Thanks to everyone who participated in the first annual FAST Mountain Chase!

Under typical snowy Fernie conditions, nine courageous teams set out for a day exploring the great mountain we love.

After a brief instructional meeting at the Cornerstone Fire Pit deck, teams skied off to solve clues and find the correct waypoints out around the mountain.  One team of over-analytical skiers, stuck around the starting line confident in their strategy to solve the locations, then devise a plan as to how to ski to them all.  Once they moved beyond the A-type personality traits, off they went like the tortoises from the fable.  Another team, thinking that speed was the key chose the hare strategy… those who participated knows how this turned out, eh Thumper? But that story is best told over a cold pop.  Back to the chase.

At each waypoint, participants took “Team Selfies” as proof they solved the clues correctly.  Most were correct with all five; some missed what turned out to be a tricky clue and erred on one of the waypoints.  I will be sure to contact Webster’s or Wikipedia to have them change the definition of; an intimate conversation usually accompanied by cuddling - Pillow Talk.

Some teams completed the tasks so quickly they even had time to make a pit stop, and completed a shot ski in their favorite watering hole the Griz.  Others took their time to thoroughly enjoy exploring the mountain. 

The Finish

Teams congregated at Cirque for a few drinks and to share stories of their exploits.  Overheard at the finish, “I had never skied that run before.”  “I have always called that run…., who knew?”

Once THE JUDGE perused the task sheets, each team was given a playing card, one for each correct waypoint selfie.  They then played their poker hand to determine the winners and the “not-so-much winners” but every team walked away with a great day, stories and prizes.

The steady, sure team of Holo Hounds came out as the champions!  Congrats to Christine and Ben Ezinga, Tanya Kaczmarek and Jonni Bilton.  They correctly reached each waypoint, answered all the trivia questions and were dealt the best hand! 

Thank you to Team Mustache who provided some unique, Griz-wall worthy pics.   And to Team Thumper, who prove once again, the Hare may be fast, but…

To all those that participated, thank you.  We raised approx. $1000 for the kids of Fernie Alpine Ski Team. To all those that missed out, stay tuned to the FAST newsletters as we will announce the 2nd Annual Fernie Mountain Chase this fall.

Special Thank you to our Prize Sponsors; Smith, Fernie Brewing Co., Village Brewery and RCR.

Hope to see you all there next year!