Fernie, British Columbia, Canada

This is the view of the mountain from our house.

When I was traveling through South America, I decided I wanted to do another season in a ski town and was trying to choose where to go. Then I met a Swede who I traveled with for a little while and he highly recommended Fernie, so decision made.

The season here started out fairly disappointing because it was turning out to be a very low snow year. The talk around town was about how much powder there was last year, but this year is crap. I had a backup plan, though. Actually it was my friend Michael's plan. He was interested in the famous ice climbing Canada has to offer. He learned how to climb ice while traveling through South America, but I had never even tried it. I went ahead and bought the necessary equipment because he needed a partner to get up these routes and now it has become our primary activity. Mike's goal was to do five climbs, and we've now done a total of ten, including the Weeping Wall, his ultimate goal.

And after returning from our last ice climbing road trip, we found that storms had visited and the mountain had fresh snow again. It was a good couple days with fresh powder and although it another storm would be helpful, the conditions are still good. We spent the last few days working on our jumps and have both completed our second goal for the season: the 360.

A more touristy photo. This is the largest truck in the world, used for hauling rubble from the coal mines.