Skiers and boarders flocked to Fernie this weekend to take advantage of the fresh snow and many are now stuck there because of a highway closure.
Highway 3 was shut down on Sunday at the BC/Alberta border because of the heavy snowfall and low visibility.
Both the north and southbound lanes are closed to traffic and travellers are being held back at both ends until the highway reopens.
Officials at Fernie Alpine Resort say they have received about 20 cm of fresh snow so far and it is still coming down.
“Had a wonderful day of skiing. They’ve had epic amounts of snow and we found out when we were about to leave home for Lethbridge last night that the road was closed so wonderful friends let us stay overnight and the locals here say they haven’t seen snow like this in 20 years. They’ve had just an amazing amount of snow fall in the last 48 hours,” said Lowell Taylor from Fernie.
Officials have closed a few of the lifts because of high winds and extreme wind chill and are offering those brave enough to venture out, half day pricing on lift tickets.
The village is almost buried and snow is skirting the bottom of the windows.
The snow is also falling at Castle Mountain Resort and officials are turning people away because the road in is too tight to travel on.
“It’s more of a safety concern with, where the roads aren't as wide as they'd normally be. Volker Stevin’s done an amazing job getting us open on time, getting the roads plowed into the mountain in time, but it’s just reality, I mean, there's a metre of snow on the ground, the roads are narrow, we can’t park cars on the road so we're only able to park on one side and we're completely full,” said Jason Crawford, Sales and Marketing, Castle Mountain Resort.
The resort has received about 40 cm of snow in the last 24 hours and more is expected.
Officials say the road and parking lot are full and are asking people to delay their trips until tomorrow.
Some parts of Castle Mountain Resort are closed due to an extreme avalanche hazard and control crews are using explosives to try and reduce the risk.
Brandon Muller is a trucker from Calgary and says he has been waiting at Frank for the highway to reopen since 8:00 p.m. Sunday night.
“We got turned around,” he said. “I’m loaded and I gotta go that way.”
There is no word yet on when Highway 3 will open.
“We’re actually turning around most commercial traffic at this point,” said Captain Evan Stewart, Crowsnest Pass Fire Rescue. “We have trucks that have been here since 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning when it closed. At this point there’s still no estimated time of highway reopening so we are instructing people that aren’t local or don’t already have hotels to turn around go home. Most of our hotels are full at this point.”
For the latest on road conditions in the area, visit the Drive BC website HERE.
