Day 106 Hot tub time machine

I refer of course to the John Cusack movie that was shot in Fernie last year and has just gone on release in the local movie house. Not a bad movie, quite funny and great fun trying to recognise various buddies playing extras.

Last night temps didn't even get down to zero so that we started this morning at about +3 at the bottom of the hill and zero at the top. The forecast was for sun with cloudy periods but what we got was solid cloud until about 2 then slowly clearing. The effect of this was that the snow softened during the day but not as a result of sun but rather as a result of atmospheric warming. This meant that the snow went to soft rather than mush and didn't start to set up as soon as it was in shadow.

We tried the Old side and found the lower groomers soft but the upper ones quite hard. Sunny side shoulder was very chunky as was most of what we tried in Lizard bowl. We moved on the Cedar ridge and found that the top was soft with blown in powder but the snow became very chunky about half way down and all turns had to be jumped. After 3 trips down the Cedar ridge we moved on to Boom ridge and then Linda's run both of which were also soft at the top , tough in the middle and soft melt down below. Kangaroo was soft bumps all the way down and we were 4 times through it on the way back to Boom chair. A last run before lunch down Boom bowl proved as before soft followed by hard followed by soft.

After lunch we went to the New side and risked heading out along the County Line to test Decline/Skydive/Stag Leap. Much to my surprise Decline was excellent, soft fresh snow at the top become soft on the atmospheric warm up as you went down - it almost felt like skiing powder. Encouraged we hit Stag Leap, Decline again and finished on Skydive. All were the same with excellent spring skiing if a little heavy in the very bottom.

In summary a day that got better as it went along and much better when we chose the New side over the Old. Rather worrying if what I was skiing this afternoon sets up over night but tomorrow is another day.