Tores verden (Tores World): Daytrip to Castle Mountain

Castle Mountain is a skiresort about 1,5 hours from Fernie. On tuesday, Ingrid and Caroline suggested for Amund that we should go to Castle Mountain. Fortunately for me Amund has a Cheverolet with 8 seats, so there was one seat for me. On wednesday we (Caroline, Ingrid, Josefin, Amund and me)left Fernie at 0745 heading for Castle Mountain. There were flurries in the air when we left Fernie, and it snowed more and more the closer we got to Castle Mountain. The chairlift from the base was closed due to maintenance, so we had to take a looong t-bar instead the first part to get up. So no rest after powder heaven all the way down to the bottom. There was so much snow falling so that our tracks were filled again when we got to the top again. We were all giggling like schoolgirls and having the time of our lifes all day. We were so happy that we didn't really realize how cold it was. The sign mid-hill told us that the wind chill temperature was -50! The staff warned us about the cold and told us to look for frostbites. The snowbase was not really solid. Most of the snowbase had blew away above the treeline, resulting in alot of rocks and wounded skis:

From Fernie 2009

We were having a small debate about staying in Castle Mountain that night, but since Amund had to show up at work at 1500 the next day, we decided to go back to Fernie. Halfway back we were stopped due to an accident and they told us that the road would open 2 hours later. We went to The Rum Runner for dinner and dessert (for someone. Since I was the only one who didn't want dessert, the waitress brought me a fork to eat of the others plate). After half an hour at Rums Runner, the waitress told us that the road was closed for the night and that all rooms were full around so that we had to go back towards Calgary to get a bed. We decided to call Castle Mountain Ski lodge and Hostel, and they had 5 beds for us. So we went back in the dark and heavy snow, buying some Jarlsberg cheese and bread for breakfast, a red wine for the evening and toothbrushes since the original plan didn't really include staying the night.

From Fernie 2009

The weather report the next day told us that 64 cm snow had fallen the last 48 hours in Castle Mountain. The day started with some low clouds and not really as cold as previous day. I bought me a face mask anyway. After a couple of hours the sky cleared up on the top with the clouds laying low in the valley. Check out these awesome views: