Friday, December 18, 2009

Day 16 and I think we got away with it

What we got away with was that warm front has mostly passed through and we haven't had very much rain as a result. The way the weather works here is that we get a cold mass of air sitting on us which is moved out of the way by a warm wet air mass coming in from the west and at that point we get snow or rain depending on when exactly the moisture belt arrives. We then get a few days of warm weather which if there is moisture results in rain. The warm air then moves out, things cool down and with any luck we get moisture on the back of the system which almost always falls as snow. Warm air is moving out although it is almost +1 on the deck at the moment and colder conditions are called for with snow in all of the next 4 days so things are looking good.

The hill today was typical mid December warm front conditions. The top of the hill was socked in although the snow was good, mid mountain had OK light but was mostly wind slab and the lower mountain was all re frozen crud - not quite the picture the publicity machine pproduces but none the less true.

Started the morning on the old side through the newly opened Sunny Side shoulder which was untracked but with hard wind slab on the ridge lines but ok blow in in the dips. Having gone low on Boomerang and found re frozen conditions we hit the new side to try our luck.

Light was socked in at the top of the New side but we had some quite good runs off White Pass as Currie bowl remained closed - Surprise trees remain remarkably good. Late morning we got the word from Patrol that Anaconda was open and cycled 3 times through the Glades each time taking a more radical line but always getting deep powder if rather tight tree skiing. Skied out every time through Bootleg Glades, once even taking the tree chute to the left which was a bit technical.

In the afternoon we intended to keep cycling Anaconda but found that Currie bowl was open ( reports say that Cedar opened as well) so we had loads more terrain. We hit left hoping for the County Line or the low traverse but as they were closed and with avi debris across the trail that was open we had to make do with Currie Powder to the bottom of Concussion. Light was bad at the top but it got better and mid mountain was nice powder becoming hard slab by the bottom.

Finished the day with some runs through 1-2-3's which just like all season were Ok in 1's, pretty good in 2's and awsome in 3's. each time ran out through Bootleg which was getting more fun each time but very technical through the alders at the bottom.

Had a good few beers in the Griz to celebrate a good days skiing then went to the Hockey game against North Okanagan which we won 5-0. Outlook for colder temps and snow over the next few days.

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