Day 49 skiing for less than 20 bucks a day

No, don't get excited this isn't some fabulous offer from the hill, it's just a recognition of the fact that if you divide the early bird price cost of my season's pass by the number of days skied so far the cost of skiing drops to just under 20 bucks a day as of today. By the end of the season I hope to get it down to just under 7 bucks a day but at least this constitutes a good start. Please don't feel sorry for the hill. they don't incur one cent of extra cost for the days I ski but do get about 35 bucks a day income from me every day I ski so they are on track to take well over 4000 bucks from me this year which has to make me somewhere near their best customer although I bet they don't see it that way.

It was cold overnight (-12) but by morning temps had warmed up so that on the way to the hill it was about -4 at the base. We had no new snow but we do have some forecast and the weather reflected this. It was overcast with sunny spells and the cloud cover built during the day. There had obviously been a major wind event over night with some ridge lines swept clean and big deposits of wind sift in other places. The winds continued during the day and were quite brutal up in White Pass and the game was to try and avoid where the wind had been swept from and to ski where it had been swept to. By the end of the day the winds had moderated a bit and base temps were up to about zero with a degree or two cooler evident on top.

We went to the New Side hoping for Polar Peak but it soon became evident that in these winds we were not going to get it. We just lapped the New Side all day looking for wind sift and having some great successes and some equally great failures. First lap we dropped Gun Bowl which was great sift and then went out to Anaconda which was crunchy on top and then great deep sift after a couple of turns. Bootleg Glades were equally soft sift and skiing very mellow. After that the runs worked out as -

Concussion - Very wind swept in the top but taking a good edge and then some deep soft sift after the steep chutes.
Currie Creek - At last I found where the sift had blown to and it was deep and soft all the way down the chute if a bit twiggy on the exit.
Cougar Glades/Stag Leap - good, but not as good as I had hoped for in the glades, the sift was not that deep. In Stag itself the snow was much better and deeper.
Decline - nice blow in although not that deep but very easy mellow skiing on soft bumps
Touque Chutes/Spinal Tap - great up draft wind groomed powder in the chutes and the Tap was surprisingly deep and lightly tracked with the stream bed starting to fill in nicely.
Gotta Go - the traverse across the Knot Chutes was really gnarly but worth it. The run was deep and soft and lower sown smooth from wind grooming. Looked up into Google Earth and it looked pretty good so that may be on the menu tomorrow. Exit through Bootleg Glades which were skiing even better than before.
Stag Leap - decided to hit it from the top and it was great through the trees and in the top section with very deep soft sift. Lower down it was more packed in but still a very mellow ski. I think a lot of people are taking my lead and tracking left at the bottom of Cougar Glades to hit this part of the run.
Siberia Ridge - hadn't been in there for some time so thought I would give it a go. Rather wind affected in the top section and of course sketchy in the choke but lower down there was some great soft snow terrain skiing.
Mitchy Chutes - great soft blow in but a bit sketch in the chokes, I thing the skiers right is looking the best bet at the moment.
Skydive - last run and with only two of us there we decided to take one for the team and do some bush whacking on the right side of the final section rather than take the skied in left side. It was ok deep snow but in terms of twigs it was a bit like winding the clock back two weeks.

And so we ended with a few beers and a quiet night in. Before I go I must make a special mention of two people, the one who dropped their empty Tim Hortons cup from the lift into Lift Line and the one who left their empty water bottle on Skydive right - I picked up both. Throwing garbage on  the hill is so uncool and it pisses off the Griz to the point that he will not give us new snow - sort yourselves out. Please follow this link to find out what I really think of you - The Asshole Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luKmSLXukaw