Day 120 a very very Good Friday

Yes, it was Good Friday so a holiday on the hill but despite that there were no real crowds, just a few more people around than usual.

Ovenight there was no new snow and the base settled to 430 cms but more importantly temps dropped to around -8 giving the hill a well needed freeze up. It was a bluebird day with a little cloud cover in the afternoon so things warmed up but on the North facing slopes things stayed in great winter shape and even elsewhere the cold overnight temps meant that the snow never became over soft or slushy. With loads of fresh snow left over from yesterday this had the potential to turn in to a really good spring skiing day, which of course it did.

We went to the Old Side as I was on a mission with my back pack to recover any beers that person or persons unknown my have buried on Hotdog day. We had a good run down Cedar Ridge in lightly tracked winter snow in the top and some rather more chunky stuff lower down. When we got to the top of Haul Back we were amazed to find the whole Kangaroo/Wallaby area closed for no reason that we could work out. A run down Boom was a bit crusty and back to the base to drop off the back pack.

Next time we had another Cedar Ridge drop which was just as soft as was the snow in the Gulch below. This time everything was open from the top of Haul Back and we discovered that the reason for the closing was a wandering moose on the loose which could have got a bit out of order, we noticed the tracks on the way down. We checked and found the beer and made a note of where to go back tomorrow. After that we just looped all the usual places on the Old Side - Cedar Ridge several times, Boom Ridge, Boom Bowl, Kangaroo etc. All were ok but not great skiing. We went for an early lunch and then headed for the New Side.

We had word over lunch that the New Side was pretty good so off we went to confirm this -
Lift Line - well tracked easy skiing in soft snow on a firm base.
Polar Peak - Papa Bear, Grandpa Bear and Mama Bear were all good soft tracked up snow taking an easy edge in the sun softened snow.
Corner Pocket/Easter Bowl - easy through the chute and great powder still with fresh tracks underneath. Easter in it's north facing aspects was still good and not over tracked powder.
Polar Peak - Barely Legal and then Baby Bear bringing the daily total to 5 and the years total to 131. This now means that whatever happens I will have more Polar Chutes than day's skiing this year.
Low Saddle/Easter - previous time through we had seen the chutes to skiers right of Low Saddle and just how good they looked. We were not disappointed, it was the best, deepest and lightest tracked snow on the hill. Easter still good everywhere.
High Saddle/ Easter - Polar Peak was closed due to technical problems which was good as I only had time to do a quick drop through High Saddle where both the snow in the chute and the snow below were just as good as yesterday and still with untracked sections. Easter still good.
Skydive - last run was down Skydive which was still soft with some chunky stuff underneath and even the final section was ok but hard work in the soft but refreezing snow.

Wonder what tomorrow will hold.