Saturday, January 11, 2020

Tunnel Creek Day Trip

It was a slow start to the season in Fernie this year. Over Christmas, people were downloading the Timber Chair due to low snow coverage! Fortunately, after New Years, the Griz finally brought some powder and Kyle and I were lucky enough to be in town to enjoy it. We alternated 2 days skiing pow at the resort with a day in the backcountry with Chad to find some fresh tracks.
Sun dogs in the sky over Curry Bowl
Fresh tracks for me on Stag Leap
Bluebird powder day at Fernie!
  We skied up to Tunnel Creek for a day trip (5 km, 800m elevation gain to the hut). There was very little snow in the valley but just enough to cover the road. As we climbed, it got deeper and fluffier. We had planned on doing some exploring off the road past the hut turn off, but when we got to the junction with the gully that leads to the hut, we realized that would require breaking trail in knee deep snow. It was an easy decision to follow the skin track to the hut instead. It also meant we were able to hide out from the wind and eat our lunch in a warm hut with a hot coffee!
Warming up at Tunnel Creek Hut
 We lapped Sunny Side which was untracked and deep! After that, we climbed back up to the ridge and dropped into Home Run back down to the road. Again, the snow was great quality and we had fresh tracks all the way down. The trek up to the hut was totally worth it!
Heading up to the runs above the hut
Chad finds some steep and deep turns on Sunny Side
Kyle slays some pow
Aftermath of a run of face shots
Trip total
13 km
1400m elevation

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