Fernie Alpine Resort

Tourism Fernie notes that David Thompson travelled along the Elk River in 1811, and that the town of Fernie was founded in 1898 and incorporated in 1904, named for coal prospector William Fernie. Local ski history says laid-off miners made birch skis in the 1930s, and that by the mid-1940s Mount Proctor was among the first handle-tow sites. Fernie Ski Club members began clearing runs by hand on the ridge south of town in 1948, and in 1955 the Fernie Board of Trade backed a plan for a hill on Mount Proctor. Local efforts to host the Winter Olympics in the 1960s did not succeed, but they helped lay the groundwork for the ski area.

Local histories say Fernie Ski Development Ltd was incorporated in November 1961 with local investors, volunteer labour and land donated by Galloway Lumber, and that the area opened as Fernie Snow Valley on 10 January 1962. One source gives 1963 instead, so the opening year should be treated as approximate. The first season ran two lifts, a rope tow and the Elk T-Bar, and underground miner Louie Sclippa is recorded as the hill's first employee. Heiko Socher was hired in 1966 to manage a lumber company's woodlands, and his wife Linda opened the ski school and rental shop in 1967; one account says the Sochers took over operations in 1973. Lizard Bowl and part of Cedar Bowl opened in 1969, the same year Kaiser Coal helped fund the Bear T-bar, and on-hill lodging followed in 1970. In 1997 the Sochers sold the area to Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, which renamed it Fernie Alpine Resort. Resorts of the Canadian Rockies is its operator today.

Wikipedia lists a base elevation of about 1,068 metres, a summit near 2,149 metres and a vertical drop of about 1,082 metres, though the resort itself describes Polar Peak at 7,000 feet (2,134 metres), so elevation numbers vary slightly by source. Polar Peak opened for skiing in winter 2012 with a new Polar Peak triple chair as part of the resort's 50th-anniversary celebrations. The five bowls are Siberia, Cedar, Timber, Currie and Lizard. Wikipedia gives about 2,500 acres of skiable terrain, 142 named runs, a longest run of about 5 kilometres, and 10 lifts, seven of them chairlifts. Trail and lift numbers change as the resort develops, so check its trail map and conditions report.

Snowfall figures differ by source: Wikipedia gives about 875 centimetres a season, Tourism Fernie says the town receives over nine metres a year, and a local history says totals regularly passed ten metres in the 1980s. These are long-term averages rather than promises, and conditions vary a lot from year to year. Local lore tells of Griz, a mountain man said to bring powder; this is presented as legend rather than documented history, and the first Griz competition was held in 1978. Long-running local events include the Powder-Pedal-Paddle relay, begun in 1982, and the Dummy Downhill, begun in 1987. Island Lake Mountain Tours opened the valley's first independent snow-catskiing operation in 1988. Fernie skier Emily Brydon represented Canada at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics.

In summer the resort is used for mountain biking, hiking and sightseeing. In spring 2009 it also stood in for the fictional Kodiak Valley ski resort in the film Hot Tub Time Machine, released in March 2010, per Wikipedia. Lift operations, summer programs, tickets and pass products change, so check the resort for current details.

Winter driving in the Rockies can be demanding. A private vehicle and driver with door-to-door pickup lets your group travel to the resort and back without handling mountain roads and parking yourselves.