Day 17 a lot easier than yesterday

Again avid readers can decide why today was so much easier than yesterday. Was it the 5 cms of new snow overnight and about 10 during the day ? Was it the fact that Polar Peak remained closed all day so we did not have to wrap ourselves up in order to survive and still end up freezing our nuts off on the Polar Chair ? Was it because we kept alcoholic consumption last night to at least reasonable levels so we didn't feel like death warmed up when we got to the hill ? Again, you decide.

Temps warmed up a lot overnight so that on the way to the hill it was -7 and overcast. I think it was a little cooler up the hill but nothing like yesterday's brutal temps. In a way this makes things more complicated, yesterday you just took every piece of clothing you possessed out of your closet and put it on, Today you had to make decisions which thankfully I got just about right and stayed warm without getting over heated.

The snow that I talked about falling as we skied the last run last night had some effect and an accumulation of 5 cms of fresh was reported which felt about right to me. The bonus was that despite there being no snow in the forecast it snowed all day all over the hill quite hard and at -7/8 which as everyone knows produces perfect light dry powder snow. It's hard to say but it would not surprise me if we had an accumulation during the day of around 10 cms. The wind was swirling up and down the slopes so in various places the accumulation was significantly greater if you struck lucky.

The crowds turned up today so I headed for the New Side. For reasons I can never work out the Christmas/New Year crowds always build up on the Old Side and whilst some come over to the New Side they seem intent on not skiing the best snow. This was proved today as I looped the New Side finding crowds only in the lift areas (even then there were no significant line ups) and as I headed out into the more remote areas I hardly saw anyone all day.

Whilst I wasn't late to the hill I was by no means on first chair and headed up the New Side with a nice soft drop from Timber top to White Pass load via Lift Line in lightly tracked deep snow. At the top of White Pass I bumped into my good buddies Rob and Katie and we headed out to Skydive, We could not believe that Skydive was untracked and we hit it top to bottom. The nice thing about skiing any of the Big Three (don't let me hear anyone calling them The Fingers, yuck) with three of you is that as long as you all take tight lines everyone gets first tracks - that's what happened.

We had noticed that on the way past Cougar Glades it was untracked and when we looped back it still was. Great first tracks and when we cut left into Stag Leap, yes, you guessed it, untracked all the way down. Rob and Katie had family duties so I hit out on my own.

Next stop was Decline top (lightly tracked) and cut into Window chutes through the untracked tree lines and then the chute itself with just one track in front which meant great deep snow. I looped Touque Chutes and then Spinal Tap both of which were becoming deep with untracked areas despite a bit of light traffic.The lower part of Spinal tap is now as good as I can remember it.

Around this time I decided that it was going to be a no lunch and ski straight through day as the new snow was building up and things were just getting better. I hiked up to Lone Fir and apart from one icy turn about half way down it was great soft skiing so that you could really push it hard in the chute. The ski out through Easter Bowl and Freeway was good by any standards.

For a change I hit the top of the Brain next which was full of deep untracked lines. For information a couple of days ago I had a minor stack in there which involved me having to remove a ski to get up after my ski buddies proved useless and performing any kind of recovery assistance. Contrary to rumors that seem to be circulating I did not have a life threatening experience and my continuing existence is in no way due to the actions of a particular ski buddy who I would just reiterate provided no assistance at all. I cut into Window Chute which as before were really deep.

In search of adventure I hiked back up to Lone Fir but this time went one chute further on into what is officially known as Easter Meadow but is sometimes referred to a One Step Beyond. Totally awesome snow all the way down and the only danger in the tight chute at the bottom was being taken out by your own slough. I cut across Easter after skiing the awesomely deep cushion and hit Spinal Tap once again and once again it was deep powder.

For a change I hit out off the top of White Pass to Gotta Go and had some spectacularly deep skiing (deepest so for this season) in the Google Earth chute. Boot Leg Glades were also deep and soft through the trees on skiers left. Next change was to try Siberia Ridge which was soft mellow skiing which was just a bit technical in the choke, We just had time for a quick White Pass loop through the Gun Bowl and Pillow Talk which were all soft tracked powder before last run time.

Last run was Skydive which as it had been the first run gave a certain symmetry to the day. I wasn't untracked this time but it was still pretty good deep skiing for last run of the day. Unfortunately we had to skip beers as we were entertaining at home but we had a great evening with beers and hot tub at home with Rob and Katie and 18 month old Joey.

looks like we may actually get some more fresh snow tomorrow and Lynda is going back out for day 3 on the new hip so everything is looking good.