Day 35 back in the freezer

The day started with a call from Inghams to Steve and Liz to tell them that due to what we would describe as a dusting of snow in the UK all flights from Gatwick were cancelled and they would have to stay for an extra day. Didn't take long to unpack the ski gear and head off to the hill for them to enjoy a bonus day.

In the event it proved to be pretty tough days skiing. The temp on the deck when we got up was -22 and as it was an Arctic High ( clear blue skies with no cloud) it didn't warm up much during the day. We went to the New side where it quickly became apparent that there had been significant wind up top during the night and we were going to have a day skiing "legendary" wind slab.

The slab was more or less everywhere and you really had to either ski on top or use a lot of strength to break through and ski it like powder. Not being really sure what to try we started kicking out along the County Line and dropping into Currie chutes where ever looked lightly skied and fun skiing.

The result was that we dropped three different ways into Concussion, Toms, Tekkers, Cornice chute and about a half a dozen other ways down there that either don't have a name or are a combination of various bits of the hill. By lunch time we had skied pretty well all the Currie chutes area although not all the available runs and chutes as that would take about three days to do properly. As long as you hugged the sides there was some nice fresh and quite deep stuff to ski.

In the afternoon drifted out on the County Line again and this time dropped through Corner Pocket which was in remarkably good shape considering the traffic through there with only one tire showing and the middle section a bit technical. Next Cougar glades hitting left into the bottom chutes which were in really great shape presumably because the trees had kept the wind off the snow. Finally a rip down Skydive which was far more challenging than usual with the snow quite heavy and it required real skiing of the terrain rather than just free riding in order to get down.

Quiet night in with another cold tough day to come tomorrrow.