Day 57 Back to the New Side

So with no new snow (despite what the official website says we are in the middle of a snow drought and skiing all over the hill is scratchy at the best) I thought it might be fun to hit the New side just to see what was happening as I hadn't been there for two days.

Temps were starting at about -8 getting up to -1 by the close. The mid mountain base was 208 cms and falling and the weather overcast with the top of White Pass seriously socked in all day. Not the best of conditions.

We kicked around on White Pass trying to find something good and in the end the only untracked and reasonably good stuff we could find was on the very far side of Surprise Trees which were not really "runs" but just drops through the trees any old way you could find down to Trespass Trail. The only ones who had been in there before us judging by the tracks were the rabbits ( snow shoe hares actually) so as long as you stayed tight to the trees there was fresh snow.

We mixed up the runs with Anaconda/Bootleg ( as always good snow but far from untracked) Concussion on the far side ( quite hard and scratchy all the way down) and a hike up Cornice chute but dropping back into Currie bowl rather than going over to Lizard ( firm but taking a nice edge and quite relaxing skiing.

At lunch got reports that there was nothing much to get excited about on the Old side so we went back to the New and did much the same as the morning. Only variations were Big Bang via Lazy Locals traverse which was firm but fun if you hit some of the jumps and drops that are starting to form and Cougar Glades which were good in the top as long as you stayed tight to the trees and icey at the bottom.

More snow is called for and don't we need it. If you are interested in riding all over the hill then what we have at the moment could at best be described as marginal. Off to Calgary again tomorow to pick up another ski buddy who is staying for the week. When you own a house in Fernie you would be amazed how many friends you have - I have friends I don't even know. This week it's my wife's cousin's wife's brother, see what I mean. Actually Dave's a good guy and we are pleased to see him.