Day 22 Boxing Day and still no crowds

Following a stunning Christmas Day when 3 out of 4 of us were suffering from the dreaded Fernie flu which simultaniously strikes the nose, the throat and the gut we made a slightly slow start to Boxing Day not getting to the hill until just after 9 am.

Still no new snow and an overnight starting temp of -12 with very overcast skies giving pretty flat light all day. There was another big inversion with temps of about -3 at the top and a noticeable chill each time you descended into the valley. We had been promised some snow but all we got was the occasional flurry with no accumulation but a bit of wind sift starting to blow in off the ridge lines by late afternoon. Some serious accumulations are now in the forecast for the next few days.

I was amazed at the lack of people when I got to the hill. I had been prepared to have to park in lot 3 but as it was I got in to lot 2 and not very far from the front at that. Because of our delicate health and hangovers we decided to have a day working on the technical aspects of skiing rather than ripping. Because of the flat light we went to the Old side for tree skiing and linked up with our buddy (english) Rob for the day.

We started in very flat light on Bear and worked our way around Sunny Side, along into Lizard Bowl and then out into Cedar. With only 6 cms of fresh snow in the last 7 days everywhere is hard packed bumps going through to slick boiler plate which makes for ideal conditions to practice the technical aspects of bumps and edge control.

After dropping Cedar Centre and the shoulder along side KC chutes which was rather scratchy we spent the rest of the morning off Boomerang on the Ridge, Linda's, Cedar Ridge several ways, Boom bowl, Buckshot etc. It was all hard bumps. All this involved 3 returns through Kangaroo which remains tough and icey but the drop onto the cat track is better now we have found a new way through with some snow on it.

In the afternoon we went to the New side and just looped Concussion, Currie Creek and Stag Leap which all seemed a bit less tracked than the old side but I could swear there was some sun crust from yesterdays direct sun light. At the end we looped back into Surprise Trees which was still taking an ok edge and then of course finished with the only rip of the day down Skydive.

Although the number of people picked up during the day it was never crowded (at least not on the parts of the mountain where we were) and there was space in the Griz bar. Everyone tells me it will get busy from tomorrow - let's see. Snow in the forecast and time for bed.