Just as promised the snow arrived around midnight and reduced to light flurries during the course of the morning and in the bit in between gave up about 20 cms of snow which was good at the top and a little heavier lower down. Temps on the deck to start were only -2 and stayed that way pretty well all day on the upper mountain with just plus temps at the base.
We lined up with 10 minutes to opening at 9 and went for a good old fashioned powder chase to the Old Side triangle where we grabbed first tracks in Boom top to bottom for a great start to the day. With Cedar high traverse close due to avi risk the best snow was on Cedar ridge where it had blown over the ridge line and pretty much doubled the snow depth from elsewhere. This gave 3 returns through Kangaroo which was a little more user friendly in the softer snow conditions.
Last lime round Haul Back Lift broke down and we had to hike up to Cedar trail to get out. On a powder day on the busiest day of the year so far it is hard to imagine the bad will this generated with the skiers or that the hill did nothing to mitigate the bad will - there go another dozen or so paying customers who won't be back but then why should I care. For obvious reasons we headed for the New side where there were lift lineups but not all that bad for busiest day and stayed there for the rest of the day.
The County Line was closed due to worries about the loadings in Polar Chutes but the low traverse across Currie was open which put of a fair number of skiers and most of the boarders. There was a lot of wind about so fresh blow in was appearing throughout the day the summary of the loops was -
Cougar Glades - great untracked powder all the way down and a challenging ski out due to the need for serious slough management.
Decline - hardly tracked at all and particularly good on the left lower section which is good uneven terrain and untracked.
Stag Leap - really nice trough the trees and rather less tracked because of the tree covered entrance.
Sykdive - as always good terrain, loads of soft snow but well able to be ripped.
Window Chutes- untracked in most directions and big air off the log drop which is about six foot now.
The Brain - Mostly untracked but had to be skiied pretty fast to stay ahead of a bunch of kids looking for first tracks - probably rather reckless (me not them).
Mitchy Chutes - all good blow in.
Surprise Trees - far side mostly still untracked at the end of the day
Skydive - again just to prove how good it was and to really crank up the pace.
A great day where I skied without a break 9-4 getting more rowdy as the day went on so thay by the end I was just throwing my skis at the hill and getting away with it.
More powder in the forecast, can't wait, crowds have to die down sometime.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
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