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Fernie and FWA cat skiing?

Vince

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Looking for advice on a trip to Fernie Feb 13th - 18th. Leaving the day after the Super Bowl. A day to get there. Ski 4 days and a day to get back. We likely have 3 - 6 guys all expert skiers. Will probably ski Fernie 3 days and a day cat skiing at Fernie Wilderness Adventures. I called FWA $430 American money for a day. Approx 10-12 runs.
I looked into Island Lake Lodge but they only do multiple day trips. We will probably book way in advance as we have tried to wait till last minute a few other times on cat skiing and been shut out.
Anyone tried FWA for cat skiing?

Where do we fly into? Calgary looks obvious but Kalispeill MT is closer and Spokane WA cheaper?

How does Fernie compare to Lake Louise and Sunshine? The only Canadian Rocky places I have skied. We prefer bowls, trees, chutes to long big mogul runs.
 

KustyTheKlown

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i hit fernie on a big loop trip out of calgary a few years ago where i skied lake louise > kicking horse > kimberly > fernie. great trip. i like the driving and the variety. for my itinerary calgary made sense. i was in spokane on a seperate idaho/washington trip and youre def close to BC from there too. canadian dollars for your rental car and not crossing international lines in your rental car is a consideration. id go via calgary

i didnt care for sunshine, and louise didn't have great snow when i skied there, and i had multiple powder days at fernie, but i'll give it to fernie for the quality of skiing. big place. very varied terrain. lots of fun chutes and various entrances into big open bowls and aprons. very fun stuff

awesome town. urban street grid with bars and restaurants and stuff. walkable. super awesome. loved fernie.
 

Vince

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Thanks for the info. Thats a great road trip you took. These guys would never agree to that much driving. Did you do that solo?
 

KustyTheKlown

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yep, that was a solo trip.

you don't need to do the whole loop, you can just go calgary>fernie and back about 3 hours each direction. i favor 2week+ trips with big driving loops and lots of destinations.
 

HowieT2

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I fly in and out of spokane to ski in nelson and its great but Fernie is a bit far. think you're much better off flying to calgary.

also, no need to worry about moguls whn youre cat skiing. not a thing.
 

Vince

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I would love to do two weeks and be able to take a day or two off to recharge.

Nelson I assume means you ski Whitewater. That looks like a great off the beaten path place. We wanted a place where we could do one day of cat skiing and 3 days at the resort. Is it true that cell phones don't work at Whitewater?
 

crank

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Years ago a bunch of ski buddies and myself booked 3-days with Valhalla Powder Cats. We got skunked with a huge pineapple express weather system with rain and super wet glop, lots of raing and up phigh lots of super heavy wet glop. Avalanche conditions were extremely high and skiing conditions sucked. We drove north to Kicking HOrse which has multiple feet of snow on top which was so heavy and wet it was kind of exhausting to ski. We returned to Nelson where we had a house rented and skied a day at Whitewater which is a nice little area with good food. But the snow was rotten there and on one run I could hear the melting snowpack running underfoot which made me very nervous so that was my last run that trip. Flew home early to catch leftovers from a 2' storm here in New England.

Valhalla PC was good in that they gave us a full refund.

We are going to Banf next March and have been thinking about doing some cat skiing around there.
 

HowieT2

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I would love to do two weeks and be able to take a day or two off to recharge.

Nelson I assume means you ski Whitewater. That looks like a great off the beaten path place. We wanted a place where we could do one day of cat skiing and 3 days at the resort. Is it true that cell phones don't work at Whitewater?
Correct no cell service. you can do Valhalla powdercats on a daily basis Staying out of Nelson. Or big red cats in Rossland out of Red mountain resort.
 

HowieT2

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Years ago a bunch of ski buddies and myself booked 3-days with Valhalla Powder Cats. We got skunked with a huge pineapple express weather system with rain and super wet glop, lots of raing and up phigh lots of super heavy wet glop. Avalanche conditions were extremely high and skiing conditions sucked. We drove north to Kicking HOrse which has multiple feet of snow on top which was so heavy and wet it was kind of exhausting to ski. We returned to Nelson where we had a house rented and skied a day at Whitewater which is a nice little area with good food. But the snow was rotten there and on one run I could hear the melting snowpack running underfoot which made me very nervous so that was my last run that trip. Flew home early to catch leftovers from a 2' storm here in New England.

Valhalla PC was good in that they gave us a full refund.

We are going to Banf next March and have been thinking about doing some cat skiing around there.
That’s my worst nightmare. I’ve been fortunate and out of 6 trips to Valhalla not a single issue. But if conditions aren’t good, they’ll cancel and refund without a problem. Fwiw- Valhalla pc was recently bought by baldface.

only thing better than the skiing at whitewater is the food.
 
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