Day 16 and it was a lot better than expected

Just as I forecast yesterday we had overnight snow (7cms) but at very low temps (-14). We had flurries all day which may have increased the new snow to about 10 cms but still at very low temps. The result was that the new snow was so light that we would have needed about a metre of it to give us any coverage on the base but what the was did give a nice fluffy untracked look which allowed us all to at least feel that we were skiing fresh powder.

Lynda decided to take a break today but when I got to the hill I linked up with my buddy (English) Rob who was on day 4 of his season and headed up the new side to see what was what. Amazingly the crowds were even less than yesterday and the few people that were on the hill seemed to be content to ski on groomed runs much to the delight of the rest of us.

After a quick warm up run off White Pass back through Gun bowl and Highline trees ( both untracked) we headed out on the County Line to Ski the front side runs. There then followed a morning the like of which I have never had. We skied Cougar Glades, Stag Leap, Decline and Skydive all untracked although in Decline we did have to jump in just in front of a couple of guys to keep the record intact.

For a final run before lunch we dropped into Secret chutes then at the bottom cut right into Spinal Tap. The rain had done a fair bit of damage to Spinal Tap so that the stream bed was exposed in places so the only way down was to jump on and off the right hand shoulder all the way down. To no ones surprise Spinal Tap was also untracked and a bit technical in the lower sections but good fluff on top.

In the afternoon we went back to the New side and decided to be a bit adventurous on our route down to White Pass from Timber top going via Mitchy chutes, Big Bang, the chute beyound Hollywood rock and Lift Line. The new snow gave a really fresh powder feel to all the runs. Last trip down Lift Line resulted in some abuse from buddies from the Timber chair which made me glad that we were ripping it just at that moment.

First loop was down Currie creek followed by a trip into the Brain for the first time this season. The snow at the top was soft, untracked and quite deep. The alders took a bit of negotiation with a couple of jumps but even the lower part which was rain crust was untracked. The only problem was the lack of coverage on the fallen trees which called for a couple of back ups in order to complete the run.

Final run was down Skydive which was soft and fairly deep at the top and well covered scratchy stuff at the bottom. Great finish to a good day. Knot chutes did open but we took the view that with untracked skiing available from the lifts why hike - in any event the snow in Knot chutes looked no better than ok. The Saddles were also open but after skiing them yesterday it will take a bit more snow before I head back in. More snow in the forecast and temp -12 on the deck (as it was when we hot tubbed tonight) as I type this.