Day 119 an awesome powder day in April, and why not ?

Yup, today was a great powder day of full on winter skiing, none of the spring skiing crap that we have had to deal with over the last week or so. Overnight we had 17 cms of fresh pushing the base back up to 437 cms but best of all was it came down cold (well sub zero) all over the hill so that today was a powder day in winter conditions that would not have disgraced January let alone April.

On the way to the hill it was -3 at the base and colder on top. During the day it warmed to about +6 at the base and low plus temps on top. For whatever reason this didn't seem to adversely affect the snow which stayed in great shape. During the morning we had some sun which did seem to make the south facing slopes a bit heavy but it soon clouded over and we were getting snow (well at least ice pellets) off and on all day but with the occasional bluebird periods getting more so towards the end of the day. However, as I said the snow remained good powder all day.

There were very few cars in the parking lot as we arrived and things seemed to start slowly which given yesterday's Hotdog celebrations was not a complete surprise. More people turned up during te day but at no stage could it be called anything but quiet.

We went to the New Side and found Currie closed so we looped back through Knot chutes (Tight Knot) which were the only disappointment of the day. They looked so good but were no more than ok with the new snow on a very scratchy base. They then opened Currie and we had an awesome day.

Skydive - we had two tracks in front of us but they were good skiers and had cut tight lines so there was plenty of untracked for us. Great powder skiing all the way down with the final pitch now a soft base with powder on top.
Corner Pocket/Easter Bowl - as we tracked out along the Reverse Traverse we were following two patrollers one of whom stopped in front of us and dropped the sign on CP. Really awesome powder through the chute and below totally untracked. I think Lizard might have been closed as there were no tracks in to Easter from that side so we took the nearside trees untracked all the way down to Freeway. As I said the powder was good winter snow no matter how low down you went.
High Saddle/Easter - High Saddle was every bit as good as CP and the snow below still untracked. This time we cut a bit further into Easter and still found some fresh lines.
Knot Chutes/Anaconda Glades/Bootleg Glades - far side Currie was closed to allow some ski cutting in the Polar chutes so we cut back to the Knot Chutes and at last managed to find some deep lines in there. Anaconda was almost untouched and the only problem was beating your own slough. Bootleg trees nearside were also untouched and great deep powder.
Polar Peak - the ski cutting had worked so we put two loops in Polar Peak (Papa Bear and Barely legal) before heading to base via Baby Bear.
Low Saddle/Spinal Tap - Low Saddle with the right cut into the chutes was again steep, deep and mostly untracked powder. We cut across Easter and hit Spinal Tap that only had a couple of tracks in front of us and although it was starting to get a little heavy it was still great skiing.
Polar Peak/Lone Fir/Window chutes, sort of - we went back up Polar for a loop through Papa Bear then a drop through Mama Bear before traversing out to the hike up to Cornice Ridge and then down through Lone Fir. This had been skied a little but was still totally awesome deep powder particularly below the chute. I had decided to cut across to Window chutes but the trees between Spinal Tap and Window Chutes looked so inviting that I just took them untracked top to bottom, not a part of the hill I have been in before but great tight tree skiing.
Polar Peak/Corner Pocket/Spinal Tap - at this stage it had gone 2 o'clock and Lynda decided to go a bit girly on me and went for some lunch. I hit Spirit Bear off the Peak which had hardly been touched and then hit CP and Spinal tap as that is where some of the best snow had been. They didn't let me down it was still awesome.
Stag Leap - with time running out I abandoned the Peak, after all the six runs through today brought my year to date total to 126 so I was happy. I had time for a Stag Leap loop which was fine with loads of still untracked snow through the trees and some fields of untracked snow in the run itself.
Skydive - final run of course was Skydive which was more tracked up than the first time but still plenty of untracked off in the trees on either side. A great way to finish a great day.

An awesome day of powder skiing by any definition made all the better by a sure sign of spring as we watched a bald eagle circling above us in Currie bowl just before strating the last run. Can't wait until tomorrow.