Day 24 a bit of a nippy start

Well today was a little slow getting underway. This was partly due to all the port we drank last night while watching snow porn DVDs ( ski movies to the uninitiated) and partly due to a starting temp on the deck of -24. As it was we got to the hill at about 9 and put on full cold weather kit (no exposed skin) ready for the day.

We had been told that there was a massive inversion with temps of about -10 and sun at the top which proved to be right. Unfortunately we couldn't test this a Timber chair went down for half an hour so we hit the Old Side. Even there things weren't great as the Bear Chair was down and stayed down all day. I'm afraid my fears of a complete shambles in the lift system over the holiday period is starting to be justified.

It was quite warm at the top of Boom but as soon as you dropped down you were well into the -20's. Not often I ski with hotshots in my mits but today was one of those days. The snow in Boom was good and soft but Boom ridge was a bit scratchy. By 11 we got the word that Timber was running so we headed over the New Side.

Up top it had warmed to about -8 so we skied around White Pass droping the Gun bowl, I bowl, Surprise Trees, Highline trees, all of which were well skied but good fun. The Knot Chutes opened and we hiked to the top with a view to skiing the near shoulder which looked like untracked powder. We were wrong big time, it turned out to be pretty ugly windslab with a few soft turns about half way down. No all that bad but certainly not worth hiking for.

Took a couple of loops down the County Line which is in ok shape all things considered. First time we dropped Cougar Glades which was a bit chunky but we found some soft stuff in the trees on skiers right. As expected it was a bit icey at the bottom but skiable. Next time we tried Decline for the first time this year. Loads of soft snow at the top which you could free ride ok. Ice crust at the bottom was hard work but with fewer alders than on Sykdive it is probably the best of the three main front runs on the hill.

Very very later lunch so that afterwards we only just had time to head up the New Side, have a couple of runs through White Pass then ski off the hill through Currie. I expected the Griz to be ugly busy tonight but it wasn't, there were free tables and about half the numbers I would have expected. Perhaps this is a sign of the times.