It may seem a strange heading to a report on what has been a great day's skiing but that just about sums it up. There was nothing in the overnight to indicate that things were going to be exceptional and in fact they weren't. What we did get was that everywhere we went things were just really nice skiing (not awesome, epic, sick, or any of the other much over used adjectives) but just really nice - in truth, nothing sucked !
The official overnight gave 15 cms of new snow in the last 24 hours although I expect a lot of that fell during the day yesterday and the base was up at around 380 cms. On the way to the hill temps were -3 at the base and a bit cooler on top. During the day temps rose to +2 at the base and around zero on top but the good news was that it remained overcast so there was no sun damage on the skiing surfaces.
The skiing surfaces themselves were well filled in with the overnight snow and there had clearly been a major wind event during the night. All this meant that whilst you could technically get first tracks the surface was such that you were really skiing a deep dust covering on yesterday's leavings.
We went to the New Side in anticipation of the opening of Polar Peak. When we got there they were working hard on cutting the cat track to the Peak but in the light of the recent snow this was never going to be an easy task. As it was they made it at about 3 in the afternoon which was too late to open the chair but does bode well for an opening tomorrow - apologies to the weekend warriors who appear to have missed out on the Peak yet again.
As we arrived at the top of White Pass they dropped the fence on Currie Bowl and that set our agenda for the rest of the day. I can list the runs but the conditions were pretty much the same wherever you went - yesterday's new snow on a firm base ranging from scratchy to soft depending on where you were.
Skydive - first run with only two tracks, against all odds it got better the further you went down.
Cougar Glades - a few tracks in the top but after that great untracked skiing in the tight tree lines.
Stag Leap - great tree skiing in the top then soft tracked snow all the way down.
Decline/Window chutes - just as every where else
Lone Fir/Spinal tap - a bit scratchy through the chute but wonderful soft snow underneath and some ok stuff when you cut across Easter to Spinal tap (even the creek bed is well filled in) Lunch
The Brain - now a bit tracked but still plenty of untracked lines to be had.
High Saddle/Spinal Tap - we were a bit ambushed by the saddles suddenly being opened but they were skiing very mellow and the snow underneath was good but there was a lot of avi debrise to be avoided.
Cougar Glades - Once again and just as good as the first time.
Lone Fir/Window chutes - an interesting variation by taking the Lone fir drop and then skiing the soft snow below before cutting all the way across easter and ending up in Decline just in time to take the top route into Window chutes which like every where else were still good soft snow on a slightly scratchy base.
Final rip of course was down Skydive that just seemed to be skiing better and better as the day went on. It was so good in fact that we ripped it from top to bottom with no stops and it was so mellow that it wasn't really tiring at all ( well not much) even at the end of the day.
As I said a really nice day in good fun snow without ever finding really awesome conditions. In other words, nothing sucked.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
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