Day 92 awesome is back on the menu

Yes, today gave skiing that was right up there with some of the best ever and it was only the limited terrain and a band of ugly rain crust low down that prevented the day getting into one of the top ten best of all time - certainly some of the individual pitches were right up there.

First things first, the day started overcast and temps of +2 which never got up much during the day with a cold wind giving blow in and temps around zero at the top of the hill. Forecasts said overcast in the morning and precip in the afternoon so it should come as no surprise that we had precip in the form of grappel (quite a lot actually) all morning and after lunch it fell back to windy overcast conditions adding to the base with blow in. The base was down to 379 cms and we had 7 cms of fresh but due to a couple of new openings we were skiing about 40 cms of fresh in the areas that hadn't been open for a few days.

As we arrived at the hill a patroller buddy told me that they had opened Cedar Ridge "for me" and I noticed on the web site that Cedar Ridge was listed as run of the day so the indications were that Cedar and the whole Boomerang area was to be open for the first time in several days. After a false start involving the failure to remove the closure signs for Boom chair we got to the top of Cedar Ridge which was open and ready to go. There were closures all morning in the Kangaroo/Wallaby areas but this was not due to avi conditions but to a stroppy moose that was wandering around looking to make trouble with any skier/boarder it met.

First run down Cedar Ridge was just awesome.

To be continued after the hockey game ......... Back from the hockey, Riders beat the Rebels 4-2. We are still 3-2 down in the best of 7 series but if we can win tomorrow in their barn then it is back here on Friday for the decider. Where was I ?

Ah yes, Cedar Ridge. The snow was north facing so no sun crust and hadn`t been skied for several days so was at least 40 cms deep. It was hero snow so point your skis pretty well in the fall line and then just shimmy through the trees all the way to the bottom. The very lowest part was rain crust but even that wasn`t too bad and a price well worth paying for the conditions on top which were some of the best I have skied - ever.

That was the morning, Cedar Ridge with the odd trip into Boom just for a change which was much the same conditions without the trees. Cedar Ridge of course isn`t a run but an area which you can take about 20+ different ways depending on where you start and how you make the first couple of turns. It was that variety which took up to lunch with some totally awesome deep powder tree skiing.

In the afternoon we went to the New Side with the intention of seeing if anything new was open and if not head back to Cedar Ridge - when we got there Surprise Trees had just opened for the first time in several days with even more deep untracked snow than Cedar. The snow wasn`t quite as good as Cedar in that in places there was a slight sun crust but it was close call.

That was the afternoon, Gun bowl (still soft) Surprise trees (totally awesome) back to White Pass unless I ended up too far down Trespass Trail in which case it was a trip to base via Triple trees and back up Timber. I enjoyed the base trips as they gave me chance to hike into Mitchy`s chutes which by that time were soft, deep and untracked.

By the end of the afternoon Surprise was getting a bit out of hand as we were just throwing ourselves straight down through the trees taking more of a fall line going faster and faster but still holding control because of the hero snow conditions. One of the best powder skiing afternoons of my life - and that`s some time.

No more new snow in the next 24 but looking into Anaconda things looked pretty awesome as we skied past so that could be the next opening tomorrow, let`s watch out for it.