The Mountain
Fernie's slogan is “Five Legendary Bowls”. The mountain is divided into these five bowls and two additional “zones”. Looking “up” the mountain, the bowls from left to right are Siberia, Timber, Currie, Lizard & Cedar. The Polar Peak zone is positioned above Currie Bowl and the Lower Mountain zone is positioned below Currie & Lizard Bowls. The vertical drop is about 3500 feet and the resort covers about 2500 acres.
Fernie is “old school” …
If you're looking for modern lodges and lifts, you'll want to go elsewhere … you simply won't find it at Fernie.
Most of our time was spent in the Lizard, Cedar and Currie bowls. It was noticeably colder, windier and there was reduced visibility in the Timber & Siberia bowls, so we spent minimal time there. We also really didn't see much over there that appealed to us. Like many western resorts, I'm guessing that you really need some local knowledge to fully appreciate what the mountain has to offer and I suspect there was probably a lot there that we just didn't find.
Lizard Bowl is serviced by the Great Bear Express quad and the Boomerang triple. The bowl itself is mostly wide open, low angle terrain, and is divided into four “sections” as you traverse from left to right on a cat track around the bowl. The sections are named Arrow, Bow, Cascade and Dancer … get it … A-B-C-D! It all funnels back to the base of the Great Bear Express. Under the Boomerang chair, there was much steeper terrain and lots of tree runs including the Bear Chutes, Linda's Run and Kangaroo. There were some groomed trails in Lizard Bowl too, but we weren't there to ski groomers!
Cedar Bowl is accessed from the top of the Great Bear Express via the Ceder High Traverse and from the top of the Boomerang triple via Alpine Way. Both of these traverse around the bowl from right to left. You can drop in pretty much anywhere along the traverse. There were some wide open sections, groomed (sort of) trails and tree runs. Something for everyone! From the high traverse, you could continue much further out along Snake Ridge, but we never made it that far out. Everything in Cedar Bowl funnels down to the Haul Back T-Bar. The T-Bar brings you up from the base of the bowl to a ridge where you can then ski back to the base of the Boomerang chair. Depending on how far to the left you traversed in the bowl, instead of taking the T-Bar, you can follow a long winding cat road to the base of the Boomerang chair (snowboarders beware!).
To get to Currie Bowl, you must first ride the Timber Express quad and then ski down to the White Pass quad. From the top of the White Pass chair, you can turn left and ski into Timber Bowl, or you can turn right and ski along the Currie Bowl traverse. As I mentioned earlier, we only did a couple of runs in Timber Bowl. That was probably a mistake, but one I'll have to correct on my next visit to Fernie.
The Currie Traverse leads to the Polar Peak chair, more on that later, and then continues along the top of the bowl with endless opportunities to drop in wherever you want. It then continues along the ridge separating Currie & Lizard bowls, past Corner Pocket & Easter Bowl, more on those later as well, and other points where you can find chutes and tree runs that drop into Currie or Lizard bowl. You really need to pay very close attention to where you're going, or have a local showing you the way, as it can be very difficult to find some of the features identified on the trail map.
When you ski Fernie, you should expect to do a LOT of traversing.
As I mentioned earlier, Fernie is old school. Some of the lifts are a bit old and slow, and the lift network does not allow for “lapping” the best terrain on the mountain. When skiing into Cedar Bowl, you need to take either 2 or 3 lifts to get back to the top, depending on what you're trying to do. First, you have to take the T-Bar. From there, you ski down to the Boomerang chair and take that up. If you want to get to the high traverse, you must then ski from the top of the Boomerang chair down to the bottom of the Great Bear Express, and then take that to the top. A chair from the bottom of Cedar Bowl straight back to the top of the high traverse would be awesome!!! It's possible to get to the Great Bear Express without first going to the top of Boomerang, but that's a LONG flat cat road that isn't very much fun!
In Currie Bowl, with very limited exception, anything you ski there forces you to return to the main base area, take the Timber Express to the top, then ski down to the White Pass chair, and take that back to the top to access Currie Bowl again. As with Cedar, a chair from the bottom of Currie Bowl to the top would be great.
The difficult access to these bowls would absolutely drive certain people insane, but I think that in reality, this is what made it so special. It wasn't about getting 30 runs and 50,000 vertical feet … it was about the adventure, and being in the midst of a very special place. It was awesome!
