Senior Editor Tom Mountford forsook the usual New Year Festivities for the attractions of 25 degrees below, at snowboarder’s paradise Fernie in the Southern Canadian Rockies.
He’d enrolled on a three-week residential training camp with over one hundred international snow lovers. “It was awesome being taught by the highest Level 4 instructors, these are guys who think nothing of hitting forty-foot kickers or doing cliff-drops before breakfast

Instruction was also provided in avalanche safety, locating buried victims with transceivers and backcountry powder riding, “The backcountry was pretty amazing, both in terms of scenery and the snowboarding. Unlike the groomed snow of the piste it is just untouched fresh powder, in places five feet deep… which is handy for a soft landing when you screw up”.