Day 26 a good old fashioned New Side ripper

Today Lynda had made an appointment with her physio for 9 in the morning so I was dumped at the hill well before first turn on the lifts. I decided to hit the New Side and have a good old fashioned rip round everything I could find as a way of making the most of the day.

Temps had warmed up to about -5/6 and stayed pretty much that way all day all over the hill which was way warmer than it has been of late. The forecast was for light snow in the morning and flurries in the afternoon so it should come a surprise to no one that we got flurries in the morning and light snow in the afternoon. Although the accumulation was only a few cms it did seem to have a very beneficial effect on the hill with the covering giving some light fluff but more importantly where it landed on the blue ice it did seem to give a bit of grip and improve the skiing surface out of all proportion to the actual amount of the snowfall.

It was overcast all day so that the light was not great but not as bad as I have seen it. Polar Peak was open in the morning but with the flat light there didn't seem to be many takers. In the afternoon as the cloud base descended to cover the top of White Pass the Peak was closed and even at lower elevations it was good idea to get in the trees in order to avoid braille skiing.

Here comes list of the runs with comments as far as I can remember which come with a health warning relating to my memory after such a long day of good skiing -

Lift Line - used numerous times as the drop from Timber top to White Pass load and good firm bump skiing with a nice new covering taking a good edge. Just once I dropped Puff Trees right and that was exactly the same but with a few trees thrown in for good measure.
Gun Bowl/Quite Right - all firm bumps taking a nice edge and the hump under the lift is skiing as well as I can remember.
Anaconda Glades/Bootleg Glades - tried the 2 chute in Anaconda and it was chunky tracked snow but soft. Bootleg was much firmer bumps but still plenty of soft snow and the lower section skiing very well where all the alders have been ripped out.
Cougar Glades/Stag Leap - still lots of lightly tracked stuff in Cougar but things getting a bit quicker on the harder skied surfaces. The lower part of Stag Leap is still very twiggy but getting better by the day with use.
Decline/Window Chutes - the new snow has made the icy bumps in the top of Skydive/Decline much easier but they are still a bit technical. Decline great skiing down to the Megasauraus Trail and then nice soft snow in the chutes to the left of the main Window Chutes before cutting back in for some deep snow but all a bit scratchy in the chokes.
Touque Chutes/Spinal Tap - haven't done this for a while and the new snow has made the first couple of icy turns in the top a bit more mellow. Spinal Tap is still very deep snow and great creek bed skiing even if the ski out has a few twigs that try and trip you up,
Lone Fir - it has been some time since I hiked up to Lone Fir and I decided to give it a go. It was good call, there were only a couple of icy patches going into the chute and below was super deep soft snow on the pillow. The exit trough Easter Bowl and Freeway was good soft bump skiing.

After lunch I resumed the programme and just had time for -
Currie Chutes - I hadn't tried this before this season and found the most mellow soft bump skiing. More importantly it seemed to me that quite lot of glading had gone on in there and the trees seemed much further apart.
Decline - I felt I deserved a gentle run and Decline fitted the bill with great soft snow all the way down and great skiing on the skiers left in the final pitch.
Secret Chutes/Spinal Tap - They seem to have opened up the skiing on the chutes to the left of Decline (or maybe I am just getting a bit better) so I dropped them for some good lightly tracked bump skiing. Spinal Tap was just as good as before.
Siberia Ridge - with some time to fill in I looped Sib Ridge off the top of Timber and found only one track in ahead of me. Nice bumps skiing in the top, a little technical in the choke and then some slightly twiggy terrain skiing to the groomer.

End of the day and of course it was Skydive time. Just Dan and myself there tonight and we had a good final run with conditions exactly as described for the past several days. My performance was almost back at 100% as this cold seems to be going as fast as it came. Opinions differ on whether or not there is precip in the outlook and just how much it might be. For my part I will take whatever we get and be grateful.