Day 30 Crowds, and some strange conditions

Things didn't look good last night as we left the hockey game and it was raining hard, very hard and in addition the Riders had played as bad as I can ever remember and lost 5-3 to the Thunder Cats.

We headed to the hill in the morning in temps of +3 and noted that the snow line was higher up than yesterday - probably around the White Pass base. The official site claimed another 16 cms of fresh with a base of 150 cms which as I have said is probably true at the snow plot half way up Bear but not that relevant to the significant part of the hill that is below this level.

After describing yesterday's Sierra Cement as "Light fluffy powder" the official site had a reality check and described what we had as "Spring Conditions" (in December ?) - the truth is that it was ok powder down to just above the White Pass base and very ugly rain crust below that.

We went to the New Side on the grounds that anything on the Old Side would be mostly in the rain crust which was confirmed but later reports which confirmed the top half of Cedar as good but the lower parts as ugly. We had the perfect storm conditions for crowds with a busy day, the hill hyping how much powder we had and the only good skiing being in White Pass so everything was set for massive crowds at White Pass and we had huge crowds and long line ups right up to late in the day and these were the worst I can remember.

We ripped down from Timber to White Pass and found that the last couple of turns in the fresh powder turned to crust which was an indictation of where the rain transition took place. After a short break to allow the heli bombing to finish White Pass opened and we had a great run back to White Pass in unracked powder through Gun bowl and Quite Right. Next time round we found the shoulder into the I bowl open and we had many loops into Surprise Trees and out as far as Triple trees and back again. Every time we had great fresh powder in the top sections getting a bit crunchy lower down.

They opened Anaconda Glades and we got it just before the main Currie opening and it was spectacular stuff. The ski out on Gilmar Trail was very ugly as it was ungroomed rain crust and the first loop was very tough but later as it got more skied over it was hard icey death cookies but better that it was earlier. With Currie open it was a must to try 1-2-3s which were good soft deep new snow all the way down and even some untracked if you looked hard enough.

We noticed from 1-2-3s that the Reverse Traverse was open so next time round we headed out that way. This area had been closed yesterday so that there was over 30 cms of new snow to hit today. All afternoon we just worked our way out further each loop from Concussion to Currie Creek getting early tracks in very deep snow all the way across. Skier traffic beat in the lower parts so that exits were ok if a bit crunchy. Gilmar Trail remained slick and/or crunchy all day.

Only let down was a hike up to Lone Fir which I had been told was open only to find it closed. The chute back into Currie was steep and untracked and almost made the hike up worth while. While I was up there I hit Cougar Glades which were awesome for about 80% and totally untracked but as ugly as a bears ass for the other 20. This decided me that the whole Skydive area was worth avoiding until the next snow.

Last run down Currie Creek was tracked but very deep and well worth it. Skied all day today 9-4 with no break so early night.