Day 45 I am a line man for the county

Of course I am not a line man for the county at all but as I spent most of the day on the County Line I thought it was appropriate.

Overnight they claimed 10 cms of fresh but it looked more than that to me. The rain line was in about the same place about half way up the hill but as the temps had falled to -2 overnight at the bottom the lower runs that had been all mush yesterday had frozen to hard rain crust.

Waited at Timber Chair for the 15 minute delay in opening and got the second chair up. Put first tracks down Lift Line then up White Pass and put first tracks in the Gun bowl and all the way down under the chair. Next time round put first tracks through Surprise by which time the crowds were starting to gather.

Currie bowl had been open from the outset but I had chosen to cut back to get the early fresh track runs to White Pass. Now I hit out on the County Line looking to drop the Saddles but they were closed. Going on I hiked to Lone Fir and next time round Trap Meadow ( or whatever it's called) where the only problem was getting nailed by your own slough from the very lightly skied chutes. Next time through I noticed the Saddles were open too late to drop Corner Pocket but went through high Saddle which accessed some great powder below. The next couple of times round were Corner Pocket (tires getting exposed already) and Low Saddle ( a couple of rocks showing by great untracked pow after you tracked right. Every loop traversed into Easter bowl in some form or other and had great soft snow skiing.

For the rest of the afternoon kept looping to the end of the County Line dropping Stag Leap, Cougar Glades, Skydive, and Decline. On the last loop had some time to spare so cut back to White Pass by hitting Surprise Trees far side and was amazed to find that there were still fresh tracks out in the boonies. Last rip through Skydive was just like all the other runs had been off the front, great skiing for the first two thirds then very sketchy rain crust all the way down that was a good work out - what ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Special mention must go the the guy (it had to be a guy) who got stuck on the top of the Cheese Grater (cliff face at the bottom of the first Knot Chute) and had to be pulled off by rope by the patrol - good job guys. In order to get to the Cheese Grater the guy has to ski down to a face that he can see from the chair on the way up and then ski between two signs that say "cliff". As Albert Einstein said " There are only two things that are infinate, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe".

Riders won last night 7-1 but with two 9 minute majors for fighting so it could have been more if we had played a little less 5 on 4 hockey, next home game Friday.