Monday, January 11, 2016

Day 32 an ok day but more snow needed

A usual apology because of the late report today due entirely to going to the Rusty Edge for their 10 bucks for a burger and a beer offer every Monday, as always excellent food and good value.

Today was ok but although the general coverage is good things are getting hard and bumpy and in places decidedly scratchy and icy. We need more snow to capitalise on the base which at 172 cms is not over generous but would be a great starting point if we could just get more snow. The forecast is for some precip this week with a warm up to about -2 which would be good but how much snow is the question.

On the way to the hill today it was -11 which was typical of this cold air mass that has been bottled up in the valley for over a week. It was overcast and there was modest flurries off and and on which were more a case of the air mass giving up a bit of moisture in the face of the cold conditions rather than any serious accumulation - overnight they were not even claiming 1 cm. During the day it was about -8/-10 all over the hill and by this evening things has warmed to -5 in the valley which may well mean that the air mass is starting to move and the new weather system is moving in.

The main feature today was the wind sift which had built up over night and which continued to move the snow around all day. As always it was mixed story with some places scoured by the wind and other benefiting from the snow being deposited to give some good skiing.

As Lynda was skiing we went to the Old Side for a warm up and found sifted snow all over Bear. We then tried the Sunny Side shoulder and China Wall which were firm bumps. For a change we hit out across Lizard Bowl to Dancer and cut into lower Easter Bowl and found nice regular bumps with some sift. We exited through Freeway which had obviously been groomed a few days ago and was a hard base with very few bumps.

New Lift line was ok bumps with a little sift and Kangaroo was also twiggy bumps with a rather technical drop onto the cat track. Lynda took North Ridge which was a smooth mellow groomer while I hit Boom Ridge which was quite soft on skiers right but hard twiggy bumps low down. Just time to drop Boomerang which was still fairly soft bumps before heading over to the New Side.

Lift Line was hard icy bumps with some icy patches and was as hard as it has been so far this season. We did a White Pass loops through the Gun bowl and Quite Right which was all firm bumps taking an edge. Our run to base was through Currie Glades which skied very easily indeed with lots of sift blown in among the tress.

In the afternoon I was on my own and just went for a load of New Side loops as Polar Peak had been closed due to a combination of cold, wind, poor viz and lack of public support. To be fair I doubt that I could have raised much enthusiasm for going up there myself even if it had been open -

Cougar Glades/ Stag Leap - Some sift in the trees in the glades made for a pleasant run. I took about 6 turns below the cat track before cutting into Stag which was good deep snow but I have a feeling that if it had been 8 turns it might have been a different story. Lower Stag is twiggy but easily skiable of maybe we are just getting better at ignoring the twigs.
The Brain/Lower Decline - some sift in the trees in the Brain and a nice drop off above the cat track. Lower Decline is still skiing as nice soft bumps with hardly any twigs.
Lone Fir/Spinal Tap - success at last in that I finally worked out the best line in Lone Fir Chute so I didn't find myself too high or too low at any point and was able to ski a pretty well put together line all the way down, best of all significant new sift had been deposited in the chute. The cushion under the chute was super soft and Spinal Tap seemed to have much more snow in the creek bed if that is possible but was a bit more technical on the ski out to the right of the creek bed.
Decline/Window Chutes - top of Decline was skiing as nice soft bumps and for most of the Window chutes there was soft snow but in both chokes there was ice and some exposed wood which needed a bit of attention.

Finally of course it was Skydive and 4 of us made it. We hit the run in a single shot and even in the twiggy sections lower down it skied very well if a little icy in the top. Beers with buddies in the Griz before heading to the Rusty Edge. The forecast suggests precip and the Griz knows we need it. Almost no one on the hill at the moment and I doubt even a big dump of snow would change that much , lets hope we find out.

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