Day 63 a short report

The main reason for a short report is that Lynda arrived back from the UK this evening and I had to drive to Cranbrook to pick her up. I have only just got back. Another reason is that not a lot changed on the hill today so I don't really have an awful lot to say - yes, I know, very unusual for me.

Last night at 11 o'clock I checked the temp and was amazed to find that it was still +5 on my deck. This morning on the way to the hill it was -2 but I am told the temp drop took place at around 4 in the morning so the snow on the hill stayed soft for quite a long time frustrating the efforts of the groomers for their evening session. It was full on spring conditions again although the sun didn't seem to have quite the warmth of yesterday and it actually clouded over in the afternoon. This all meant that things were late to soften and early to set up.

It was typical Spring skiing and I went to the Old Side in search of some softening snow. It quickly became apparent that there was none, and I dropped the north facing Cedar Ridge which was crisp but ok and becoming a bit icy in the refrozen snow lower down. Kangaroo was hard ugly icy bumps just like always and as I said yesterday as a result was the only run that skied just as good as it always does.

I spent the morning trying to get to slopes just as they softened and generally got there a bit too early and had some very hard icy skiing for a few laps until things warmed up. Loops through Boom Ridge, Cedar Ridge, Bear Cave Chutes, New Lift Line. Boom Guts and Linda's all fell under this heading. Just in case I felt that the skiing in them was tough there was always the return through Kangaroo to remind me what really hard work was like.

Late morning I hit out to Snake Ridge in the hope that it had softened but found the sign line down on the far side of Blueberry and this was all the way down to the bottom of the KC chutes. I skied the sign line (right side of course) and the skiers right KC chute. The open terrain was just starting to take an edge but the chute which looked like it might have been soft snow was in fact hard ice and very energetic edge to edge jumping.

After lunch I headed up the New Side and after a nice run down Lift Line and a couple of loops in White Pass we headed up Polar Peak. Just like yesterday Papa Bear was an ok skiing surface with some blow in but icy in places. Also like yesterday if you fell you were not going to stop. We did a couple of loops before dropping Decline which was in pretty good shape and softening in the atmospheric warming.

Sib Ridge skied ok but was crunchy in the ice debris under the trees in the choke. Stag Leap skied a bit like Decline and was also pretty good. Some where in there we managed another loop up Polar Peak and it was just starting to set up as the cloud cover rolled in. We did more but I can't remember exactly what.

Last run was Skydive as usual which just like to other of the Big 3 was quite soft all the way down as the temps stayed well above zero. I did few temp checks during the day and saw figures ranging from +3 to +7 all over the hill by the afternoon with the possible exception of Polar Peak.

On the run to the airport temps dropped steadily so that by the time I got back it was around zero in the valley. We have precip in the forecast but it is anyone's guess as to how it will come down, I intend to follow the old maxim of hope for the best and prepare for the worst.