Day 110 a pretty challenging day

After a day like yesterday when it rained to the top of the hill we needed one of two things to make today good, either sun (for corn snow) or snow (for powder) but in the event we got neither so the day was just pretty hard work. We got to the hill in a temp of +1 so we knew that everything on the hill would be frozen solid. We hoped for sun which started to come through late morning but quickly was blotted out by clouds which began to deliver mountain snow around lunch time. By close it was snowing at the top, raining at the bottom but with the freeze line moving down the hill so that as I look out on the back deck now the white stuff is just starting to fall here in the valley. The New Side was closed so we went to the Old Side where just like yesterday only the Bear was open. Today the Bear had been groomed but to me it looked like it had been done while the snow was still pretty wet last night so the resultant grooming was a bit random with some chunky icey lumps all over. After a few runs up and down the Bear we did try the ungroomed stuff on the sides but as this had been skied over yesterday it was rough, hard and very ugly. We got news that the New Side had opened and went there. The theory was that yesterday's rain with no skier traffic would have beaten the surface smooth which would be pretty hard ice but would soften in the sun. The sign line was closed at Lift Line so the only way down to White Pass that looked interest was Puff trees. With no sun we ended up with just smooth boiler plate all the way through the trees which was very challenging. At the top Knot chutes and Currie bowl were closed so we just had White Pass core to play with. Gun bowl was breakable crust which was a challenge and I saw several guys fall 10 or more times on the way down. Rock hard Surprise trees were never going to appeal so we just went up and down White Pass with breakable crust in the top and boiler plate lower down. Late morning Currie opened with a warning that there was no grooming and all runs should be treated as black diamonds. We did a couple of loops on Currie Powder then down into Gilmar Trail which were crunchy and still breakable crust in places, time for lunch. After lunch we set up loops of Timber down to White Pass (Puff trees smooth boiler plate) a White Pass loop (Gun bowl breakable crust and other various ways down) alternating Currie Power and Downright (crusty) and finishing each time down Diamond back (soft and the best snow on the hill) total of 4 loops. After that beers and and early night. Looks like snow is setting in which should solve most of the upper mountain problems in time for tomorrow. In summary today was a bit of a non day while we waited for the hill to repair but even so managed to get an ok day in with rather challenging conditions.