Day 104 a pretty good day

Of course if it hadn't been for yesterday I would be raving about awesome conditions etc but as it was yesterday put things in perspective and today has to go down as a pretty good Fernie day - of course by the standards of other places it could be said to be better than that but we have to maintain our traditional standards here in Fernie.

It snowed overnight so that the official figures were for 40 cms + in 24 hours and a base of 333 cms. On the way to the hill it was -2 which threatened a warm up but in the event temps stayed at or only just above zero all day at the base and few degrees below on top. The result was that the snow stayed in remarkably good condition and even in the afternoon when the cloud cover was replaced by hazey sunshine and the light flurries ceased.

The real problem today was that Fernie woke up to the fact that we were having a pretty impressive snow cycle - something they missed yesterday and hence the lack of crowds then. Today as I arrived at the hill just before 9 there was a line of cars up the hill and I only just got parked in Lot 2. Add to this that I saw a number of weekend Calgary faces around ( I guess a lot of grand mothers were getting buried in Calgary today) and we had a much busier day than yesterday.

I know this is starting to read like a New Side only blog but we went there and stayed there all day. My reasons were that there would be limited openings on the Old Side, the pay for powder groups would have trashed what was there and there was the possibility of Saddles and Polar Peak on the New Side. In the event we didn't get either the Saddles or Polar Peak on the New Side whilst on the Old Side they got Lizard bowl for the first time in three days - ah well, that's how it goes and after getting everything right yesterday this just balances things up a bit.

We went out and hit Skydive which had about 3 tracks in before us but as the overnight snow on top of yesterdays powder was so deep that you could almost straight line it there was plenty of room for everyone to get fresh super deep tracks which resulted in almost continuous face shots all the way down.

After that the morning was spent skiing Cougar Glades (a few tracks in the top but many untracked lines as you worked your way down particularly on the left) the Brain (well tracked but with so many different lines to choose, we chose right, there were loads of untracked lines jumping in and out of the creek bed) Stag Leap (tracked but the hero quality of the snow giving soft skiing and face shots all the way down) and finally Decline/Window chutes - soft bumps in the top and easy soft skiing in Decline. Window Chutes were deep and untracked through the drop in with chopped up powder through the chute itself. Lunch.

After lunch it was back to the New Side. It's probably worth mentioning here that all our drops from Timber to White Pass Load were either Mitchy chutes (deep and smooth) Lift Line (used most times and skiing very mellow in chopped powder) or Puff Trees right ( skiing very mellow in hero snow).

The afternoon was a repeat of the morning in that it was New Side loops but with variations to keep it interesting. We ran Concussion (chopped but the best it has been all season and the final exit through Gilmar Gully was soft bumps) Skydive Trees right ( tracked but with enough snow to control your speed, just, so that it was great fast tight tree skiing) Secret Chutes/Spinal Tap ( tracked but deep soft snow) - I am sure there were a couple more runs that we did but I can't remember and in any event by late afternoon they would be tracked up but good hero snow wherever they were.

We had time for a quick White Pass rip back to the load to kill time and then headed out to Skydive for the final reckoning. We had a good crowd at the top of Skydive and a great rip top to bottom with no breaks and with the snow chopped up and getting a little chunky but great skiing with face shots as long as you kept your speed up.

Given the conditions and that tomorrow is a Saturday I would imagine the hill will be as ugly as at any time this year with huge line ups everywhere. Time to be philosophical and let this weekend wash past us as we remember just how good the last few days have been and allow the weekenders to have what is left.