Day 51 more powder

Overnight we had another 15 cms of powder and this time it really was powder as the  snow came down at about -4 rather than the plus temps of the past few days. It was -2 on the way to the hill and the same on the way back. During the day it stayed well below zero up the hill and even the base was sub zero. It was overcast with some very brief sunny periods and by the end of the day we were getting some light graupel accumulations but the forecast is for nothing very significant to happen over night.

It was Saturday and on the back of some new snow so unsurprisingly the crowds were big. The whole thing was made worse by a significant break down of the Timber Chair early in the day. Now, I have got in trouble before for my comments on the state of lift repair on the hill so I will state the facts exactly as they occurred. At 9 the Timber chair started loading. At 9:10 the chair stopped with a problem at tower 28. At 9:20 the lift started moving to unload the people already on there giving a few lucky souls unchallenged access to White Pass. After repeated reports that things would be ok in 10 minutes we bailed to the Old Side at about 10 and found the lift line at Bear so big that we probably would still have been there now if we had waited.. We dropped to base and found Timber still closed so we went for a choccy break. At 10:45 Timber finally started working and we had access to the New Side. I make no comment on this other than to say that if you think his level of customer service is acceptable then fine. If like many of the day ticket holders I heard talking you think that it is totally unacceptable then the hill has a problem. As an aside a buddy of mine actually hiked out of the Haul Back load because the line up was so long - says it all.  As I said, no comment from me just a factual report of what happened.

Because of the late start and the loss of skiing I just skied all day and missed lunch. In general terms it was deep soft powder snow on top and below yesterday's crap line it was soft snow on a very hard base, As a patroler buddy of mine described it - champagne on ice

I have had far too many beers with buddies to do a satisfactory report but we skied Knot Chutes (very mellow) Surprise Trees (ditto) Cougar Glades (first track awesome) Stag Leap (soft snow on icy bumps) Anaconda (soft and deep) Bootleg (ditto) Lone Fir (good in the chute and better below) Touque Chutes (very good soft snow) Spinal Tap ( good on the skier right shoulder) Easter Meadow (very deep and soft) Siberia Ridge (took the steep pitch in the choke for the first time this year) etc. Much more very good skiing but I can't remember it and tonight I'm afraid alcohol is going to be the winner.

Last rip down Skydive was good in the top and soft snow on a hard ice base in the lower section. far too many beers and a hot tub before more drinks with buddies tonight. Apologies for the rather sketchy report but that's what happens when your buddies ambush you with beer. Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.