Camp Fortune - March 24, 2024

On the menu for today, are bluebird skies and a surprise return of winter weather, creating the perfect day on the slopes. After last weekend's milder weather, the mercury dropped back into a more typical wintery range, allowing for a great recovery on the slopes. The few bare spots from the previous weekend are gone, and a few dustings of natural snow helped give a small refresh to the otherwise bare glades and forests between the ski slopes. The amount of snow at Camp Fortune is quite impressive and the snow coverage on the trails is complete. The grooming and snowmaking teams know their stuff.

This weekend, Skyline, Meech and Valley were open. The only notable exception was the Clifford quad and related trails, which are in no way due to any lack of snow, but an electrical problem. WOW. The big difference from past weeks, the snow surface was perfectly groomed, firm base, and had very little ice. The puddles, streams and rivers near the bases of the chairlifts that seemed to signal the end was near, have all disappeared and have been covered over with snow. Camp Fortune got a second wind under its sails and is happily chugging along, even though the eventual conclusion of the season is just weeks away.

Being a big fan of Meech myself, I will admit that the majority of my runs today were on North American. What an amazing trail. You feel like you are someplace else from how the slope is contoured, with its smooth constant drops and pitches, curves and turns, and the winding and weaving of the trail near the bottom. Every ski mountain has its signature trails, and North American is firmly placed at the top of the list for Camp Fortune.

For the rest of the visit, I enjoyed Skyline, which was in top condition. Sparks, Bud Clark and Canadian were fast and quite enjoyable. Wrestling up the courage to tackle the challenging Heggtveit proved to be worth every exciting moment. This trail gets your heart pumping. The lead-up to the main section is an ever-increasing drop, so much so that you can't see very far in the distance before losing sight of the slope. You eventually drop into the main wall, which is visible from the chairlift and base of Skyline. Just to give you an idea of the conditions, I tackled Hegg around 1pm and the grooming was certainly holding up quite well, and it was easy to ski with confidence.

If you need any more convincing about how great the snow was, how about getting across Humdinger Ravine (Skyline to Valley return trail) without poleing or skating? Perfect!

Everyone was in a great mood, with a race on Skyline, the Cardboard Sled Derby by the magic carpet, and some grooving lifties on Meech, Camp Fortune was alive! I came across another skier who shared that it was their 90-some ski day, and "The best it gets around here". I couldn't agree more.

Camp Fortune will be open this week with Skyline, making it to Easter. With the weather as it is, and maybe a bit of luck, I wouldn't be surprised for another hat trick, with maybe the Valley and Meech open one more weekend. But as always, Mother Nature has the last word.... so fingers crossed for a potential repeat of this fantastic weekend in 6 days! Don't forget, lift tickets are now $35.

Here are some pics from today's visit.

Meech (North American and Paradis)