Day 93 rolling openings rule ok

Yup, today we had rolling openings which gave us some fantastic skiing in areas that hadn't been opened for some time. Particularly Knot chutes, Anaconda Glades and Bootleg Glades. I understand lower Easter bowl from Lizard side was pretty good but not having been there myself it isn't really appropriate for me to make a comment on that.

Temps started at +2 in town but were nearer zero at the hill and -4 at the top. Things warmed up a bit during the day but not much so we had precip off and on all day (rather more in the morning) which fell as icey snow over most of the hill ( quite a good coverage high up) and finally very light rain in the valley at the very end of the day.

Our strategy was to go to the New Side to get the benefits of being high and therefore getting the precip as snow plus the chance that Anaconda Glades would be the next thing to be opened. Anaconda was a real prize because it was north facing (no sun crust) above the rain crust line and hadn't been open for 5 days !

We started on the New side and found Knot chutes had just been opened. Tight Knot was crusty and slabby but Fraid Knot was super deep. Thin was also crusty but Slim (through the trees) and Jim were fine. We spent the whole day dropping different Knot chutes as a front end to the rest of a run which changed as the day went on. All morning we then dropped Surprise Trees. The snow in Surprise had changed since yesterday but it was hard to describe. Heavier suggests warming and slush which wasn't right in the sub zero conditions. Harder suggests ice which again would be wrong - I think perhaps "denser" is nearer to the point but it still doesn't quite get it right. In a nutshell Surprise was great awesome hero snow which whilst tracked was still great powder.

Around lunchtime they opened Anaconda Glades for the first time in 5 days. No one else seemed to be aware of the opening and the first few times through Lynda and I had to check that we hadn't misread the opening signs as it seemed that we were skiing a run that no one else thought was open. We spent the whole of the rest of the day looping Knot chutes ( pick the right one and it was awesome) Anacond Glades ( just working further across each time finding great fresh tracks in every chute) and Bootleg Glades ( hitting the near trees in tighter lines than I have ever attemped becuase of the hero snow).

That was it all aftenoon and it was so good that I never broke so that it was a 9-4 full on day of great powder skiing in what was double black diamond chutes all the time. A totally awesome day of powder skiing which is a tribute to the process of rolling openings which mean that even several days after new snow we still getting great powder days.

Tomorrow they may open Currie bowl and then the whole game begins all over again with fresh snow, probably with a bit of rain crust to contend with in the lower sections - lets see.