Not Your Typical Ski Vacation - Fernie, B.C.

Here we are at the end of another season. The season never starts soon enough and always ends too early for me. But it is about that time of year when we all start thinking of what ski trips to take for next year. If you are like me you start planning right away for next season when the current season ends. 

There are many choices and possibilities to look at. Have you ever thought about going on something that is more than just another ski or snowboard vacation? How about a ski vacation that provides both professional instruction and a guide to take you all around the mountain? Would you like to ski with someone who knows the mountain exceptionally well and can also help you improve your skiing?

This was exactly what I was looking for. So I decided to spend several weeks with NonStop Snow in Fernie B.C. (nonstopsnow.com). Fernie Ski Resort is on the famous Powder Highway in British Columbia, Canada. In all my 40+ years of skiing, before this I actually had never heard of Fernie, but it turns out this is a special place with terrain for all abilities both on-piste and off-piste.

Features of Fernie Ski Resort include:

30–37 feet average snowfall per year.

Polar Peak: The highest lift-accessible point (7,000+ ft), providing access to some of the resort's most extreme steeps and expansive views of the Lizard Range.

Bowl Skiing: Fernie has 5 Alpine Bowls to ski. Known for "steep and deep" conditions, the bowls provide natural features that allow for creative lines even days after a storm.

Vertical Drop: The mountain boasts a vertical drop of approximately 3,550 feet.

Picture: Top of Timber Bowl Express. Great View from Deck!

NonStop Snow has many different programs to choose from. They have 2 and 4 week All-Mountain and Improvement Courses for skiing and snowboarding where you ski with a guide/instructor 4 days each week. If you are interested in getting your certification as an instructor, how about an 11 week course designed to get you both your CSIA Level 1 and Level 2 certification. How about backcountry training or even a Ski Patrol Course. NonStop Snow has all this and even more available in a variety of resorts in British Columbia, France, or Italy.

I decided to spend a few weeks with them in their All-Mountain Ski Improvement Camp. While preparing to depart for the trip, I had another decision to make, what skis to take. With airline restrictions I planned to only wake one pair of skis with me. I decided on and spent the entire ski trip on my 184cm Renoun Endurance 98s and I found this to be the perfect ski for all conditions. The Endurance 98 was actually the very first pair of Renoun skis I purchased.  And it has turned out that it was a great choice. I no longer ski anything other than Renoun Skis. Steeps, powder, bumps, hardpack, and even avalanche debris one day, it did not matter what the mountain threw at us, the ski performed great. And in case you are wondering,  avalanche debris is not much fun to ski. Extremely variable conditions and debris to be careful of.

My trip to Fernie B.C.  started with a flight to Calgary. Arriving at the Calgary International Airport a couple hours early, immigration and customs were very fast and easy to get through. After this was done, a group of us met up while waiting outside security at the airport for the NonStop Snow bus to arrive.  Later that afternoon NonStop arrived with a bus and loaded all our gear and bags. We were then transported directly to their lodge in the town of Fernie about 3 hours away. A relatively easy trip despite the on and off again snow that was coming down.  When we arrived in the evening it was still snowing moderately. A great start to a ski vacation. I have to add that for me one of the nice things was that since I live in Colorado I didn’t even change time zones. That was really nice. A little tougher on the people from Australia.

The skiing started the very next morning. Our first full day in Fernie was a Sunday. The day was open for everyone to do what they wanted. Of course, I choose to ski. It helped that it was also snowing so it was an easy choice. So on Sunday morning we all got together for the full breakfast Nonstop provided. Then onto the bus for the 10 or so minute drive to the ski area. The bus ran every day, including the days we were on our own.  There were no lift lines, even on the weekends. On Monday, morning we would meet our group and our guide/instructor for the next two weeks. 

This would be my routine for the next couple weeks. Coffee, breakfast, bus, ski all day, bus, apres, dinner, sleep, repeat. And it never got dull. It was a great time.

Fernie is a magical place with powder snow and plenty of off-piste skiing. It has steeps and  cruising runs. And with our guide/instructor we were able to experience it all.  We would ski and then suddenly stop and exit the run. It seems the locals have names for all this skiing off the runs, but I could not keep track of them. 

Occasionally even the lift ride was out of the ordinary. On one particular day we were riding the White Pass Chair on the upper mountain and at the top as it goes from one peak to another, there was nothing below us except the top of the cloud layer. An incredible sight. No ground visible below and blue sky above. This was a first for me. 

Nonstop Snow does a great job. They provide lodging in their own hotel just a short distance from the Ski Resort, and they have their own bus to take you back and forth every day. The rooms were hotel-like accommodations. Each had a large bed and a sofa to sit on. Very comfortable for my entire stay. They provided coffee early and breakfast every morning and dinner 4 nights each week. And the meals they cooked were very good and the menus changed every day. The lodge even has its own bar for apres, which we made very good use of before dinner most nights.

A ski lift pass was also provided for your entire stay there, so there were no non-ski days built into the schedule unless you choose to have one. The lodge we stayed in had a hot tub and included a heated Ski Equipment room so you could store, dry, and tune our equipment as needed. No need to keep it all in your hotel room. It was great having warm dry ski boots to put on every morning.  At the Fernie Ski Resort base area we also had a locked dry storage area to leave our skis each day so you did not have to carry them back and forth to the lodge on the bus if we did not want to. 

NonStop Snow also has other options for many of the programs. You could have an optional day of skiing at Kimberly Ski Resort a little over an hour away. Or maybe an Avalanche training course. 

While I was there, there were around 30-40 or so skiers and snowboarders there on holiday in the various programs. Turns out many were from Australia. In fact, there were only a few of us from the States. Some were there for my program. Some had been there a while as there was an 11 week Instructor training course going on at the same time. We arrived just after a slight cold spell had gone through with -20 to -30 degf temps.  Glad I missed that. 

On Monday morning, we met the groups and guides we would ski with on certain days.  I was in a small group of 5 people with a senior certified ski instructor who knew every inch of the resort well and we skied with him 4 days each week. We were treated to both instruction to improve our skiing as well as a guide to get us to some hidden spots that did not appear on the trail maps. At Fernie we found that the steeps were truly steep and the powder was fun. He knew the powder stashes that lasted for days.  We even were allowed a morning of early lift access before the public after it snowed one night. That was fun skiing the untracked powder before everyone else. 

During my time there we had every kind of weather. From sunny days to snow and fog. We even had a little rain at the very base but that quickly became snow higher up the mountain. Of course, on the last day, the area got hit with a big snowstorm. It always seems to work out that way.

The town of Fernie itself has everything you need for an extended stay. And I did find time to check it out. This included a large grocery store and many fine restaurants (for the nights dinner was left to us). And there is plenty of shopping if you are into that sort of thing. There was everything from local shops to Ski and Snowboard shops. As it turned out the exchange rate at the time made all purchases a good deal compared to the states. The town also had a good bus transportation system if you needed one.

The end of the trip came way too soon for me. I was definitely not ready to come home and could have easily stayed a few more weeks. This was a fantastic ski vacation and well worth the extended time spent skiing there. Would I go back, most definitely. I do plan to return. 

What’s next for me in the upcoming season, another season of Instructing at Keystone and Cat Skiing are the current plans. Much more to decide and plan.

About the Author

Scott Odle is a PSIA Certified Ski Instructor at Keystone Resort in Colorado and a Renoun Ski Ambassador. He has been skiing for over 40 years all over the US and Canada, and has been skiing Renoun skis exclusively since 2022. He is currently located in Colorado Springs and Georgetown, Colorado.