Day 119 back to another full on winters day skiing

And I really mean winter. When we got to the hill today it was -2 at the base and -8 at the top with 7 cms of fresh snow - yes, yet another powder day. During the day the temps didn't change much, at the base they rose to just about plus temps but nothing really melted and even at midday the temp at the top of White Pass was -7. We had some flurries and then a little sun late in the day but all in all not a lot happemed to change conditions.

We headed to the New side and found that yesterday's wind had packed in the snow in a form of wind grooming on some slopes, swept the snow off others, deposited deep soft on others and produced wind crust and slab on others. In other words there was excellent to really crap skiing to be had depending on the choices of run you made.

Lift line was good wind blown styrofoam. First run was back through White Pass and good untracked powder. We next hit out a few loops through Anaconda which was deep, soft blown in snow and then dropped Bootleg Glades which was soft but a little chunky at the bottom. Next few trips were along the County Line. I was tempted into High Saddle and it is the first time that I have skied High Saddle in the second week in April. Skiing under the Saddle and into Easter was excellent. Lone Fir as always was steep and deep into Easter with face shots. Stag Leap was not so good as the first two thirds were untracked free riding but the last third was ugly refrozen crud - not sure the juice was worth the squeeze. Final run down 1-2-3s before lunch was tracked but soft wind blown and very nice.

In the afternoon we went to the new side again. For the first time this year I decided to access the Knot chutes by traversing the Gun bowl and ducking the fence. All year I have played it straight by hiking but by this time I figure the traverse won't damage the snow pack so all's fair. Spent the afternoon working my way across the Knot chutes dropping one furthe each time followed by dropping Anaconda going one further each time then Bootleg Glades taking a new and tougher line each time. The result was some amazing steep and deep skiing as no one else seemed to have thought of this - not that there was really many people on the hill.

By the end of the afternoon I had worked my way across to Gotta Go so dropped that which was all that could have been hoped for. Finished with a hike up Lone Fir which was rather skied but still had plently of soft and the bowl below still provided some fresh tracks.

A great day with beers with buddies afterwards. Went out for a meal to try the Picnic which has been recommended. Give it 10/10 for food quality but 0/10 for speed of service. a good place to go if you aren't in a hurry.