Day 14 I never thought I would get this excited over 3 cms

No, that isn't something an old girlfriend said to me - well actually it is but that's another story and best not gone into here. It is actually my reaction to some new snow which in normal circumstances would not have got me that excited but in a year like this you take whatever you can. As it was things grew a bit as time went on, but that was what said to the girlfriend and as I said, another story.

Overnight we had 3 cms of fresh reported on the hill bringing the base to 89 cms. On the way to the hill we were surprised how warm it was at -2 and hoped that temps would stay low during the day. In the event things did warm up so that driving away from the hill tonight it was around zero and up the mountain temps stayed in the -5 to -3 range most of the day.

We went to the New Side on the basis that it was where the good skiing would be. During the day I had a couple of reports that skiing on the Old Side was good but closer questioning confirmed that the reporters simply meant that they liked the groomers there. As I don't ski groomers, if at all possible, this was of no interest to me and in any event how could the groomers be anything other than good for those who like that kind of thing - once you have smashed everything flat with a 3 ton cat and smoothed it out the results are pretty predictable.

Conditions were overcast and viz was particularly poor in White Pass - it's not for no reason they call it White Pass. Snow flurries started mid morning and continued all day ranging from ice pellets to full on winter snow. I would guess that at least another 4 cms of snow were added in places during the day which with some wind effect made for some good conditions.

We looped White Pass a few times and found good fresh snow in poor viz in the Gun Bowl, Highline, Pillow Talk Chutes and all down the lift line. We interspersed this with runs through Currie Bowl, sometimes through the glades (good mostly untracked skiing) or out under the Polar Chutes and then down Currie Powder - a great run early season as the snow holds the line of the terrain rather than just having been groomed so you get some good free riding. The good news was that with the fresh snow we had some great untracked powder on a firm base, the bad news was that with new snow the push out along Trespass Trail was hard work but worth it in my view for the great skiing.

This took a long time so we went for a very late lunch and to get to base I took the long traverse out to Easter bowl which was ok accumulating soft snow on a cut up hard icy base. Not bad chunky powder skiing.

Lynda took the afternoon off so I went adventuring along the Reverse Traverse. For the first time this season I had some really great skiing in Decline and then Skydive which were very challenging with some bushy conditions lower down but some sensational untracked skiing in other places.

This only left time for a Anaconda loop off White Pass and as I had anticipated things in there had repaired pretty well from the damage of the past few days so conditions were good powder on a filled in death cookie base - about as good as it was going to get.

We finished the day with another rip down Easter which had improved during the day from the filled in snow but was still rather ribby under the surface. We had several beers in the Griz with buddies and then home for a well deserved hot tub. The forecast is for more overnight snow but a worrying warming trend over the next few days. Things only have to hold up for half a day tomorrow as I have a dental appointment in the afternoon and will have to leave the hill early.

Hoping for more snow which may come as I see a new underwear tree is starting to form going up Timber so all contributions gratefully received.