Fernie may be a bit off the beaten path, but the resort is well worth the time it takes to get there. A three-hour drive from Calgary International Airport, or 1.25-hour trip from the Cranbrook Airport, deposits you into an alpine realm of steep mountain slopes covered in spruce, fir, and larch known as Fernie Alpine Resort. This snow-laden fairytale realm in the BC Rockies is the fourth-largest ski resort in Canada and one of North America's most popular alpine destinations—and with just cause, considering up to 29 feet of some of the airiest, fluffiest powder falls here each year.
Whatever your skill level, Fernie provides. The resort is divided by a series of ridges crowned by five alpine bowls that feed into tree-lined runs, glades, cliffs, chutes, bumps, and more—every one of its 2,504 acres coated in their legendary powder. First-timers and children should stick by the Mini Moose and Mighty Moose lifts—or traverse the beginner run that carves down Lizard Bowl beneath 7,000-foot Polar Peak. Beginners and intermediates should head to the Deer and Elk lifts, while ambitious blue-level skiers not ready stare down a black slope can head to the Siberia, Timber, and Currie bowls, which provide stretches of good runs—and no limb-flailing green-level skiers to cut you off. Experts, meanwhile, have their pick of the mountain, but tend to migrate to the ridgeline runs off Currie and Lizard bowls, and black and double-blacks like Big Bang, Mitchy Chutes, Quite Right, and Knot Chutes. And terrain park hounds can get their fill of hucks at the terrain parks below Siberia and Timber bowls.
All this terrain compliments Fernie's other chief attraction: ski and 'boarding classes and programs that cater to every level and interest, from expert-level Steep and Deep Camps and femme-only Powder Girl Camps to daylong mountain tours, early-bird outings, and a six-week men-only Summit Club.
Other activities include cross-country skiing, sleigh rides, snowmobiling, helicopter tours, snowshoeing, and dogsled tours. Kids Night Out includes dinner, storytelling, snow soccer, arts and crafts, and other games. And for those who take on Fernie's double-blacks and still scoff, Island Lake Lodge (888.422.8754; www.islandlakeresorts.com) offers snowcat skiing in the region's expansive backcountry.
Accommodations run the gamut, from base-level ski-in/ski-out hotels with all the luxe trimmings to B&Bs—but to truly taste the quaint flavor of this mountainous region, consider staying in Fernie. This historic coal-mining town has turn-of-the-century architecture and small-town hospitality just three miles from the resort.
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$60 or less;