Fernie is known as Snow Valley. It was the name of the ski hill before being changed to “Alpine Resort” by a Calgary owner with the objective of selling condos. Snow Valley best describes the valley and the ski hill and in the past two weeks the name has been justified. Naturally big snow means big avalanches!

In the past 14 days over 200cms of snow has fallen! The fact that this accumulation has happen before and after the most successful Griz Days in recent years comes as no surprise. The Griz, a young boy raised by Grizzly bears, is responsible for the abundant snow accumulation and the Snow Valley name. He was obviously happy with the festivities held in his honour!

In the past couple of days the temperature has soared and rain has fallen on the lower elevations. In the Alpine however snow continued to fall and the warming caused some large and interesting avalanches.

First is an image of Fernie Alpine Resort and the popular Snake Ridge. The ski runs; Red Tree, Steep and Deep, and Upper Gorby all have huge fracture lines from a natural slide. The entire mountain was closed and there were no skiers involved. The resorts policy of closures errors on the side of safety.

This next image was taken on Highway #3 just South of Fernie. The avalanche crossed the highway early Friday and fortunately did not hit any vehicles. The road was open at the time of the slide and was closed shortly after for several hours for avalanche control.

With all this snow avalanches are a natural occurrence. In old days when three meters would fall in as many days people expected such avalanches. Fortunately the avalanche patrol at the ski hill have not forgotten!