Day 50 Polar Peak here we come ( three times)

Well overnight the temp dropped to about -8 and during the day it rose at the base to about -2. There was some debate as to whether or not there was an inversion or did we just feel hot with all the hiking at the top of the hill, but more of that later. No new snow but the official report said good skiing all over so the rain crust at the bottom of the hill has to be a figment of my imagination.

Hit the new side and took a run through Surprise Trees which was ok with the snow firming up from last night. While I think of it the days conditions were very dry so the effect was to dry out the snow all over the hill so that by the end of the day the conditions were better all over than they were at the beginning which is a bit odd on a no snow day but that's how it goes.

Noticed that the patrol were checking out Polar Peak and the Currie head wall so just kept looping White Pass waiting and was rewarded at about 10:30 when Polar Peak was opened for hiking. Being kitted out already for back country I was ready to go and was fourth in the boot pack to hike Polar. Two of the guys in front peeled off to go to Timber ridge and the Wimp chutes and the other guy for some reason dropped the second Polar Chute. This gave me the first chute untracked which had been closed for about 4 weeks - awesome. Got to the bottom to a round of applause from a group of French skiers sitting on the County Line. Fully pumped up dropped Concussion the hard way and skiied out down Gilmar Trail.

The whole thing was so good that I did it again taking the second Polar chute this time but sticking to the shoulder on the left to get untracked fairly deep snow. Time for a late lunch.

Met up with an Aussie buddy in the afternoon and after a couple of loops through White Pass managed to convince him that Polar Peak was the way to go so did it a third time. This is a new record for me - never hiked Polar Peak 3 times in a day. Every thing was just as good the third time as the first and Concussion was getting ever better as the snow dried out.

A few relaxing laps through Surprise and it was time for the final run. In full hiking mode we climbed Knot chutes ( seems like nothing now) did chute 1 and 2, traversed to Anaconda and dropped chute 4 then came out via Bootleg glades, all very nice, very fresh and improving.

Loads of beer to recover, long hot tub and now ready for an early night. My buddy Rob just phoned to say that he did Polar Peak twice today and arranged to meet tomorrow to do it again. Ghostriders won one and lost one of this strange series that are playing against Creston up in White Horse, no one seems to know why we are playing up in the frozen north. Back home in Fernie tomorrow night - go Riders, go.