Saturday, December 5, 2015

Opening Day

Still here in the UK on opening day for the first time in 12 years. Just so no one misses their opening day fix I have copied below an email from a buddy which says in a few words what I would have taken a long report to say. Normal service will be resumed next week when I get to Fernie although it doesn't sound like I am missing much yet,

Hi Bill

   I thought I would let you know what I saw out there today. I got to the elk chair at 8:45 and the line was only halfway through the maze I think the rain scared everyone away, by the time we got to the top of the elk it was snow and we got fresh cream cheese from top of bear to the Bears den it quit raining by 10:30 , all and all it was a good day with limited skiing. Looking forward to seeing you and lynda when you get here

                    Cheers Brad

Sunday, November 29, 2015

T minus 5 and still counting

So here we are entering the last week before the hill opens and everyone is getting excited about the season ahead. Normally by this time I would be in Fernie with the truck back on the road, the house stocked up, the hot tub fired up and all the ski gear shifted to the hill but as it is I am still here in Cornwall getting ready to fly to Dublin next Monday before flying on the next day to Cranbrook via London and Calgary arriving on the evening of Tuesday 8th December.

As I have said before the delay is due to Lynda having her right hip replaced 10 weeks ago and this being the earliest time that the docs will let her fly long haul. I think she will need a couple of weeks strengthening exercises when she gets there and be ready to ski at or shortly after Christmas.

The prospects for opening day this Friday continues to look ok but no more than that. The snow base is reported at 68 cms with very little snow in the last 7 days. The outlook for the next 5 days does not suggest there will be significant new snow between now and opening day so what we have is what it looks like what we will be opening on. This is not the lowest opening base we have had (I seem to remember opening on 35 cms a few years ago) but nor is it one of the best, or anything like.

On the plus side things remain cold so snow is being made on the lower hill and we should be able to ski in most of the bowls even if the coverage is not going to allow the great off piste snow that we all want. Of course things could change overnight and a massive storm move in without warning and improve things - we can but hope. As a measure of how much the forecasters can get it wrong I have been posting on Facebook every day as to what the conditions on the day I arrive will be. In a week the high has ranged from 0 to -5, the low from 0 to -8 and the conditions from Sunny to snow with all stations in between.

Reports from my buddies tell me that there isn't much snow around town and we really need a big Fernie event if things are going to get anything like good. I will be expecting reports on opening day.

So it's a final view of racing the working boat here in Cornwall before we head off next week. See you all then,