14th April

Day 113 and last day of the season - of course it isn't quite last day of the season as the hill will be open on Saturday and Sunday but that will be the old side only and then mainly for the benefit of 5 bus loads of drunks coming up from Edmunton to party for the weekend. In other words the events are more to be connected with partying than with skiing so I don't intend to report on it unless anything really funny happens.
Nothing much happened overnight and today was forecast for sun and cloud this morning turning to flurries this afternoon which is more or less what happened except that the flurries didn't cut in until we were pretty well off the hill. Arriving at the hill I was amazed to hear all the whinging that was going on about yesterday's skiing particularly from the ski hosts - see my post of yesterday for just how good things were. It turned out most of them had stayed on the old side. Now it may just be me but if it rains in town all night and when you get to the hill you see the rain/snow line very high up then you go straight to the new side and if you don't then you only have yourself to blame for the crappy skiing that you will get.
Hit the old side with the expectation of having to stay on the groomers. First signs that things were different was early on when I hit the left ungroomed stuff off Cruiser and found it to be soft and untracked. Riding up the Boom chair everything underneath looked ok so I decided to take a gamble and drop into Boom bowl. What I found was that everything had been beaten sort of flatter than usual by the rain and now there was about 3cms of fresh on top with the under layer firm but not icy.
This set the pattern for the morning and we skied everything we normally would on an old side powder day in conditions that were not exactly perfect but still were very good. Boom Ridge, Linda's, Boom bowl, Cedar ridge three ways, King Fir and Kangaroo three times most of which was untracked were all excellent. Finished in Bear chutes which like most of the old side was in great condition.
In the afternoon we tried the new side and again we found it in better condition than we might have expected. County line loops through Stag Leap and Decline were as good as any sking since the last powder dump. A dip into Concussion found it a bit mushy for my tastes but Rob and Mike Mac who I was skiing with seemed to think it was ok. Final run was out through Skydive as anyone who knows me would have guessed. The traverse had set up very chunky but when we got through Skydive skied the best it had for a couple of weeks with hard bumps at the top then a soft surface all the way down which we could free ride at maximum speed - what an excellent way to end a season.
In the next few days I will set out my thoughts as a season summary and then that will be it until next season. May do a week or two on the glaciers in Europe in the summer but probably that won't be worth writing about - let's see.