Day 84 I need a new measure

A few days ago I awarded three awesomes to the days skiing as that is the maximum of my scale of awesomeness. Well, today I need to add to the scale either by making it a maximum of four awesomes or being able to award an awesome plus - yes today was that good.

The snow from yesterday evening stopped but then came back after midnight so that by the time we woke up this morning the hill were reporting 39 cms of new snow in 24 hours. That was the six o'clock reading and the snow continued to puke down all day until it tapered off around three o'clock. Given the fall rate we must have had 60/65 cms out of this cycle with a ton more forecast over the next few days.

Temps are a little worrying as it was only -4 on the way to the hill and -1 as we drove back tonight. It seemed to stay at around -3 all over the hill all day so the snow was good hero quality. The outlook is for a slightly warming trend which given the amount of precip in the forecast has to be a cause for concern but to date all forecasts say that it should just about continue to come down white.

The result of 40 cms overnight and 20/25 during the day was not hard to imagine. We spent all day rolling around up to our necks in super deep powder which was filling in almost as fast as you tracked it. Everyone had a story in the bar of how they had found runs they had skied earlier completely untracked when they returned a little later. I certainly rank today as one of the top three days skiing I have had - and I have been skiing a very long time..

We went to the New Side and found just the White Pass core open but with not many people considering the conditions. We did a few loops grabbing fresh lines and then way quicker than we anticipated Currie Bowl opened, as did the whole of White Pass and the Reverse Traverse - a fantastic job by Ski Patrol. We hit out to the Big 3 and I got first tracks down Decline (to be fair a single track came in from the trees about half way down) and it was totally awesome with stops only to breath as I was choking on powder. In the final pitch I was racing my slough most of the way until it just caught me at the bottom and took my skis out for a quick sit down. On the way down I noticed one of my baskets had gone missing so I dashed into the repair shop to get a new one which they did on the spot but the few minutes delay proved fatal.

There are three things you can be certain of in this world, death, income tax and Timber Chair breaking down on a big powder day. Sure enough just before I loaded it stopped. we were told it would be a 15 minute break down but I have seen enough of these to know that was a hopelessly optimistic estimate - in the event it was down for about 2 hours, again.

I went to the Old Side which was just as good and deep as the New and filling in just as fast. Cedar Ridge, Boomerang, Buck Shot, Boom Ridge and King Fir were all excellent and skied several times, A special mention has to go to two runs, Kangaroo and Spice Trees. Kangaroo was super soft and deep although a bit firm in the top section. In the bottom section you could just pull fast GS turns all the way down which is a rarity in the Roo. Spice Trees (to lookers left of Haul Back) were unbelievably deep. The new snow had covered dead fall to the point that you could roll over it and when you dropped on the other side that had not been skied all season it was chest deep, awesome.

We got word that Timber was running so we headed back to the New Side. I was amazed to see Polar Peak open in the poor viz due to the heavy snow. I took just one run down and the snow was truly awesome and deep but I concluded that there was just as good to be had without the downside of half the run being braille skiing. The rest of the New Side loops were -

Cougar Glades - many untracked deep lines down to the Megasauraus and below that there was only one track in front of me cutting into the old logging trail on the left.
The Niche, 1-2-3s - I actually found the Niche scraped out even after the huge amounts of snow we had so I hopped the left shoulder and ripped 1-2-3s in very deep easy powder.
Trees to the right of Bootleg - no one seems to have a name for these can anyone tell me ? I think some call them the Pillows although as they lie between Diamond Back and Bootleg perhaps I will refer to them as Diamond Leg Trees. Whatever they are called they were way deeper than yesterday and awesome face shots all the way down to Gilmar Trail.
Knot Chutes/Triple Trees - The Tight Knot was as mellow as I can remember and hardly tracked, I only just beat my slough down. Triple Trees were also super deep and I hit all five sections.
Stag Leap - it had obviously been skied early on but when I got there it was mostly filled in. Awesome GS turns all the way down with over the head face shots.

I just had time for a White Pass loop so I tracked across the High IT and dropped Slim for the first time this year and found it so full of snow I had to keep pushing my skis in the fall line, not something you usually have to do there. Final run of Course was Skydive where five of us were still standing for one last rip. It was fast and soft but a special mention has to go to Brad who skied it about as fast as I have ever seen, a great final run.

More precip in the forecast which we hope will come down as snow so yet another early night.