Day 36 not awesome but close enough

No new snow in town overnight but the conditions from the hill gave 9 cms in the last 24 hours although most of that fell yesterday during the day and after the snow plot reading. The base is now up to 2 metres (subdued 2 metre party in the Griz) which at least means that Lynda is relaxed - she always says she only relaxes after the base gets past 200 cms.

Starting temps were -11 and by the end of the day they had dropped to-13 without really getting up much during the day. Conditions were overcast with only a hint of flurries but clearing later in the day, but more of that later. The soft base had hardend but there seemed to be some fresh on top ( quite a lot considering there hadn't been any new snow in town) which was dry with a low moisture content and real powder in the real sense of the word.

As with yesterday we had a plan - go to the New Side and hang about there on the grounds that an opening in either Currie bowl or Anaconda was more likely than an opening anywhere else. As far as it went the plan went well and during the course of the morning we heard some significant charges being detonated in Currie and a massive release out of Polar Chutes which took out the far side of Currie Powder most of the way down the bowl - a clear warning to anyone who had any doubts about the closures and was tempted to poach.

We looped White Pass going into the Knot Chutes and various bits of Surprise Trees, or dropping the shoulder and chute just before Knot and then heading out to the far side of Surprise, or just dropping down the Gun bowl and finding our way down through various trees and pitches. Many permutations but all fun and a surprising amount of untracked/lightly tracked snow to be found with the initial crowds (not that bad) fading as the day went on. Went to lunch via Triple Trees which still had loads of untracked in tight sections.

Just after lunch they opened Anaconda Glades for the first time in three days and the pitches were truely awesome so that you needed a snorkle on some of the tree chutes with over the head face shots all the way down. Below there was choice, you could either drop Bootleg Glades which had suffered a bit from half way down by riders cutting in from Diamond Back over the past few days, or you could cut across under the bottom avi sign and get to the lower parts of Baraccuda or Currie Creek and have some really awesome and mostly untracked powder - for the most part we did the latter.

That was it for the afternoon, traverse into Knot Chutes, Idiot Traverse, Anaconda ( various chutes, they were all good) and out through lower Currie - repeat 5 times. The afternoon was most certainly awesome.

Loads of beer in the Griz and banter with buddies who were equally stoked by the day. As the skies had cleared we watch the Heli bombing of the Ridge lines which was cool and promises some spectacular openings tomorrow. More beer in hot tub and bed.

Forecast is calling for a substantial storm cycle later this week but with temps around -18 the snow should come down light with a low moisture content so avi closure should be minimal and the powder pure champagne - fingers crossed.