Day 117 a full on winter start

Yesterday as we left the hill it was puking snow and continued into the evening. When we woke up this morning it was -1 on the deck and the hill were reporting 8 cms of fresh snow overnight and it had been snowing all morning since the early snow readings.

I skipped the morning run and headed straight for the hill for an early morning powder start by which time the temp at the base had risen to zero and it was still snowing. I was very surprised to see how few cars and trucks there were in the parking lot but I guess for some folk the season is all but over. We headed up the New Side where the temp at White Pass load was about -2 and conditions at the very top were socked in with snow continuing.

We headed out towards the top of the Big Three and had to cut the trail for the Skydive Traverse which was quite hard going given how much snow had fallen. We took Skydive untracked which was a bit variable with some of yesterdays crust not fully covered by the new snow making one or two turns mid run rather challenging - overall it was good full on winter powder skiing. Next loops we hit the Saddles in turn. Corner Pocket was easy mellow skiing and the fan was super deep soft untracked snow. High Saddle was easy skiing and the fan just as with Corner Pocket. Low saddle was so mellow that I jumped the right had shoulder after only one turn and was able to drop the chutes below from most of the way up into Shaun's Chute - awesome deep soft untracked snow. In between a couple of the Saddles we went up Polar Peak which had opened as the snow had stopped and the sky was clearing and to be honest were disappointed. Shale Slope, Grand Papa Bear and Papa Bear were all ok soft snow but on top of a rock hard uneven icy base which you were through to most of the time - that is why after a couple of loops we just went back to the saddles where the snow in the fans was still just awesome.

All our exits except one were through Easter Bowl which was good untracked skiing on the left side trees and Freeway which was becoming rather sticky on an ice base. Just once we tried to go out to Spinal Tap and found the creek bed full of breakable crust and avi debris and it was a very tough ski down. By the last run of the morning the snow had stopped and it was clearing towards a bluebird day. We had been told that 1-2-3s were skiing well and that Anaconda Glades were good so putting two and two together we figured that Gotta Go would be good and we were right. There were only a couple of tracks in the chute and underneath the snow was deep with untracked lines as long as you avoided the avi debris on the left. Exit through Bootleg Glades was ok and untracked in the trees on the left but got a bit heavy in the last couple of turns before the Gilmar Trail.

After lunch we were back up the New Side and Straight into Corner Pocket which skied exactly as it had done in the morning. Next we went out to Easter Bowl and found lots of untracked lines on skiers right and it was starting to get pretty soft. By this time the sun had come out and we were into a full on spring skiing day with temps at the base of +7, White Pass load +5 and way hotter than that in the direct sunshine. We just had time for a couple of loops of White Pass and found that Knot Chutes were super mushy and Surprise Trees ranged from mush to crust under the trees depending on the shadows - very tough skiing.

Last run of course was Skydive which was only lightly tracked and perversely skied rather better than it had when untracked first thing. The snow was deep at the top and the atmospheric warming appeared to have softened the base so that with the exception of a couple of turns mid run which were a little crusty it was great powder skiing all the way down. The forecast is for cold temps tonight and warm day tomorrow so maybe a morning run might be the order of the day tomorrow.