Day 50 sunny, windy and a bit of a snow drought

First of all let me say that having upset a few people yesterday by my remarks about skiing the same runs over and over again and my remarks about people who don't like Kangaroo having poor technique, I am going to have to go a bit to upset people more today, but I will give it my best shot.

It was bit strange today in that it was -7 on the way to the hill  but as it was a bluebird day (we are having more of these than usual for January) temps at the base rose to about +4 and on top they barely stayed below zero. Winds became an increasing feature during the day day eventually shutting Polar Peak chair and on the way back from the hill temps once again were down to -3.

Timber  chair was closed first thing for 15 minutes and eventually opened about 11 which was pretty strange 15 minutes. I understand the cause was the electrics on top becoming frozen which is fair enough as no one could have seen that happening on a ski hill.

We went to the Old Side  and played around in Boom Guts which were still wind grooming from yesterday but maybe not so much soft blow in. After that we were all over the Old Side in Linda's Cedar Ridge ( 3 different ways) King Fir and Bear Chutes/Buckshot. All these had areas had smooth wind grooming but for the most part the smooth suface was crisp and hard without that much blow in but there were some places where it did ski pretty soft.

Of course Kangaroo was the exception which was hard bumpy, icey and technically demanding, or perfect as I would describe it. We only did it three time today and apart from a load of dead snow borders lying about in the top section it was easy skiing - I did manage to share my thoughts with one of them on the advisabilty of lying behind a blind hump.

We went to the New Side and found Polar Peak open which was a bit surprising as the winds were quite strong. The view from the top of Polar was just spectacular as the atmospheric conditions meant that you could see forever. The skiing in Pappa Bear chute was pretty mellow with sift starting to give you a nice edge on the hard pack. The problem was that if you fell there was going to be no chance of self arrest and you were likely to end up somewhere near the BC/Alberta boarder. This was demonstarated acouple of time while I was watching from the traverse having skied it.

It was so nice we looped back to the chair before doing it again (funnily enough no one else seemed to be looping) and then dropping through severe Concussion which had some nice soft blow in gathering in the top. Next time we did another Pappa Bear off Polar Peak and as before found that the lower parts of the chute were soft blown in snow where you could bang out long GS turns at high speed. The route to the base was via Stag Leap which was interesting through the trees, nice and soft in the mid section and a bit scratchy on the exit.

After a very late lunch there wasn't much left of the afternoon and I took a buddy into Concussion and found that there was even more sift than before. The gully to the left of Gilmar Trail is just starting to get interesting (don't ask the guy who had a very funny face plant in the alders) and made for a fun ski out.

Cougar Glades/Srag Leap was nice tracked tree skiing in the top and chunky soft snow when I hit left into the run. I needed to take a White Pass loop to kill time and did Knot Chutes which were firm in poor light and Surprise Trees which were a bit wind affected but ok.

Skydive tonight was just myself and my buddy Rod back from Calgary - a nice run, chunky in the top and crunchy low down. A small line up to get in the Griz bar was ok and then loads too much beer with Rob, Katie, Lynda and Simon - Rob is such a bad man as he always makes me drink too much beer. A quiet night in.