Sunday, April 11, 2010

Day 121 Closing Day

should post something but too pissed to do so - will post up to date tomorrow - sorry. Last day celebrations pretty good.

Monday morning - Feeling better. Yesterday was closing day on the hill although we will be back next weekend for the bonus Furnival weekend. As we headed to the hill temps were +2 at the base and -3 at the top. During the day the weather at best was very hazy sun but mostly overcast with the odd flurry so that even though base temps rose a little during the day the up the hill temps didn't really change much at all.

The result of the weather was that all the south facing slopes which had softened yesterday and been skied over had refrozen to hard icey rutted surfaces covered in icey death cookies. The north facing slopes still remained in pretty good shape if a little heavier than they had been - we stayed off the south facing slopes.

Started on the Old side and spent some time scratching around in Lizard bowl proving the difference between south and north facing slopes. Lower Easter bowl was the best of the bunch. After that we had a few trips off Cedar ridge which was actually pretty good. As we will be skiing the Old side on the bonus weekend we headed to the New side to say goodbye.

Lift line, Big Bang and Mitchy's chutes were all in good shape and prove great ways down from the top of Timber to the bottom of White Pass. A quick trip down Gun bowl proved just how ugly the refrozen surfaces were. We looped Anaconda (very good) 1-2-3s (ok but a bit tracked) and finally Easter from the top (excellent at the top and a little chunky at the bottom) then lunch.

In the afternoon had farewell trips through Anaconda and 1-2-3s fron the ridge line behind the Gun Tower, up and down White Pass then it was time for the final new side run of the year. In normal circumstances this would be Skydive but that would have been ugly from well over half way down. We bumped into friends who are here for the season and had not yet skied High Saddle so as a last run I led them down the Saddle (never skied that on closing day) and they ticked this final run off their list - well done Tinie and Xzavy. Nice snow below the saddle and a fine run through Easter to finish.

Huge party in the Griz bar where far too much was drunk followed by an early night. Off now for a few days in the West Kootenays for a trip round some of the hot springs for some natural hot tubbing. Will be back for the Furnival weekend but as this is mainly a drinking event with only the old side open I will probably do only one report for the two days covering days 122 and 123 to end the season.