T minus 1 and getting excited

First apologies for the slight miscalculation on the days to go in my last post. Like many in the town I had it in my head that opening day was Saturday and of course it is tomorrow, Friday. These days most ski hills seem to open on Friday and no one is quite sure why. Some say it's to give locals a chance to ski the hill before the weekend warriors hit town, while others think it is to allow the hill to have a chance to get their act together before the weekend crowds show up - it's probably a combination of the  two.

On a personal front all tasks have been done, the truck, the house, the hot tub are all ready for the season. Our gear and skis have been moved up to the locker on the hill although I suspect we will only be using our rock skis for a couple of weeks until the real snow arrives. Things have gone so well that we have even had time to go to the movie house a couple of times (Fantastic Beast and Dr Strange) and will try and get there more often this season. I am still running every day at the gym and have not yet had a drink of alcohol since I arrived - lets see if I can keep that up.

The good news is that we have been getting some fairly consistent snowfall in the valley - not huge amounts but a few cms here and there which would be more on the hill and if nothing else at least makes the whole town look nice and Christmassy. I will be turning on the house Christmas lights tonight for the first time as it is now December. More importantly temperatures have dropped so we are seeing nothing much above zero during the day and solid freezing temps at night. This has allowed some snow making on the lower mountain so things are looking better than before.

Looking ahead at the weather there is more snow in the outlook for pretty well all of the next 14 days although the exact amount and when it will arrive depends on which forecast you read and how optimistic you are. The one thing all forecasts seem to agree on is that in the middle of next week we will be hit by an Arctic High with daytime highs of no more that -15 and night time lows of as little as -26. So it looks like snow making will be on the cards most of next week and the lower mountain runs off the hill should be in ok shape by the second weekend of the season.

Opening day is shaping up as a fairly full Old Side opening with a couple of runs to base on artificial snow. The New Side will be open at White Pass and there is even talk that Polar Peak will be open on opening day which will be first since the chair has been installed. If we can only down load on Timber chair then the way back from Polar will have to be a skate round Trespass Trail or a trip out on the Reverse Traverse looking for the Saddles or Easter over into Lizard Bowl. Could be a fun typical early season suck it and see exploring experience - hopefully without the bushwhacking to get out that usually goes with it.

I am really excited about the season and I just love this time of year. Everyone is so positive and pumped up about the season and everything is there to play for. During the week there is practically no one on the hill and every day there are new openings or bits of the hill which will be skied for the first time this season if you have a sense of adventure. In town the Christmas lights are on and on the radio there is wall to wall Christmas music. The magic kind of evaporates from Boxing Day onwards but while it lasts it is quite literally "The most wonderful time of the year".

So after tomorrow I will be settling down to the new regime of blogging but I guess old habits die hard and maybe for the first few days we might be back on daily blogging - who knows.