Thunder Meadows Hut on December 11th
On Sunday eight of us ski toured to Thunder Meadows Hut from the White Pass Chair at Fernie Alpine Resort. We figured it was best to start high and avoid climbing up the shallow snowpack and thick alder bush that makes getting over the headwall into Cabin Bowl a tough challenge this time of year. Had an easy hike over the Polar Peak Saddle and a white out descent down the backside into Polaris Bowl. Lots of rocks and bush at the base of Polaris Bowl before we could start our ascent up Easy Street to the hut. A very large avalanche down Easy Street during the November slide cycle reminded us that this route is only good during stable conditions and good visibility.
Thunder Meadows has about a one meter snowpack with some nice pow on top. We skiied out Orca Bowl but the top slope alongside Orca Rock had previously released to ground and we had to zig zag between the boulders and rock ledges. Middle slopes in Orca were superb powder skiing and the traverse over to Aunt Hildas was a reasonable descent through alder bush to Orca Road. Unfortunately Orca Road was chewed up pretty bad by Moose tracks but the next snowfall should fill them in.
Tags: fernie, ski touring, thunder meadows
