Trespass Ridge Fernie

Distance: 14km

Elevation: 1300m

Time: 4h 15min

Up the Tunnel Creek Road

Trespass Ridge is a great day trip out near Fernie! Starting at the Tunnel Creek parking area west of Fernie, we followed the road up as if we were approaching the hut. After 4km, the skin track to the hut branches off right up a drainage but if you continue to follow the road, it wraps around under Trespass Ridge. Follow the flat logging road until it starts to climb again. Take the right spur and follow it to the cut block. From here you will have a view of the ridge.

Powder Cowboy

Sunshine and sleds

The return to Powder Cowboy after a year off due to covid was a welcome reunion of friends from all over BC and Alberta. We descended on the Little Sand Cabin with sleds, beers, Heather's baking and a whole lot of stoke to get out touring with the best crew around.

Powder Cowboy

Steep and Deep lives up to its name

It was a quiet weekend up at Powder Cowboy last week, and for the most part we had the whole zone to ourselves. We had two nights booked at the Little Sand Cabin with Rob and we spent the weekend touring and doing sled laps on the slopes around the hut.

Powder Cowboy - Family Day

 The first annual Powder Cowboy family day weekend extravaganza was a huge success. We used 2 sleds to shuttle our gear and friends up to the hut for the weekend and spent the weekend enjoying the amazing ski terrain around the hut (both sled and tour accessed). It was awesome to have such a big group of friends together in the mountains and we had plenty of space in the well equipped hut. The weekend highlights included giant bonfires, ridiculous games, overcooked pasta, backflips, sunset laps, alien lights in the forest, stargazing and some skiing too!

Powder Cowboy

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

Goldilocks Hike - Island Lake Fernie

12.3 km

835 m elevation

3.5 hrs

On a trip down to Fernie this summer, Kyle and I tagged along with the Milinos to hike at Island Lake.

Hiking up Spineback to the start of the Goldilocks Loop

 The Goldilocks trail is a new route that has been developed high in the Lizard Range above Fernie. To access the loop, you park at Island Lake Lodge and follow signs for Spineback Ridge Trail. The well maintained trail starts by meandering past the lake and across streams before starting to climb steeply up the ridge. After 3.5 km, we had climbed 600 m above the lake and lodge. We watched pikas scurrying around in the scree and spotted birds soaring overhead as we hiked.

Stupid Deep at Tunnel Creek

The thermometer in the truck read -26 C as David, Tyler, Kyle and I left Calgary, heading for Tunnel Creek Hut in Fernie. The boys had arrived from San Francisco late the night before and we had very few hours of sleep before hitting the road. We stopped at the grocery store to let them pick up lunch food then met Kyle Duran to all head up to the hut. The temperature wasn't any warmer as we left the trailhead. It had been cold and clear in Calgary for weeks but there was snow in the forecast. We followed a track up the logging road, moving quickly to stay warm.

Starting up the road to Tunnel Creek

Fernie - Resort Pow

Welcome to Fernie - I haven't taken the Volkl One's out in a while!

Thunder Meadows Trip Report (Dec 29-31)

The original plan for a hut trip at the end of the year was to return to Tunnel Creek, but the hut was already booked. We managed to snag Thunder Meadows Hut instead and planned on going in with a big group of 7 or 8. In the end, there were 6 of us who were going in, 4 from the top of Fernie Resort and 2 from Island Lake Lodge which requires much more touring and route finding. Since we were taking the easy way, we decided to bring in some extra goodies, including steaks for dinner, whiskey, fireball and some fireworks.

Joel with the 4 L of wine and box of fireworks

Early Season Ski Touring - Fernie and Highwood Pass

Winter is here! As December draws closer, ski hills are finishing up their final preparation for the season and skiers everywhere are itching to get out and play. Fortunately for me, I didn't have to wait for the hill to open and was able to get out in the backcountry for some early season turns over the last two weeks (Nov 9, 10 and 16th). Although I have been sick with mono for the last 2 months, I got the go-ahead to return to activities a few days before a tentatively planned trip to Fernie. Since I hadn't really done anything for a long time, I was expecting to have a really hard time with the touring. Luckily, everyone was also fairly out of shape and more than happy for an excuse to wait up and take breaks. 

My first day of the season! Still recovering from mono but just happy to be out playing

Tunnel Creek

Turns out this was saved as a draft for a while, I thought I had published it. Better late than never I guess! This is the story of my reading break. Instead of taking full advantage of my time to study for midterms and write papers, I left the coast and headed out to Fernie, BC for a whole bunch of skiing. The week involved 3 nights at Tunnel Creek Hut, a new hut built in the Lizard range.

Tunnel Creek Hut