Day 79 it's amazing what a difference 4 cms make

No this isn't a line to try on with ladies, just a statement of the facts regarding today's skiing. Overnight we had snow but only 4 cms. It was enough to make everthing look pretty and to give a soft surface raising the base to 251 cms. You would not have expected more but amazingly enough it delivered a great days skiing and some stashes of deep powder which I can only assume came from some windsift.

We went to the New Side with temps of around -6 at the base and overcast ridge lines threatening flurries all day. During the day the base temps rose to about zero and upper mountain temps hung in at about -5 but cold in the wind. We decided to try Polar Peak if it was open on the grounds that the elevation and windsift in the chutes should have created some good powder.

On arriving a White Pass top we found that Polar Peak was closed due to poor viz so we had a couple of runs up and down White Pass and found fresh tracks almost anywhere we wanted. With no sign of the Peak opening we went out to Cougar Glades which were untracked in the top although a couple of tracks appeared half way down and then disappeared again - great skiing particularly in the left hand creek bed exit.

Next time round Polar Peak was open but it didn't look like the viz had improved much. When we got to the top a patroller buddy told me it was "a bit milky" in the chutes, half way down I thought that rather than "a bit milky" it looked like we had got the whole frigging dairy until we dropped out of the clouds and had a great rip down the lower portion of Popa Bear. Stag Leap was tracked on the left and centre but on the right it was untracked and I had great soft skiing top to bottom.

At the White Pass top next time unsurprisingly Polar Peak had been reclosed due to poor viz. We went out and I hiked Cornice Ridge to the top of Lone Fir and then has some great steep chute skiing with only a couple of tracks in front of me. Lynda had taken Easter from the top and said it was untracked when we met briefly in Easter bowl before I headed off into Spinal Tap which was again lightly tracked deep snow. As always it was fun jumping from the creek bed to the right shoulder and back againg all the way down.

Last run before lunch was Skydive which still had soft bumps in the top and great skiing in soft snow all the way down - a bit ribby in the bottom section.

After lunch Polar Peak had reopened although it was still very white in the top. We went out to Mama Bear which was very deep soft powder untracked in the wind sift - awesome skiing. I then hiked up to Lone Fir but decided to do to chute one further which we call One Step Beyond, it was tight and steep but great soft snow skiing all the way down through the chute and then into Easter bowl.

Next loop we went up Polar peak and got out to Baby Bear which was even better than Mama Bear with amazing deep untracked snow. We cut left out to the top of Decline and after the first section dropped Window Chutes which were still lightly tracked and very deep under the log drop. This brought the seasons Polar Peak total to 58.

We didn't have quite enough time for another Peak so we went out to Anaconda and had a great drop on the second shoulder which was untracked as usual with all the traffic having taken the chutes themselves - more great powder skiing.

Final run was the usual rip down Skydive which was just as it was in the run before lunch (see above) and after that beer. As I said for some reason today was great powder skiing, perhaps it was the wind sift and the 4 cms of new snow or pehaps it was that we were accessing areas that had not been tracked much in the past few days. For whatever reason it was a great day. Snow now forecast for the next 7 days and although tomorrow will be ugly as the Saturday of Alberta Family weekend I think we could be in for some good skiing.