Day 47 another strange sort of day

I suppose like a lot of people I talk to I am just getting fed up with this sort of mulchy in between conditions that we seem to have had since forever. Today was yet another day when the base temps were just about plus and the top was just about minus and the freeze line was some point up the hill with precip as rain at the bottom and snow at the top.

It would be nice to go and ski the old side sometime but withe the prevailing conditions going high is the only answer. I have had some reports that the old side was ok but closer investigation reveals that the people telling me this were refering to the groomers and as is well known I don't ski groomers. The only reliable report from the old side today was from a buddy who had skied Redtree and said it was a waste of time.

Today was even more limited as White Pass was socked in at the top but it was snowing quite hard so you didn't want to go to the bottom as you would find that the snow down there was rain and the conditions were ugly. The result was endless loops through Surprise Trees. Don't get me wrong, the skiing was fine because the Gun bowl was so socked in no one was getting out to the idiot traverse so no one was getting to Surprise trees.

About six laps through Surprise with fresh tracks every time made a dent in the morning. Twice the conditions eased so that the top of Knot chutes came into view so I hiked them. Each time the viz went as I got to the top so it was brail skiing down the chutes in what felt like pretty good powder. The snow intensified and there were more loops through various parts of Surprise which were now untracked due to the fill in. Headed off for lunch via Cougar glades which were good and largely unracked in the top and soft in the bottom which at least was an improvement from the rain crust/ice of the last few days.

In the afternoon followed the same policy of staying high while it was snowing on top and only dropping to base when the precip stopped so a rain free lower mountain experience looked likely. This involved a lot more Surprise Trees which by this time were getting pretty deep, a run down Cornice chute which was untracked but a bit rubbery at the bottom and Siberia ridge, ditto.

Finished down Skydive which was bit more tracked up than I expected. The slush line was also higher than I thought at about the half way mark - not one of the great finishes but ok.

Forecast seems to be for more of this mulch with current deck temps of +1, hoping for some real weather that can make it's mind up.