Now I know that most of my followers are good God fearing folk and will immediately know the quote from the good book but just in case I have a few heathens out there reading this, the quote in the King James version is "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever". I'm afraid that is exactly how I am feeling about the skiing on the hill at the moment, another day today just the same as those we have had all week and it doesn't look like changing.
There was no new snow overnight and although there were the lightest of flurries around as we arrived at the hill the snow was not accumulating partly because there wasn't much of it and partly because at the temps it came down at (circa -6) it had so little moisture content than even if it had heaved down we would have got no more than dust on crust. Later on in the day the flurries died out but things remained overcast so there was no chance of anything softening later in the day.
On the way to the hill it was -5 and on the way back -4. During the day base temps rose to -2 but at the White Pass load it never got above -5 and at the Polar load it seemed to hang around at -9 most of the day. On the plus side there was no wind, amazingly not even on the Polar Chair which is something of a first this season. For some reason temps felt much colder than the mercury seemed to suggest and we had to drop down late morning to put on extra layers and in the end were dressed more for temps of -12 or more which we never saw on most of the mountain - perhaps all the warm weather has just made us soft.
With these temps and overcast conditions absolutely nothing changed from the previous days with the groomers hard and getting slick later in the day and all the un groomed set in a boiler plate version of what it had looked like (for better or worse) after the last warm day we had - last Monday.
As usual we went to the Old Side for a poke round and found that the Haul Back T Bar which had been down for the last two days had been repaired in time for the weekend. We looped round Bear, North Ridge, Lower Linda's, Cruiser, Cedar Centre etc and found the grooming hard but taking an edge. We did look into Boomerang for a couple of turns but finding it super hard icy bumps we bailed. With nothing much of interest to us we cut over to the New Side.
We found Polar Peak open and had 3 loops down the Coaster which just about the only skiable run available with the Shale Slope now exposed cutting off access to the chutes which probably would have been pretty ugly anyway. We ran to base through Currie Powder and Gilmar Trail which were hard and icy but quite skiable if you looked for the best lines. We went back up for 2 more Polar Loops and then a run to base the same as before for a late lunch.
After lunch I went back to the New Side and satisfied my need for non groomer skiing with a couple of White Pass loops through the Gun Bowl and High Line which were just hard slick icy bumps but ok as long as you paid attention. There was just time for a Polar Loop and a run to base (Currie Powder and Gilmar again) before heading up to White Pass for the final run.
Just to reiterate all the Currie Chutes are closed so I had no choice but to stick with the Currie Powder/ Gilmar option which by this time was getting very slick. On the way down I saw a couple of skiers who were in over their heads taking their skis off to slide down. I can't begin to describe how dangerous this is as if you start sliding without your skis there is nothing to stop you except the next tree. I was going to call someone when I got down but in the locker room overheard a radio call sending transport up to collect them so I guess it all ended well.
With Lynda having gone back to the UK I had a very curtailed drink in the Griz - as I will be driving for the next two week I had better get used to this, but just starting to make up for it now. There is snow in the forecast but no one seems to be able to agree how much or at what temp. The only thing to do is take one day at a time.
Saturday, January 31, 2015
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