Sorry this report is a bit late. The problem is that after skiing and few beers we went to the movie house to see a showing of this years ski movie from Matchstick Productions ( far and away the best makers of ski movies at the moment) - The Attack of La Nina. For the price of the tickets for the two of us we could just about have bought the DVD to watch at home but it was fun to see it on the big screen plus all funds went to the Canadian Ski Patrol, also some excellent raffle prizes donated by Gear Hub.
Today was the coldest so far with starting temps at the top of -12 and if anything getting colder in the sinking cold air mass above the clouds, add to that a ridge line wind chill and the effective temp had to be something like -20, not really cold but enough to make you think.
Arriving at the hill we had valley fog but with the Lizard Ridge in sunshine appearing to be floating in the mist above the valley floor. This was just the first of many beautiful weather induced sights such as angel dust in the blue ski above the clouds, sun dogs, and the whole of the upper parts of the clouds turning into rainbow colours as you passed through them. As I said, the skiing wasn't great but it was worth going to the hill just for the sights.
There was no new snow but a light dusting which may have been windsift or possibly hoar frost but either way not enough to get excited about. The Old Side was just as it has been pretty well since opening with chunky tracked snow and plenty of early season hazards. We tried one loop out across Cedar bowl to Snake Ridge and KC chutes and just like before found that the sking there was no better than what was available directly off the top of Boomerang. Crowds were not an issue as once again the hill was deserted.
We ran through Boomerang bowl, Boom ridge, Linda's run, New Lift line into the gully, Cedar ridge and Bear Chutes. All very much as before with the best of the bunch being Bear chutes down to the Goat track, probably best because it's a bit scrubby getting in.
We moved on to the New Side and did a repeat of yesterday just running down through Currie chutes from Alpha Centauri to Currie Creek. As I have said there are so many variations on that face that you could ski it all week and still get a new line every run - unfortunately whist the runs may have been different the conditions were not so it was the usual tough hard surface wherever we went.
Two loops through Cougar Glades found the snow starting to track up a little and get a bit pebbley towards the bottom but still the best to be had on the hill. All these loops took us out past the new Polar Peak Lift where I have to say it does not exactly look like a hive of activity. Cables and chairs are stacked at the foot but to the untrained eye not a lot seems to be happening, I await the next publicity announcement with interest.
So another ok days skiing with some beautifuls views. The good news is that out of nowhere the forecast is now calling for snow on Sunday and again on Tuesday. This is a cause for some hope but bear in mind that these unexpected forcasts of snow can disappear as fast as they appeared.
Lets see what the weekend brings. Temp on my deck as I type this is back to -12.
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