Day 8 Hebrews 13:8

And for those of you who do not know the biblical text quoted in the title it is "Jesus Christ - the same yesterday, today and tomorrow" - this best sums up my feelings about sking here in Fernie at the moment.

As I predicted yesterday the conditions were no change with double figure minus temps over night, low single figure minus temps during the day, no new snow, no melt and no traffic. The only thing I got wrong was that it did not remain as overcast as I thought and we actually had a sun/cloud mix today but apart from that everything was as anticipated and is anticipated for quite a few days to come.

The resulting conditions were equally predicable, steadily deteriorating surfaces becoming tougher and more chunky. As with every night there had been upper mountain wind and the surfaces were wind affected either being swept down to ice or with some rather slabby grabby wind sift which tried to take control of your skis. All in all not conditions for the faint hearted.

We went to the Old Side and hit out across Snake ridge before dropping KC chutes with conditions as described. After that we just worked our way all over Cedar and Boomerang trying Boom ridge, Boom bowl, King Fir, Cedar Ridge, New Lift Line, Linda's, some more than once. Probably the best of the bunch was either Linda's or Boom ridge which had quite a lot of blow in which was not too slabby.

For the first time this year we managed Kangaroo a couple of times top to bottom. It was bushy, rocky, stumpy, icey and the drop onto the cat track half way down was pretty sparse but just about ok. Probably won't try it again until we get abit more snow but the roo has been christened for the season.

In the afternoon we went to the New Side and after a nice drop through Anaconda Glades spent the rest of the time just looping (many times) out into the Currie chutes through various tracks down to the top of Gilmar Trail. On one drop to White Pass from Timber top we decided to have another go at Mitchy Chutes as that was where I had my major stack a few days ago and I felt there was unfinished business. Good skiing and a some tight edge to edge jumping to get through the tight chutes half way down.

For the final run we decided to try Skydive for the first time this season. It was awsome at the top with deep untracked snow if a bit tight between the obstructions (rock, root and alder). About half way down it got so tight that we had to cut across to Stag Leap which was a bit more open but in all honesty the final pitch was just tough and only seemed to have been attempted by a couple of snow boards this season to date - yet another one to try after the next snow cycle but again the first Skydive finish has been recorded.

After 8 days of skiing the body is starting to feel the strain ( should start to get better some time after day 14) so a long hot tub under the stars was needed to soak away the pain. Early night.