Thursday, February 23, 2017

Day 78 no new snow but still ok

As the heading says we had no new snow over night but the conditions on the hill remain pretty good. This is particularly true of the lower hill where it might have been expected that the soft snow of a few days ago would have turned ugly but although it is firm and chunky it is still definitely on the right side of ok.

No new snow today and the temp on the way to the hill was -6. Today we didn't have the entertainment of yesterday on our drive along the highway (which I forgot to mention) of a moose wandering around - we did see a squirrel but to be honest it's not quite the same thing. During the day we had cloud but with sunny spells particularly early and late in the day. The result was that tings warmed up to around zero at the base (maybe a little warmer in the direct sunlight) but remained cool up the hill with White Pass load showing -4 just before close and the temp on my deck as I type this is -3 and falling.

The effect on conditions was that nothing much changed from yesterday. The upper mountain snow stayed in very good shape and the lower parts were ok. Even the south facing slopes didn't get sun on them for long enough for it to have any great effect.

As promised we went to the Old Side and spent a morning looping around trying to find some untracked snow. Sun Up and the chutes to the skiers left of China Wall were hard packed but taking a nice edge. Bear Cave Chutes and New Lift Line had some untracked snow if you cut the trees very close but were mostly tracked powder. Kangaroo which we skied 4 times was in remarkably good shape being hard bumps in the top and chunky snow in the bottom. Boom Ridge was firm bumps but with some areas of untracked snow as was Boomerang itself which we used every lap to return to the Bear Chair via the Goat Trail. Cedar Ridge skied very easily every time with lots of untracked lines in the top but some harder chunky snow low down.

The first of two long loops we took was to Snake Ridge which had great soft untracked lines in the top (but watch out for the death cookies) becoming hard pack which was taking a nice edge lower down and in to Gorby Gap. The second loop was Gorby Bowl itself which had lots of soft deep untracked snow although you had to pick your line. The exit over the waterfall was the usual left right shuffle (which I wasn't sure was going to be there when I dropped in) which was in as good a shape as I have ever seen it but can be easily missed if you don't pay attention.

After a fairly late lunch we went to the New Side and tried a loop through White Pass which in my case meant taking the High IT which was not too rocky and dropping Fraid Knot which was soft and deep as was the run out through the I Bowl. I looped out to Touque chutes and Spinal Tap and found them both heavily tracked but soft snow even if it was a bit chunky. Lower down in the creek bed things became a bit crisp but nothing to get excited about. Polar Peak was open so up we went although Lynda stuck to the Coaster which she said was very nice and I had a couple of runs through Grand Papa and Papa Bear which were both soft bumps but with some soft blow in.

Having linked up with my buddy Brad we had a final drop of Papa Bear and the hit Concussion (each with our own version of where that was) and found the snow slightly firm tracked powder but taking an easy edge all the way down the bowl. Skier traffic had much improved Gilmar Gully which was firm bumps. Last run of course was Skydive which was a little icy between to bumps at the top but then became nice and soft until about half way down the final pitch were it all became a bit scratchy.

A few OJ and sodas in the bar and now we are off to the pub for dinner. They are talking of some snow over the weekend and in my view it would only take about 5 cms to bring the hill back to a very nice state indeed.

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