Day 45 a whole lot better than most people will tell you

Well we got our wish and overnight, the temps dropped to about zero by morning and winter had returned. I seem to remember seeing a bit of snow when I got up in the night to pee but to be honest by morning there was hardly dust on crust to report. When we got to the hill it was apparent that everything had frozen overnight even though it was not quite as cold as the forecasters would have us believe.

The New side was shut for the third consecutive morning so we headed for the Old side. It was boiler plate with Bear groomed but bullet proof, Lizard opened below Tower 6 but only ok on groomers (everything off was hard, smooth but rain affected) North ridge ok but Boom, Boom ridge and everything off Cedar ridge was just too ugly to contemplate.

Having had to track around on groomers we eventually hit the New side as soon as we got word that the New side was open. This was a bit of an optimistic statement as only Timber opened with White Pass remaining closed all day. We got it wrong a couple of times, we dropped Puff which was ok then got in Deep Sea which was pretty ugly and next time round tried Falling Star which was pretty well boiler plate top to bottom.

After that we got it right big time. We cut across to Surprise and found it ok in slightly breakable crust. Next was Puff trees which were actually powder in the top followed by Black Cloud which was soft on top but had to be jumped in the lower sections. Finally we went all the way across to Diamond back wich was a bit of breakable crust in the top but very mellow with a soft surface lower down.

That was it for the rest of the day, just looping all those runs, varying the permutations and finding the runs easier to rip as the day went on partly because we got more used to the slightly crusty conditions and partly because the temps were dropping all the time so that the base all over the hill was setting up ok and the surface was taking a very satisfactory edge. Puff trees by the sign line for Lift Line was particularly good and we even took to dropping of the shoulder off Summer Road just below where Timber Lift crosses it - don't even have a name for that little pitch - any ideas.

Ended a rather better day than I expected with beers in the Griz bar followed by wings night at the pub. Not sure where all this is going outher than to say that just when you think the whole thing is going pear shaped it turns out to be better than expected. A White pass opening would be pretty good tomorrow.