Day 9 and it's same old same old

Another day and another dollar, this day much the same as every other pre Christmas day. As I mentioned last night this report will be short ( before I go to the hockey game) rather than drunk when I get back.

It was much warmer today at only -8 as we hit the hill. We were lulled into a false sense of security and all peeled off a couple of layers and exposed facial skin. This proved to be a bit of a mistake as when we got to the top of the Bear having decided to ski the old side it was -13 with some wind. Whilst this was much warmer than what we have been having it is still pretty cold and soon everyone was scrambling to get on an extra layer and cover up - I was reduced to having to borrow a sweat shirt from Lynda which as we are not the same shape ( good news for both of us) was pretty uncomfortable.

The old side was just like yesterday with enough now groomed to satisfy even the most intermediate of piste bunnies. Everywhere else the blow in had worked to good effect so that wind grooming and wind sift gave some nice soft skiing in all off piste areas. Particularly nice was the new lift line in Cedar bowl cut for the fixed triple chair due to be installed next year running from Haul back to the top of Bear. Just a rumour but you heard it here first. Also Boom ridge where they have ripped out quite a bit of ground cover so that it is still one of the nicest runs on the hill with the proviso that it is rated double black and if you slip you will go top to bottom on hard packed snow and probably hurt yourself.

In the afternoon linked up with some buddies who were on their first full day off from the mine (fours days four days off) and went for a rip round the new side. We chased down loads of blown in wind sift just like the old side. Best areas were Concussion where the top is now as good as the lower section was yesterday and Corner Pocket which is still a hard hike away but still only has one small part of a tyre showing in the top. As always CP requires about 6 good technical edge to edge jumps to get through with the downside that if you don't make one you will take the 45 or more degree pitch into oblivion.

A fairly large group gathered in the Griz to discuss stuff. Top of the agenda was the forecast and opinion was that it would stay in the minus teens and give up some serious snow early next week. As I type the temps have risen to -6 which just goes to show the worth of the collective local knowledge of the weather - in truth it's a crap shoot.

Off to the game -go Riders go.