Day 8 welcome to the New Side

We didn't have a huge dump overnight, just 3 or 4 cms to freshen things up, however yesterday's snow was rather more than anticipated so that we had 32 cms the day before and 25 cms in the 24 hours up to this morning so just do the math on the 48 hour figures.

Temps cooled so that it was -4 at the base and -7 on top. I guess it cooled all day as a couple of minutes ago when I looked on the deck it was -11, the upshot of this was that all the new snow stayed in great shape all day.

I forecast a zoo today and I was right. As we rolled into parking lot 2 at 20 minutes to 9 (opening) I saw a huge scrum round Timber Chair even though it wasn't running. We were told that Timber would be delayed 15 minutes and as I have waited hours in the past while waiting 15 minutes for Timber we decided to hit the Old Side.

We had a great untracked run off the chutes at the top of Bear into Cedar and ripped it still untracked all the way under Cedar Ridge and out on to Cedar Trail. I guess all the crowds at Timber gave us a clear run. After a loop back down Boomerang which was nice filled in powder we got word that Timber was open and headed for the New Side.

From the top of Timber we dropped Puff which was alwas the best way down to White Pass Chair. Puff was great with interesting terrain following the ground contours give tough but interesting sking. Sometime soon they will push a groomer up Puff and ruin everything but for time being it is great bump powder skiing.

The rest of the morning was spent up and down White Pass in Knot Chutes, Gun Bowl, I bowl, Highline Trees (interesting fallen tree drop) and the chutes just before Surprise which was cut off by a closure line. Everything on the New Side had been untouched so far this season so the powder was knee deep everywhere with deeper patches in the dips.At the end of the morning they opened Currie Bowl and we went far side hoping for a Reverse Traverse or Low Traverse opening but with no luck. We hit the side of Currie Glades which was deep and only lightly tracked.

After a quick break we found that the Low Traverse out across Currie was opened and although it was a very hard side step traverse it accessd some awesome deep (untracked so far this year) powder. the runs were -
Cougar Glades - First tracks ( well a board had been in but the tracks soon disappeared) top to bottom with over the head face shots all the way.
Decline - great with few tracks and very clear in the lower sections.
Skydive - tracked but good on the left with huge face shots as you hit the rolls on the way down.
Cougar Glades - again with friends - still plenty of untracked
Stag Leap - great in the trees at the entrance as it appeared to be untracked. A few tracks lower down but still lots of tight lines of fresh powder.
Skydive - final run of the day and 6 side step traverses so far had their effect on the legs so that it was a tough final run. Dan met me on the way out and we had to stop several time on the way down to give the legs a break.

Fantastic work has been done in the lower sections of the big three with alders removed and the skiing much better than last year or previous years.

Far too much beer in the Griz and a long soak in the hot tub. Looking up at the stars I could see Cassiopea (spelling ?) and not for the first time I wondered how the ancient greeks thought 5 stars shaped like a W looked like a semi dressed lady resting on a sofa - I guess that's what drinking ouzo does for you.

A great powder day and fingers crossed for Polar Peak tomorrow as the lift was turning last thing tonight.