Day 78 Crowds but some good stuff if you know where to look

First the toast we raised to RCR tonight in the bar tonight. On the busiest Sunday of the year they had White Pass chair down all day which meant that at least 25% of the terrain and nearer 30% of the advanced terrain was not available with the maximum high season ticket price place. This of course had a huge knock on effect on the rest of the hill with ugly lines particularly on Bear. Why was this a cause for such celebration ? reason - I lost count of the number of people I heard in the lift lines, locker rooms, day lodge and Griz bar saying that after last weekend when the Old side was down and this weekend with no Whitepass they would never would never come to Fernie ever again. The reason that this is such a cause of celebration for us is that the numbers in future will be way down and we will have the hill to ourselves, a problem for RCR but as they seem to be bent on creating these problems who are we to discourage them.

A bluebird day with no new snow and a starting temp of -15 getting up to about -2 by mid day. We decided to hit the New side on the grounds that the Old side would have been trashed yesterday. With White pass down and promised for 10, then 12, then 2 then not today we did what we could off Timber. Lift Line, Black Cloud, Surprise, Siberia Ridge (particularly good). When it finally dawned that White pass was not opening we went to the Old Side.

As we thought Bear chair was ugly busy but just like yesterday Boomerang was ok, in fact rather less busy than a usual weekend. We had a few runs up and and down Boom, Boom ridge and Linda's and found that just like the New Side there was no fresh snow but good tracked powder which was soft bumps taking an easy edge.

We all thought that the Haul Back would very busy but to everyone's amazement it was even less busy than Boomerang. This was the situation for the rest of the day and to this moment I am at a loss to explain why this part of the hill was so quiet on what was an otherwise ugly busy day. We looped Cedar ridge several times via Kangaroo to celebrate.

After lunch we got word that White Pass was going to stay closed so it was back to the Old side for more of the same - best snow all day was Boom ridge skiers left which remained soft bumps so you could really cut loose top to bottom. End of the day we risked the Bear chair crowds for a traverse out the the area boundary and then a drop down Steep and Deep which was well tracked out but great fun.

Beers with our Irish buddies in the Griz bar afterwards and then more beers at home. A pretty good day given the crowds and the crap lift maintenance.