Thursday, February 4, 2016

Day 56 an awesome powder day

Not sure just how many awesomes today should get on my scale but it should have been something getting on for two and half which isn't bad when you consider that the scale only goes up to three.

It snowed all night and just how much we got depends on which report you read. Numbers come in at anything between 20 and 30 cms with the official figure at 23. My own observations suggested about 25 cms with a bit less in wind swept areas and way more in some of the wind deposit stashes. The forecast had been for some very light low moisture snow and whilst what we got was by no means heavy it did have a good moisture content giving it the substance needed to hold you up on the steep pitches and in many places qualify as hero snow. I think this may have been down to things not being quite so cold overnight as anticipated.

It snowed all night and the starting temp was -5 on the way to the hill. higher up it was bit cooler but as the day wore on it warmed up so that we had zero at the base and -5 at the White Pass load. As a result the snow stayed in pretty good shape all day all over the hill. The snow stopped mid morning and to everyone's surprise the forecasters got it right and we had a cloudy afternoon with the odd flash of sun but not enough to do any damage to the skiing surface.

I went to the New Side for all the well explored reasons that keep me away from the Old Side on a good powder day and this certainly was one of them. I skied all day from lining up at ten to nine at the Timber Chair through to dropping Skydive just after 4 with no breaks of any kind during the day - lunch was taken in the Griz Bar after skiing. All day drops from Timber top to White Pass load were through a variety of routes ranging from Puff Trees on one side to Mitchy Chutes on the other and they were all super soft deep mellow snow with many untracked lines particularly early in the day.

Currie Bowl wasn't open but Knot Chutes and all of Surprise Trees were so we had three loops taking Knot chutes from Tight Knot to Jim Chute and the Trees from the Surprise near shoulder to the top section of Triple Trees. needless to say we had deep powder with a lot of untracked lines with the deepest snow in Triple Trees which made the push back along Trespass Trail well worth while.

As we arrived at the top of White Pass for the fifth time (we did one straight White Pass loop due to pilot error) they dropped the Currie Bowl fence and we raced out on the Reverse Traverse to get first tracks in Cougar Glades which were out the other side of awesome with face shots all the way. We cut out into Stag Leap and with only one track in front of us had more face shots all the way down with the lower section still scratchy underneath. After that the day panned out as -
Decline/ Window Chutes - great untracked skiing on the sided of Decline and super deep tracked snow in the chute and but icy in the choke.
Touque Chutes/Spinal Tap - sensational deep powder with many untracked lines. The last few turns in the creek bed were a bit scratchy.
Skydive - super deep lightly tracked powder and only a bit crunchy in the final pitch
Gotta Go/Bootleg Glades - Very deep in Gotta Go and as there was a blast line in 3s below the drop in which people didn't want to cross the right hand side of 3s below was deep untracked powder. Bootleg near trees only had one track and I soon lost that for some great untracked tree skiing.
Triple Trees - I tried it all the way to the final run out above Summer Road. The top was fantastic as no one seems to ski that area and even low down there was enough deep untracked snow to make the final pitch ok.
Touque Chutes/Spinal Tap - I did a lot of variations here, hitting the chutes to the far right almost getting back onto Decline, going right in the trees and joining Spinal Tap from the steep slope on skiers right and even hitting the trees to the right rather than skiing the creek bed in the final section which was bit scratchy but ok. A very interesting variation.
The Brain - very deep lightly tracked snow in the top getting a bit firm under the new snow lower down. The sensational top made the bottom worth while.
Siberia Ridge - as always rather neglected and so plenty of untracked lines if you cut the trees on either side of the run.

Final run was Skydive and there were still three of us with enough left in our legs to give it a rip. Soft and deep to the final pitch where it was a little icy under the new snow. The end to a fantastic day of deep powder skiing. Beers in the Griz (limited for me as I was driving) home for a hot tub and an early night. Today we didn't get Polar Peak, The Saddles or Lone Fir so plenty to look forward to tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment