9th March

Day 77 and a tough day on the hiil. The day started at -20 with a forecast of periods of snow during the day and continuing into tonight. In the event the periods of snow did not materialise to any great extent so fingers crossed for tonight with early signs looking promising. The highs got to about -8 before falling back to -16 by the time we left the hill. With the wind chill things were a lot colder and it was a day to cover all flesh or risk frostbite.
With no significant new snow the hill was starting to get a little worn so that you hit the icy base in most places if you didn't pick your route pretty carefully. The low traffic areas like Snake Ridge and Steep and Deep were still in great shape with a lot of powder to be found if you knew where to look. Run of the day was the steep pitch at the top of Gorby in a hidden chute through the alders whicn hadn't been skied due to the steepness and was thigh deep in the fluffy stuff. Four times through Kangaroo brought us down the earth with a bit of a bump.
In the afternoon we went to check if Whitepass was repaired and if we could ski Currie bowl. It wasn't ( 5 days down and still no sign of repair) so we kicked aroound the new side all afternoon where the best terrain was in Siberia Ridge which apart from the gnarly middle section was great skiing in a bit of left over powder.
In summary the hill stays in ok shape considering the high traffic on the limited terrain due to the closure of Whitepass. The cold overnight temps left the runs with chunky skied over snow with icy parts in between making it tough conditions for anyone not wanting to stick to groomers ( if so why come to Fernie)
Bad news from the Griz bar tonight was getting dragged into agreeing to run the New York marathon in 2011 with Rob ( he of Hayling Trailers) due to drinking too much beer.
Temp on deck is -17 and falling with wind and snow so lets see what tomorrow brings.