Day 8 just another day of typical Fernie flurries

Of course the title of today is ironical, we had one of the most awesome powder days for years which just kept getting better at things went on,but on the other hand you could just say that what we had was typical Fernie flurries.

Overnight they were giving us a total of 7 cms in the last 24 but with 4 of that overnight. As we drove to the hill it was -10 and even though it warmed to about -6 during the day things remained very cold and as a result the snow stayed in good shape. The conditions were snow which came down all day. Late morning the snow started to get light which was the forecast but then it came back for the rest of the day and just puked all over the hill all afternoon which was a real bonus. Current thinking is that we got well over 10 cms during the day and as it is still snowing there is talk of another 10 cms overnight. The actual numbers aren't important - we had tons of snow with more in the outlook.

We went to the New Side and had great untracked lines in Surprise Trees. Next loop we dropped Skydive which was very soft deep snow in top just holding the early season terrain and a bit twiggy on the lower section. Next loop I dropped Low Saddle which was as expected a bit icy in the top but after the cut right in the chute the fields of snow that opened up were untracked and super deep. The ski out to base through lower Easter was very mellow as well.

Remembering that Decline had been very good a couple of days ago I hit it and found the new snow had added to the soft rolls in the top and the mid section was twiggy but ok. The lower section was far and away the best of the big three and in my opinion could count as full on winter conditions. Next loop was Cougar Glades which by that time had filled in to untracked deep snow. I took the exit on the cat rack to the right as something told me that the lower part of Stag Leap was going to be just too ugly to contemplate.

Last run before lunch was a bit of a mistake as I decided to give the Brain a try for the first time in the season. The top section was sensational with the jump off the big roll above Megsaurus awesome with a landing in waist deep snow. The mistake was to try the lower section which looked ok off the trail but 10 turns in I was surrounded by trees, dead fall, alders, devils club etc. It was really hard work to hop, jump and traverse my way out on to the lower part of Decline.

After lunch I was back up the New Side hoping for the Polar chair to open but with no luck - maybe tomorrow I am told. Corner Pocket was the first chute which was rather icy but below the new snow had built up to some very deep powder and the traverse across to Easter gave more powder as no one seemed to be skiing it.

I then did a couple of White Pass loops which were Knot Chutes (Tight Knot) Anaconda ( chutes 4 then 5) and return through Trespass trail. The conditions were getting just fantastic a with wind sift the Knot Chutes were untracked both times and if anyone had been in Anaconda before their tracks were long since gone in the new snow.

I pushed out to the top of Skydive but for a change hit the Touque Chutes which were untracked in the now deep powder. Just time for a quick White Pass loop through Tight Knot (still untracked no matter how many times I skied it) and the far side of Surprise which was getting really seriously deep. Just a mention here that on one of my many drops through Lift Line from Timber Top to White Pass load I found a Budweiser can just like yesterday which I picked up out of respect for the Griz. If anyone has any idea who the asshole is who is dropping this trash please let me know as I have two big sacks of garbage in my garage which I would like to take round to them and dump on their doorstep and see how they like it - asshole is way to good a term for them.

Last run was Skydive which had filled in to epic proportions during the afternoon. I had deep face shots all the way down the first two sections and even the last pitch was just about ok in the new snow. As I look out on my deck it is still snowing and the temp is -6 so who knows how good it will be tomorrow. Whatever it is I will be out in it.