30th March

Day 98 was a day when, inspired by yesterdays efforts in Fish bowl, I had thought to hit out into the back country. Unfortunately some overnight snow and and a change in temperature meant that the avi risk was raised from high to extreme and with 24 deaths due to avies alone in BC so far this season I decided not to risk raising the total to 25 and skied in bounds.
The Meat Hook opened early and with no one on the hill and therefore no line ups it was worth a couple of trips up into upper Lizard bowl to ski the powder ( sort of) which was left over from the Sunday traffic. The old side seemed pretty scratchy under the base so with flurries falling (which they did off and on all day) it seemed a good bet to head over to the new side.
It felt a bit like Groundhog day with good soft snow in Skydive, Sib Ridge, Mitchy Chutes and Anaconda Glades. I was just getting ready for lunch when I got a radio call from my buddy Rob so we linked up and did the Brain - still lots of untracked snow but very technical in the trees. Last run before lunch was in Decline which again had soft semi tracked snow and was only a little crunchy in the final section.
After lunch Rob and I linked up again and started with a rip down Secret Chutes which were soft and hardly tracked followed by Spinal Tap which was well tracked out and varied from soft to an ice base. Highlights were Sib ridge which still had loads of soft snow and Surprise trees which after about a week of disappointing results actually was a lot better under the new snow. As always final run down Skydive was excellent with new snow at the top and the chunky under base at the bottom actually starting to soften.
In summary a much better day than we expected with not very much new powder doing wonders to repair the hill and despite many signs on the boards by the lifts suggesting that the best skiing was on the groomers, actually the best skiing is on the new side north facing slopes, assuming that you like steep ungroomed tree runs. More snow called for tonight which may just about be enough to tempt me back onto the old side, or even into Cougar Glades where the lower sections are still very crunchy as a result of two day old sun damage.