Day 124 uncharted waters

And the uncharted waters into which I am moving are those of skiing day 124 of a regular season which is the most number of days I have ever got in during the normal season and this with still 5 days to go.

Once again there was no new snow and the base has now shrunk to 412 cms, still a pretty impressive total for this time of year. Temps were forecast to get to an amazing +19 in the valley which I guess they did and even early afternoon at Polar Peak base it was +12. In anticipation I had let go the thermal long johns (boxers only) and vented the helmet and jacket from the start. By the afternoon the gloves had gone in favour of some thin inners and the jacket had been ditched in favour or a thin fleece.

We started on the Old Side with temps just above freezing but the surfaces bullet hard. After an initial bluebird spell when things softened it clouded over for about an hour when everything went on hold. After that things got a lot warmer and a lot softer, a lot quicker than yesterday, I guess this was due to the lack of real cold overnight temps.

Just like yesterday we poked around the Old side all morning but this time the surfaces that had been hard were softening fast. Cedar Ridge, Boom Ridge, Boom bowl were all very good several times over. We had three exits via Knagaroo which were all good in conditions that were just going soft on top to start with and getting a bit mushy the last time through.

We went to the New Side and did three loops off Polar Peak in very soft snow getting softer all the time in Papa Bear, Grandpa Bear and Barely legal. I had intended to drop High Saddle but found it closed so dropped Low Saddle which was open and was ok softish snow and the exit was of course Easter which is tracked but still ok.

After lunch we went back to Polar for Grandpa Bear and Mama Bear before cutting out to Lone Fir. The climb up was a bit warm and the chute was ok but no more. We dropped into Easter which was as before.

Next time was Grandpa Bear and then Papa Bear. This brought the daily Polar total to 7 and the year to date total to 156. Not much looked any good by this stage with everthing getting very soft so we cut out into Decline on the grounds that it was now in the shade. It skied ok but with some very variable conditions.

Timing was wrong so I had to do a couple of loops back down White Pass to kill time which were ok but getting very mushy in the sun. Last run was out to Skydive where again you had to cut left and right to try and get the best surface in and out of the sun, tough skiing but ok.

Beers on the deck then more beers at wings night hence this rather disjointed report.