Day 123 not as good as it has been but some promising signs

Overnight the temps stayed above zero in valley and probably didn't freeze over most of the mountain. It was +3 on the way to the hill and overcast becoming showery in the morning. The showers were rain at the base but became snow/ice pellets not all that far up the mountain. As the day wore on the precip became heavier and was rain at the base but up in White Pass it was full on winter conditions with snow starting to pile up in significant quantities but the end of the afternoon.

We went to the Old Side and found that the groomers were ok and just starting to soften so we had a few runs down Bear, Arrow and assorted parts of Lizard bowl just to let things settle down. We dropped into Cedar and found that the centre was skiing very mellow and taking an edge. After that we tried Cedar Ridge twice, both of which were ugly death cookies but it had to be tried.

Each exit was through Kangaroo which had closed signs in the top but by taking a left chute in I guess you could just about argue that you hadn't skied above or between the signs. In any event it was the run of the day with the terrain beaten down to undulating bumps, a hard ice base underneath and a few inches of melt on top - in fact it was the nearest thing to corn snow that I have seen this year so obviously couldn't have been closed as it was the best run on the hill.

It was starting to get a bit wet low down so we headed over to the New Side to get high and found that Puff was smooth with a soft snow covering and everything in White Pass was good with real winter conditions and snow falling. The only down side was that it was socked in at the top of White pass so that viz was down around your boots and to be honest didn't get much better all day. We looped White Pass before heading to lunch down Currie Powder - to my great relief the Reverse Traverse was closed so that it would be impossible to ski Skydive at the end of the day which despite the changing conditions was bound to be as ugly as yesterday and tradition would have required me to ski it. Currie powder was smooth, groomed and covered in soft snow all the way to the base through Gilmar Trail and the Medow.

After lunch it was apparent to me that the rain line was going to rise up the hill so the only game in town was to go high and stay high in White Pass. My decision seemed to be confirmed as the conditions in White Pass became more and more wintery as the afternoon wore on, the snow came down heavy and was accumulating so that White Pass loops became powder skiing. The only downside was the viz that reamined bad and the lack of terrain as the opening was only from the I bowl line on skiers left to Timber Lift Line on skiers right.

Finally I had no choice but to run to base at the end of the day which I did via Currie Powder. This just further confirmed how good my decision had been as I hit rain about half way down and from Gilmar trail it was just mush all the way to base. So,on balance pretty good day due to a good decision to stay high and maybe a better day tomorrow if the forecasters have it right.

When I got to base I found that the Griz bar was closed today and tomorrow due to lack of customers which is huge kick in the teeth to us regular customers who keep the place going every night of the year, even lining up to get in at busy times. No other business but RCR would treat their regular (best) customers in such a disgraceful way. Well, they have put the game in play amd set the rules (bottom line is the only thing that matters) so lets play guys. I have agreed with a large number of buddies that we will take one day off drinking in the Griz at a time when we normally would - in my case Friday. I would like everyone reading and following this blog to do the same to show them that customers deserve to be treated better than this. By my calculations if half the regular blog followers, and the buddies who have agreed go through with this and they normally spend about 20 bucks a night (like me) then the effect will be about a 5000 buck hit on the sales line. At the outrageous mark up in the bar this should hit the bottom line to the extent of about 3000 bucks give or take.

I would imagine they saved a few hundred at most by closing the bar for two nights so I think an action costing them 3000 bucks might just make them realise that in the long run this is not a wise course of action. Not the sort of thing I like doing but they set the rules not me. Please support this action, after all it only requires you to change your drinking place for one night and it sends a strong message.