No new snow overnight so I guessed that conditions would
remain hard and bumpy at best and hard and crusty at worst. For the most part I
was right but there was a very nice twist to come. It was -4 on the way to the
hill and -5 on the way back with overcast conditions but no sign of precip.
With only very limited skiing time (we had to be getting off the hill around
11:30) we headed to the New Side on the basis that we could cram in more good
skiing there in the time available.
Lift Line was hard and bumpy in the top becoming broken
crust lower down and was the fastest route from Timber Top to White Pass load.
We did a loop of White Pass through the Gun Bowl and Highline which had enough
skier traffic to make them just hard and bumpy. I had intended an easy mornings
skiing but next time up I bumped into my buddy Brad who had just heard that the
Saddles had opened and as an old school report of mine once said "he is
easily led"
We did 3 loops of the
Saddles, one through Corner Pocket and two through High Saddle. The
results were just the same in that the Saddles were skiing about as good as I
can remember them with the crusty ice/snow having been broken up into a great
smooth skiing surface. High Saddle was firm in the chute but holding and edge
for about 10 good edge to edge jumps to get you through. Corner Pocket had that
pesky rope in there for not very good skiers to use and it was anchored at the
bottom and couldn't be moved. This meant we only had about half the width of
the chute to ski in and made for some very tight jumps with the final one
rather icy before emerging from the chute.
Below we skied the avi trails cause by control work which
were smooth and firm. Lower down we encountered the debris which was still ok and
in fact the only difficult stuff was the untracked crust which we tried to
avoid - a complete reversal of the usual situation where we try and avoid the
avi debris and ski in the untracked snow. Great skiing which was over all to
soon and I had to head to Calgary.
Some people have asked me to explain why I don't regard
skiing on groomers as skiing so here goes. Skiing is much more to me than just sliding
around on snow, it is a very special relationship I have with the mountain. At
first you think the mountain is trying to hurt you with all the difficult
conditions and obstructions but soon you realise that she (a mountain will always be
female to me) is throwing down these challenges but at the same time providing
potential solutions with terrain, jumps, rolls etc if you can just take
advantage of them. This means when I free ride it is a symbiotic, almost
spiritual experience which can most be likened to making love with the mountain.
When you take a 3 ton snow cat and smash the snow flat you kill any life that the snow may have had and so it removes any of that spiritual element of that experience.
I am typing this await arrivals at Calgary Airport and driving on the Deerfoot trail was enough to remind me why I can't wait to get back to Fernie.
I am typing this await arrivals at Calgary Airport and driving on the Deerfoot trail was enough to remind me why I can't wait to get back to Fernie.
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