Day 91 against all odds pretty awesome in places

Last night's heli bombing obviously had some good effect as there was a lot more open today than yesterday. There was no overnight snow and starting temps were +2 rising to about +6 but overcast so there was no more sun damage and the cooling wind had the effect of keeping the hill in not bad condition.

On arrival Timber was closed but due to open shortly. Deer, Elk, Bear and Boom were open but Haul Back remained closed. The sign lines stayed down on Boom so everything beyond Bear (Boom, Boom ridge, North ridge, Cedar ridge, Cedar bowl, Snake ridge etc.) stayed closed all day giving only limited skiing on the Old side. Straight off the bat Bear was open and Lizard bowl below Tower 6 trail so not a great amount of terrain but better than yesterday.

First run was down Sun Up which we promptly renamed Sun Crust, it was very crusty on any slope which was south facing and had been sun affected yesterday. Next time round the high traverse into Lizard was open and a game started where we tried to avoid the avi debris (about 80% of the terrain, I have never seen so much avi debris off the Lizard head wall ever). We also tried to avoid the south facing slopes subject to sun crust so we spent our time seeking out un-avi affected snow on the few slopes that faced even slightly away from the south. A challenge but we managed several good runs on soft snow in the few narrow areas that we could pick out.

Late morning word came that Timber had opened an we headed across. Only Timber was open but at least the Siberia bowl was mostly open so by traversing round (the hike up was closed) we were able to get into Morning Glory Trees. These were mostly untracked and in some places a bit crusty when the slope turned towards the south and soft when it turned away. The result was great creamy powder skiing all the way down to Falling Star and even some good stuff on Fall Out. This was all so good that we did it about 5 times and just as we were getting ready for lunch, they opened White Pass.

As I predicted the snow in White Pass (except for the south facing slopes in Gun bowl which was pure sun crust) was just awesome - slightly heavy but real hero snow and great powder. Again just as we were going for a late lunch they opened the I bowl at the ridge line just as we got there so we put an amazing straight line first track back under the White Pass chair. The rest of the afternoon was spent looping White pass pulling all sorts of deep lines in places such as Highline Trees, Pillow Talk, Gun bowl, Highline, Little Trees, I bowl and various permutations of these. A fantastic afternoon skiing in deep hero snow much of which was untracked, truely awesome skiing.

Having missed lunch because of the rolling openings we came off the hill at about 3:45 and headed to the bar for lots of beer. In summary it was a good day's skiing that got better as it went on and the upper mountain opened with hero snow. All the better because we had low expectations at the start which were very much exceeded.

Avi experts on the hill this evening and I understand they may be giving a green light to Boomerang tomorrow. That having been said they are calling for another 12 cms overnight and some weather sites are talking of rain so who knows what might happen - a really good day's skiing.