FERNIE WILDERNESS ADVENTURES

As seen on the BBC "Holiday" program.

The cat rumbles off into the distance

"You're in......" Heather told me, ".......one of the original group has broken his shoulder." Let me tell you, I've never been so happy to see someone driven off the mountain in an ambulance in all my life. All it took was a week on the waiting list, 240 Canadian dollars and another early morning and I was finally going catboarding.

The usual mad scramble to get ready before anyone else

If you tell people you've been catboarding in Fernie, BC., they all instantly think of the same place, Island Lake Lodge. This place is a legend in its own lifetime and as such, is booked up years in advance due to its vast array of epic terrain. Needless to say, I wasn't going to Island Lake Lodge, I was going to Fernies other cat operation: Fernie Wilderness Adventures. Fernie Wilderness Adventures are based 15 minutes drive out of Fernie and cater for all manner of winter sports including snowmobiling, catskiing and boarding, ice fishing and wildlife tours. They have one snowcat, which gives 12 people access to the 1000 acres of terrain above their lodge.

I was picked up from the front door of my hotel at some ungodly hour of the morning (why is it that these powder trips always start in the middle of the night when most of us should be tucked up in bed?) and introduced to Graham and Elaine, an English couple who were going catskiing as well. Once at the lodge, we had breakfast, signed (yet another) waiver, picked up our transceivers, met our guides and driver and we were ready to roll.

Elaine in the steep and deep

Now, I've never been in a snowcat before and neither had most of the others, so we foolishly sat in the seats that faced downhill and I spent the next 45 minutes desperately trying not to fall into the lap of an ageing American surgeon as we chugged slowly but surely to our first run. That was the last time I'll do that I can tell you. Subsequent trips in the cat weren't quite as long so it wasn't too bad sitting on that side. The snowcat looked pretty standard to me, although I'd never been in one before so I'm not really in a position to say if it was good or bad. It was always nice and warm inside, which was good until you forget to get all the snow off your clothes, at which point you started to get quite damp. All the food (which was absolutely fantastic) and drink for the day was stashed under the seats to be eaten while we were climbing. This allows more runs to be done in a day, because there was no need for a proper lunchbreak. Click on the button to go to the next page.