Day 96 a happy ending

Now all of you perverts who have clicked on this blog because of today's heading thinking that it something other than it is can just tune out now, this is pure snow porn (oh dear, another unfortunate search word) and not what you are looking for. This has to be quick as I am out tonight for dinner with our buddies Steve and Liz who have been out for three weeks and who are heading back to the UK tomorrow.

There was no new snow overnight and on the way to the hill is was zero at the parking lot and obviously way lower up the hill. The result was that today's conditions were just like yesterday's except that the dust of yesterday was a bit more skied in or blown around than it was. During the day temps rose a little so that we just about had plus temps at the base, around +2 which was way lower than forecast and remained below zero on top - with the failure of the thermometer at the White Pass load I had to make extrapolations from the Timber Top and I am guessing that the temps stayed at about -3. During the morning the cloud that had been around cleared and it looked like we were going to get a bluebird afternoon but in the event we got some very full on winter conditions after lunch which was what gave us such a happy ending.

 We went to the Old Side and poked around for a couple of hours but didn't find anything worth while. Here I have to make the point once again that we don't want to ski groomers so we are always looking for ungroomed opportunities which were sadly lacking. If you were a groomer skier today would have been awesome for you with all the groomers crisp. firm and in great shape  - not really my cup of tea. We even skied Kangaroo which was about as ugly and icy as I can remember to the point where I bailed after the first pitch. Steve skied the second pitch and when he eventually appeared he confirmed it was just as bad as the first.

We went to the New Side and uncharacteristically had a hot choccy break in Lost Boys Cafe waiting for things to soften - they didn't. Puff was an icy but ok drop to White Pass load so that was our preferred route all day. We had few loops in White Pass through the Gun Bowl and Quite Right and similar places which were all hard and slick where groomed and hard with death cookies where not.

After yesterday we decided to try Corner Pocket which was getting a bit sketchy in the last few jump turns. The fan was harder and not so good skiing as yesterday but way better than anything else we had seen. The exit through lower Easter and Freeway were actually pretty acceptable. After a few more White Pass loops that were no better than before we ran to a very late lunch through 1-2-3s although like yesterday we only skied 1s (nice soft snow in poor light) and 2s (getting a bit chunky in the last few turns before we bailed on to Down Right) and bailed on 3s.

During lunch we had speculated that the sun may soften Concussion during the afternoon, boy, were we wrong. It started snowing during lunch and didn't let up all afternoon. The snow fell in the form of heavy grauple (ice pellets) which was great fill in snow and very quickly gave a cushion on the scratchy base. It just puked snow all afternoon (at least what little was left of it) and the effect on repairing the hill was amazing.

We had more White Pass loops in now a soft snow covering before try Corner Pocket/Easter bowl which skied way better than before and even the edge to edge jumping in the bottom of the chute proved mellow. Next White Pass loops involved Knot Chutes where the traverse was about as easy as I can remember and the I bowl which was still lumpy but much improved. Pillow Talk became particularly good fun in the lower chutes.

It was time for out last run down Skydive which for most of the day we had not been looking forward to but by last run in the accumulated snow we couldn't wait to get out there. The traverse was the hardest part as the snow had pile up so high it was job to push through the untracked accumulation. For the second time in two days we had first tracks in Skydive a 4 o'clock but unlike yesterday today was due to the fresh new snow. It was still rather crusty and chunky underneath but as long as you kept on speed to keep you on top it was great skiing. The lower section needed a bit of concentration but was still very good skiing and made an end to the day much better than most of the day had been.

Despite there being no precip in the forecast it continued to snow as we drank beers in the Griz. Temps as we drove away from the hill were -1 even in the valley floor and forecast to go down to -5. As I look out onto my deck it is still snowing and the snow is accumulation on the hot tub. I have a feeling that we might be in for a Fernie flurry tonight and a pretty good day tomorrow - let's see.