Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Day 42 a surprisingly good day

When I say that I am sitting on my deck at 6 in the evening typing away on my lap top and drinking a cold beer you may be forgiven for thinking that things have got even hotter here. Actually they only started to really warm up after the hill closed so we had a day of surprisingly good skiing and then a very warm evening to sit out on the deck which is very much the way things ought to be in my opinion.
It rained overnight and the hill didn't show any new snow so I guess it came down as rain up on the snow plot although there were signs of a light dusting of snow at higher elevations. On the way to the hill it was only +4 which was way cooler than yesterday. During the day it remained overcast or hazy sun so this combined with the lower atmospheric temps and a cooling wind meant that the snow never got super mushy like yesterday but did soften in what always were plus temps although no more than +5 at any time. The sun came out at the very end of the day and temps went to +12 but by that time skiing was long over.
We went to the Old Side with a warning that hardly anything had been groomed and it had frozen over night - both these statements proved to be true. The trick was to hit what would normally have been groomers just as the ski and rain affected surface from yesterday was starting to soften. We had great runs all over in Bear, Arrow, Bow, Cascade and Dancer. A particular mention has to go to China Wall which was as near to corn snow as I have every seen in Fernie and was really nice soft stuff taking an edge on a firm base.
We did have a run down Cedar and found that Cruiser and Cedar Centre were skiing just as good as the rest of the Old Side but we were entertained by a massive death cookie which was about 5 times as big as me and had rolled across Cedar High Traverse. I tried Kangaroo and found it a mixture of too soft in some places and too slick in others, still it had to be tested. With most of the morning gone and things softening we headed to the New Side.
Lift Line and Big Bang looked too ugly an opinion which some later trips in the afternoon confirmed. Puff was the run of the day from Timber top to White Pass load as it was always changing going from soft to refrozen on pretty mellow bumps. We did a few White Pass loops and found the Gun Bowl softening, Highline ungroomed but taking a nice edge and everywhere interesting softening skiing.
Polar Peak was closed as was the sign line on the far side of Currie Powder so we ran to base down Currie Powder in conditions that were a bit scratchy to start with but softened on the way down. We had time for one more loop of the same before a late lunch. Half way down we stopped to watch a couple of Patrollers making hard work of skiing the Polar Chutes and it made us think that if these guys who are infinitely better skiers than we are had to work in the chutes then keeping them shut was probably a very good idea.
In a shortened afternoon I went to the New Side and ran to base through the Gun Bowl (very soft but skiing GS turns so easily) the I bowl (ditto) and then Trespass Trail to Diamond Back which was firm underneath and soft on top. I had a couple of White Pass loops particularly enjoying the soft snow in the Gun Bowl before running to base by the previous route which skied exactly as before.
With no chance of getting out to Skydive we had a non stop rip to finish from White Pass through Currie Powder and Gilmar Trail where the surface was just starting to set up a little. Just time for a couple of quick beers on the deck as I had to head to Straight Line to pick up my DPS Wailers where I was having the bindings remounted in the +2 position to counter the back seating I have been getting with the new skis. It's worth mentioning that Straight Line did the remounting and refused any payment even though it was all my idea. This was great customer service and they certainly will be my first port of call in future if that's how they treat customers.
It's just getting a little chilly so time to finish off and go indoors.

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