Day 60 not the dump we expected but still ok

We went to bed last night being promised 20+ cms of snow. In the event we got 7 cms in 24 hours but I guess no more than 4 of that actually fell overnight although it did freshen up yesterday's powder rather nicely. It did get cold, starting at -7 and staying at that all day but dropping to -10 from time to time as the cold high from Alberta kept trying to push in. The result was that the snow did get a little chunky in places but where it hadn't been tracked too much it was still skiing as good powder.

I decided on a New Side day and ducked the line at the Reverse Traverse (a patroller buddy was flipping the signs and gave me the ok) and I went out to Skydive. There was one track in front of me which amazingly went into the Brain so I had Skydive all the way down in fresh snow on yesterday's tracked.

Next time round Polar Peak was still not open so I dropped the newly opened Corner Pocket and even that early had to hop over the exposed tires in the top of the chute. CP is funny in that everyone traverses left as soon as they exit the chute. As usual I took a short right hand cut and had deep untracked powder all the way down the shoulder. Easter bowl still had  soft on the left and Freeway was as always a bit scratchy.

Polar Peak opened and we looped Grand Pappa Bear in what was the best light for several weeks. There is a little chute in the rock band just before you get to Mamma Bear and I dropped it untracked and almost got taken out by my own slough which I had to race all the way to the traverse. Cougar Glades were very mellow skiing, with some untracked lines in the left trees and once again I skied right across the bike trail without seeing it and took the lower left chutes which had hardly been touched, to exit.

Next Polar adventure was Grand Pappa Bear then Baby Bear. I forgot to say that the snow in the chutes was deep powder and holding up well. We took Stag Leap down for lunch and as always found a few less tracks than in the others of the Big three and plenty of soft free riding lines.

After lunch it was Polar Peak again with Grand Pappa Bear and then Spirit Bear which because of it's tight entrance was soft, deep and hardly tracked. We hiked up to Lone Fir and found only a handful of tracks in the chute and untracked line in the fan below and through the avi trees. We cut right across Easter and got to Spinal Tap which again was super deep in the trees just above the chute. The chute itself was tracked but there was loads of snow and jumping in and out of the creek bed and hocking off the log dead fall just added to the fun.

Polar Peak again but this time the run back to the chair was Barely Legal which had good snow in the chutes but with 4 snow boarders side slipping it behind us (why would they do that?) it won't be like that for long. The little rock chute still only had two tracks in so we took it again still with a big slough to be surfed. This time the route to base was through the Brain which had a surprising amount of traffic showing in there but of course with so many ways down there was still good untracked snow to be had.

Last loop we didn't have enough time to go up Polar so it was just a good old Decline/Window Chutes with Decline tracked but soft and Window Chutes soft until the scratchy bit in the bottom choke - there was also loads of greenery there so I am not sure what that was about.

Skydive was almost crowded at 4 with so many turning up but after two really hard days we skiied it fast but not stupid fast as we have been doing.

Beers and a quiet night in seem like a good plan particularly as it is -10 on the deck and snowing.