Day 107 more spring skiing

Today was a sort of mirror image but opposite of yesterday. It started bluebird but then hazed over, followed by cloud, eventually followed by rain at the base and snow showers at the top. As an example, whilst temps were much the same, the thermometer at the top of Bear read zero in the shade yesterday morning and +11 in the sun today. The effect on the snow was totally predictable.

The sun brought soft snow on all south facing slopes and we poked around the Old side to see what was getting soft. Sunny side shoulder was the first to soften which was ok but second time through it was turning to slush. Very different on Cedar ridge ( several times) which like yesterday wa soft at the top but chunky further down - today not many turns in from the top.

Boom ridge was going soft pretty quick so we did it twice in good spring conditions. Next time down we tried Linda's which because of the trees was a bit more set up although lower down it became rather slushy. Every trip to Boom was via Kangaroo (4 times) which was melted bumps taking a good edge and again ok spring skiing.

Last run before lunch we hit out to Snake ridge but found we had left it a bit late and each turn was throwing out slush slides of a surprising size. An avi sign line had been put in at the bottom of Snake so the ski out had to be over the right side of KC chutes which was soft but not too much so. Looking back there seemed to be another sign line beyond Gorby bowl facing the other way so I guess the result was to close upper and lower Gorby which makes sense as the lower bowl usually cracks up and slides about this time of year.

After lunch we went to the New side to see what the snow was like. By this time it had clouded over, all the south facing stuff was starting to set up and some new icey snow was starting to fall. A quick run back under White Pass proved just how quick gun bowl could set up out of the sun - very chunky but the lower part of the runs was taking a nice edge.

Playing the same card as yesterday I hit out on the County Line to find that all the Currie chutes were getting pretty firm and did not bode well for what Skydive etc would be like. Actually Decline was soft at the top and softening all the way down with the surface setting up so that it skied quite nicely and not too soft at the bottom. Tried Stag Leap and found it a bit softer having been in the sun for some time so much harder work jumping turns top to bottom.

There was just time for a loop into Anaconda which was just starting to get heavy and required some slough management to get through. Final run down Skydive was a nice balance of soft at the top, set up surface in the mid section and real soft at the bottom, not a bad mix for spring skiing.

A few beers, a hot tub and an early night. The hill is calling for up to 25 cms of fresh in the next 24 hours but at the moment it is coming down as rain - lets see.