Canada - Apex and Fernie
Apex Village
After leaving Whistler we had a hell of a bus ride. We left Whistler at 9pm for Vancouver, we then had a 1.5hr wait at the Vancouver bus depot before our bus to Penticton departed at 12:30pm. We had another 6hrs on the bus and arrived in Penticton at 6:30am. Luckily the bus dropped us off outside a bagel / coffee diner type place. We sat in there for 2hs whilst we waited for the sun to come up, this gave us plenty of time to pig out on coffee and bagels. Once Penticton came to life we hitched a ride up to Apex Mountain Resort a good 30km away where we were planning to spend a few nights. It so happened that the first two nights also coincided with the annual ‘Keg Cup’. The Keg is a chain of restaurants throughout Canada and the upper US (a bit like Cob & Co in NZ) and every year they treat their staff to a three day party trip to Apex. There was about 400 youths and they totally over ran the small resort. We were staying in the hostel with another Kiwi guy Ant, the rest of the hostel was the Keg Cuppers. As you can imagine we had some great times with them at the pub and in the hostel common room but we got hacked off with them as they partied in the hostel until 6am and they did not stop till Andy got up and told then to shut up. I was well equipped I had invested in some ear plugs in Vancouver after sharing a dorm room with the “snorer from nam”, so I was wearing these. The upside of all the partying was that most of the keggers were asleep well into the arvo so the mountain was empty of skiers – Nice! Apex was a great mountain and with plenty of steep and forested terrain. We had three days there which was enough and it was time to move on.
Skiing the glades
Grand Forks
Fernie Ski Resort
Downtown Fernie
We jumped on the Greyhound Bus from Apex to Castlegar, then on to Rossland for a couple of days. We met up there with some old university mates from Christchurch. A couple of the guys had a rental car for a week and were keen to use it, so four of us jumped in a drove to Fernie Alpine Resort, about 4hrs east. We had a couple of great days skiing, the snow was hard off piste but the groomed runs were good. We had to check Fernie out as it is famous for 10m of snow annually and it would be primo on a powder day as it has heaps of good terrain. We stayed in the backpackers which was just round the corner from the pub, like whistler we made the most of a chicken wing special they had on Tuesdays. We also scored a spa in one of the local hotels which was the first one of our trip so far and real good… After Fernie we headed back west to Rossland where we would be based for a few weeks and skiing Red Mountain.
Grizz Peak
After leaving Whistler we had a hell of a bus ride. We left Whistler at 9pm for Vancouver, we then had a 1.5hr wait at the Vancouver bus depot before our bus to Penticton departed at 12:30pm. We had another 6hrs on the bus and arrived in Penticton at 6:30am. Luckily the bus dropped us off outside a bagel / coffee diner type place. We sat in there for 2hs whilst we waited for the sun to come up, this gave us plenty of time to pig out on coffee and bagels. Once Penticton came to life we hitched a ride up to Apex Mountain Resort a good 30km away where we were planning to spend a few nights. It so happened that the first two nights also coincided with the annual ‘Keg Cup’. The Keg is a chain of restaurants throughout Canada and the upper US (a bit like Cob & Co in NZ) and every year they treat their staff to a three day party trip to Apex. There was about 400 youths and they totally over ran the small resort. We were staying in the hostel with another Kiwi guy Ant, the rest of the hostel was the Keg Cuppers. As you can imagine we had some great times with them at the pub and in the hostel common room but we got hacked off with them as they partied in the hostel until 6am and they did not stop till Andy got up and told then to shut up. I was well equipped I had invested in some ear plugs in Vancouver after sharing a dorm room with the “snorer from nam”, so I was wearing these. The upside of all the partying was that most of the keggers were asleep well into the arvo so the mountain was empty of skiers – Nice! Apex was a great mountain and with plenty of steep and forested terrain. We had three days there which was enough and it was time to move on.
Skiing the glades
Grand Forks
Fernie Ski Resort
Downtown Fernie
We jumped on the Greyhound Bus from Apex to Castlegar, then on to Rossland for a couple of days. We met up there with some old university mates from Christchurch. A couple of the guys had a rental car for a week and were keen to use it, so four of us jumped in a drove to Fernie Alpine Resort, about 4hrs east. We had a couple of great days skiing, the snow was hard off piste but the groomed runs were good. We had to check Fernie out as it is famous for 10m of snow annually and it would be primo on a powder day as it has heaps of good terrain. We stayed in the backpackers which was just round the corner from the pub, like whistler we made the most of a chicken wing special they had on Tuesdays. We also scored a spa in one of the local hotels which was the first one of our trip so far and real good… After Fernie we headed back west to Rossland where we would be based for a few weeks and skiing Red Mountain.
Grizz Peak
posted by Peter Spencer at 1:26 PM
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