty and spyderman know Fernie very well , and I only have a few days experience but maybe use the available tiem for another place?

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holidayloverxx, de. It just is.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Hurtle, I bow to your knowledge. isn't it awful when you think you know something and it's wrong? no need to respond - off topic.

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holidayloverxx, your pseudo-drunken typing is BRILLIANT. Toofy Grin

(Also off-topic.)

Hurtle, it's not psuedo - I teally am tesytig hoe much one needas to correct to be comrejensible...nd i've drunk lots to night.

You know it makes sense.

holidayloverxx, Very little - I think someone has posted this before.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Hurtle, I remembr the old pitman ads. its all true. It takes ages to correct a post, especially if one pays attentuiomn to all the grammer , spelling and punctuation, ehich I normally would, so ths is quite libeating actually.

A snowHead

holidayloverxx, do you not touch-type? I learned to touch-type at the age of 40, when I no longer had the luxury of a secretary - SO glad I did.

A snowHead

Kitty, sorry, but holidayloverxx's drunken exploits have de-railed your thread. wink

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Hurtle, learned at the age of 15, managed a very poor rate. These days; and sober, can type a lot faster with sensitive keyboard, even with corrections wink

Kitty, sorry - whatever you decide I will be looking for your trip report Very Happy

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Kitty, sorry for dissing your gourmet credentiasls. Don't go to Panorama if grub is high up the agenda. Indeed, one could almost say don't go to Canada, but Banff (and probably other places) has about enough good steak, Japanese and various other OK (and one or two very good) restos to keep you amused. However you cut it, though, Canada is not a gourmet's paradise. Good value, reasonably wholesome, generous, enjoyable, yes, haute cuisune, no.

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richmond, Fantastic skiing though! If you want a food holiday go to Italy.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

uktrailmonster, hear, hear. I like Austrian food as well (which is why I'm a lardmeister).

After all it is free

richmond, CP, having experienced the food in Fernie I know that it won't be a gourmet holiday, but Fernie did offer a couple or three reasonable restaurants as well as cardboard food that fills a gap. Sounds like Panorama would be similar. Skiing is what we are going for, so sacrificing gourmet nosh for a couple of weeks won't be the end of the world.

I thought that the resort apres in Fernie was pretty lacking and we had to drive into Fernie town to find most shops and restaurants/bars. The facilities at Panorama looked a bit better as the resort seemed a bit bigger and in one place rather than split, like Fernie. We wouldn't necessarily have a car next time either.

Hurtle, I know what you mean about not finding your apartment because they all look the same. It happened to me in Les Arcs the first time I went skiing. We were in an apartment in 1800 and they are just so samey it was really hard to remember which block was the right one.

Spydie mentioned Big White this morning before he went off to get stuck in a muddy puddle so we may have to look there as well rolling eyes

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Kitty, if apres is at all important to you, I'd really give Panorama a swerve; it's limited and very dull (even by my standards, and I'm no party animal). The place is OK, certainly not bad enough to say don't go if the skiing really appeals, but there's nothing else to go for. There's heli sking on the spot, BTW, as the earlier refereces to the heli skiing base may have hinted. We enjoyed our week there well enough, but despite the off slope facilities, not because of them.

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Panorama is a very specialist little place that doesn't really tick very many mainstream boxes. Having said that, I've fallen to its attractions - I've enjoyed my trips there more than anywhere else, and it's the only ski resort that I've made the effort to return to.

As I see it, here are the things that characterise Panorama. I'll start with what most people see as weaknesses.

- Very quiet nightlife - only one bar and a handful of restaurants. A couple of restaurants get good reviews but I've never tried them myself; you're likely to get bored with the culinary scene before the week's out. That doesn't matter to me, though, because we prefer to stay in with our kids
- Very restricted village with one retail outlet in each mandatory category: equipment store, ski rental place, souvenirs, a real-estate agent rolling eyes

and an utterly inadequate grocery store (shop in Invermere instead - it has a great supermarket). That's fine with me, though, as a small village doesn't have many beds so the slopes are deserted and you're never far from a lift
- Extremely restricted pistes - you can comfortably ski all the groomed runs in a morning. Again, that's fine with me as I quickly get bored with groomers - give me bumps, trees, steeps and powder any day, and Panorama has these in abundance. Panorama is actually a fairly extensive area by North American standards, and the lack of groomed trails means there's more good stuff for people like me
- Ice. I know about this, as I once had a very bad fall there that led to a 9-page epic snowheads argument. But the ice is generally restricted to the groomed runs, and you don't go to Panorama for the groomers
- It doesn't have any extreme skiing on offer. But I'd kill myself if I tried extreme skiing, and it also means that extreme skiers keep away - Panorama's tougher runs (eg Devil's Drop) can go unskied for days at a time

So far, so bad. Now for the good stuff.
- Panorama has extensive in-bounds off-piste - more than enough to keep me smiling for 8 days or so. The Taynton Bowl and the Extreme Dream Zone are fantastic playgrounds for confident intermediate skiers like me
- Away from the groomers, it's deserted. You can easily ski from the top of the hill to the bottom without seeing another person
- The tree skiing is superb - extensive, highly varied and lightly skied
- It has some truly awesome bump skiing - Stumbock's is one of the longest runs in the resorts and it's pure black bumps from top to bottom; Tacky has some of the largest bumps that I've ever seen
- Powder - Panorama has only half the snowfall that Fernie enjoys, but that means it's not a mecca for powder hounds so the fluffy stuff stays unskied for days. This February in the Taynton Bowl I was regularly cutting fresh tracks two days after a snowfall on runs like Ktunaxa
- You won't see a queue except for a few minutes on weekends at peak times (eg ski-school start / end)
- The ski school is great and pretty reasonable (as a family we've bought more than 40 days of instruction there, so I have some experience)

You won't be surprised to know that I've been there three times already and will probably return next year.

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That's a very fair summary of the place.

Jonny Jones, Thank you for that, it's very helpful. I assume that having a car would be preferable to relying on public transport?

You know it makes sense.

Kitty, a car is less useful in Panorama than in most places. Apart from avoiding the TO transfer or providing a transfer if you're DIY, there's nowhere much to drive you're there, SFAIK. You could nip off to another resort, although I'm not sure what is within a day trip, and there may well be a bus to anywhere close. There's a jolly hot open air lido type pool at Radium Springs, not too far away (you'll come out glowing with health), but it's not worth hiring a car for (when we visited in Easter hols, the proper swimming pool was sgut, and only an enormous fairly shallow wallowing pool open). There's Invermere, but the best use of a car in Invermere is to drive away from the place as fast as possible.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

richmond, I agree. The only real benefit of a car is that you can get to eat some real food by visiting the supermarket in Invermere. It's probably also more pleasant to drive from Calgary than to sit in a bus.

A snowHead

Indeed, I'd hire a car just to avoid the TO transfer, but that's just me. We had a week in Panorama followed by a week in Banff, so we had a car, but we didn't use it in Panorama.

A snowHead

Panorama isn't my favourite Canadian ski hill. As many have pointed out, it's a bit isolated and ....yes, dull. Also, it doesn't have a great snow record. Given the choice, I'd plump for Fernie over Panorama, with the added benefit that you're conveniently located for trips to Kimberley (for a change - also pretty dull) and Big Mountain (Whitefish) in the US (well worth a visit).

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Acacia, We had a look at Kimberley when we were in Fernie, didn't like the look of it, so not even considering there. Looks like Fernie it is unless anybody can suggest anywhere else, not Whistler.

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Big White & Silver Star. Easy to do both resorts in 2 weeks as they're only a couple of hours apart. Skiing is excellent if you like lots of in-bounds powder and trees. Food isn't even all that bad either.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

gortonator, We like steeps, powder, trees, don't mind bumps. Would like half decent food though.

After all it is free

Spyderman, Look seriously at KH and and Revelstoke. Can't vouch for the food, but KH has killer terrain, some of my trusted buddies already prefer Revelstoke, and it has a long way to go. It has a better snow record too. Both get much more snow than Panorama.

As others have said, Big White and Silver Star make a good 2-resort trip. I love Silver Star's puttnam Creek area, some serious steeps, gnarly runs there. Food decent at BW, not quite so good at Silver Star. And red mountain has unreal tree skiing and steeps. And there actually some half-decent (often very decent) food on the hill at Gypsy at Red and the restaurants in Rossland.

Best food in canadian resorts by far - and fine food it is too by any standards - is in Whistler. I know you didn't want to hear that Evil or Very Mad

Whistler seemed to have lots of nice restaurants, but nearly always packed out and/or silly expensive. The empty ones tended to be crap as you might expect. We found it very frustrating.

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Fernie or Panorama????

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