Day 14 Blue bird day and fresh snow in Cedar

Temps dropped overnight so that this morning it was -13 as we arrived at the hill on a perfect blue bird day and ready to see what we could find. The forecast was for temps to rise and they did a bit so that by close we were around -10 and the effect was to keep the base hard and such powder as there was still pretty light.

I have been asked why I never comment on the state of the groomers on the hill. The answer is in two parts - firstly don't regard skiing groomers as skiing. Skiing is about an interaction with the hill when covered in snow and after the hill has been groomed there is no interaction, it's all been smashed flat by a snow cat and there is nothing natural or interactive about that. Secondly groomers are groomers. Once a slope has been groomed it's no different from any other groomed slope except in pitch or view. When you have skied one you have skied them all. Good for getting around and having a warm up run but apart from that a rather pointless exercise.

Went to the old side and had a warm up down Bear then a nice rip down Sun Up which was dust on crust bumps and ok. Found that they had opened up the Cedar high traverse for the first time in days so took maximum advantage. The rest of the morning was taken up looping out along the high traverse and dropping in on various parts of Snake ridge, and just before lunch ending up in Steep and Deep. There was great untracked powder in the top of all the runs with some rather more crusty stuff towards the bottom. Each loop returned through Haul Back and for the most part down Kangaroo ( 4 times) which was getting more like it's usual self - icey, stumpy, bumpy and ugly. Boom bowl was the usual route back to Bear and it was ok if a bit chunky with a very firm base.

After lunch we headed over the New Side and did a re run of yesterday just looping out along the County Line to the Skydive Traverse. Given the heavy releases from the head wall from last evenings heli bombing I had hope of the Saddles but they remained closed and we remain vigilant for the first opening. The afternoon loops were Decline (twice), Stag Leap, Cougar Glades and Skydive (twice) all of which were good deep snow on rolling terrain and a bit scratchy at the bottom. Once off Timber we took Lazy Locals out to Mitchy Chutes which seemed to have benefited from some blow in but as always were a bit technical in the mid section.

The very encouraging sign this afternoon was patrol moving the padding up the lift pylons which is usually a sign that snow is on the way. Forecasts call for some snow with the local hill forecast calling for the most - ok by me. Looking forward to developments.