Day 66 another blue bird day

It's official Fernie is becoming another typical European resort with bluebird sunshine and no new snow, the only difference is the complete lack of crowds as we hardly saw a sole all day.

Temps started at a chilly -15 and were about the same at the close of the day having risen to about -5 in the early afternoon. I have a feeling it will go a lot lower during the course of the night.

The effect on conditions was that the cool down had stiffened up the unskied snow a bit so that where there was a lot of it then it could just about pass as powder. Lower down where the weeks old rain crust still sits under the surface it was a bit patchy so that you kept hitting a powder/slick mix giving very front seat/back seat skiing. Higher up there tended to be some scratchy stuff up on the ridges where the wind had swept it but lower down the snow was nice, soft blow in or even untracked if you looked hard enough.

We went to the Old side and warmed up with a few runs through Sunny side to reflect just how cold it felt and the snow was ok and soft on hard bumps. Going out into Snake ridge and KC chutes we found the snow just as soft as yesterday with just some shadow/light problems in KC. The rest of the morning was spent looping the Old triangle, particularly Cedar Ridge, King Fir, Boom, Boom ridge, Bear chutes - all the usual suspects, all good but subject to a rather varied base.

Last run before lunch was to hit out to the Fish bowl where we took the Poppa chutes and cut back in bounds on the Red Tree ski out. As always the Fish was lightly tracked and just fantastic powder - well worth the risk. All returns all morning through Kangaroo, lost count, but it was what you would expect, tough icey bumps with a scattering of fresh on top.

In the afternoon we went to the New side where for first run I hit a line which i don't know the name of. Hiked the Cornice ridge, got to the top of Lone Fir, went one chute further and then cut right into the trees to find a very tight steep chute that comes out just to skiers right of Lone Fir - great skiing but wish I knew the name. Cut across Easter to take Spinal Tap to make it a very spectacular way to run off the hill.

After that it was pretty standard stuff with Cougar Glades, Stag Leap, Decline, Window chutes and of course the fianal rip down Skydive. Not much to choose between them as they were all very good skiing on a nice rough and tumble base with still some fresh on the sides.

Much the same forecast for tomorrow.