Monday, April 3, 2017

Day 116 Spring - winter - spring - winter

Sorry, tonight's report is going to be very brief because as I have said before Sunday is my drinking night and we went straight from the hill to the Currie Bowl with our good friends Dan and Ruth so it is very late before I even start todays report.

Overnight there was no new snow to speak of and it was warm on the way to the hill at +4 degrees. Our plan was to stay low on the Old Side and benefit from the rising warming line. It mostly worked with ok skiing in Sun Up, China Wall, Bear Cave Chutes, Cedar Centre Trees, Boom Ridge and Boomerang. It was soft snow on top with some crusty stuff low down. All exits were through Kangaroo which was soft bumps but a bit ribby in the last few turns in the shade.

Just after noon we went to the New Side and things changed from nice warm sunny spring skiing to a full on winter blizzard which set in from top to bottom of the hill. It had been about +1 at White Pass load but as the winter storm swept through (and every time after that) the temp dropped to -1. We skied lift line in the rapidly deepening snow and then Corner Pocket which skied about as soft and easy as I can remember. The fan underneath was super soft and untracked but in poor light.

After lunch we went back up the New Side and found that the winter conditions had gone so we skied Corner Pocket and Easter in the sun which were just awesome deep new snow. Next loop we did Low Saddle but by this time full on winter conditions were back and whilst the viz wasn't great the skiing was just awesome.

We had time for a Knot Chute drop which was good and soft in the conditions which had now switched back to sun and blue skies and it was good. We tracked out to Anaconda which was untracked soft deep new snow and maybe run of the day. The push back round Trespass Trail was another story.

Last run of course was Skydive with full on winter conditions starting up again. It was ok in the top but soft breakable crust most of the way down and only a few good soft turns just at the end. Tough skiing but not a bad end to a very good day, particularly in the afternoon.

As we sat in the Griz and later as we went about our business down town it just puked snow in valley with temps of +1 which I imagine would have been cooler up the hill. It snowed so hard that it might well have accumulated 5 cms even in the brief time it was snowing tonight. Who knows ? We will find out tomorrow.


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