Sunday, February 11, 2018

Day 72 - still cold, stil windy and still f---ing brutal

No real change today. It was bit warmer on the way to the hill at -10 and was over cast but all they were reporting was 2 cms of new snow but to be honest I didn't see any sign of it. We considered the Old Side but junked it on the basis that we could always go there and investigate if the New Side gave us any cause for optimism which it didn't. Later reports confirmed what we had already concluded which was that the Old Side was a bust and best avoided unless you were in to slick groomers which we were not.

Puff Trees seemed to have a little more soft snow but were mostly hard icy bumps all day. Once again Gun Bowl had the best soft snow and the wind which had gone round to the north and was blowing hard provided some up hill wind grooming. Unfortunately the wind had scoured the Knot Chutes which were very tough and chunky although we enjoyed the challenge of the far chutes most of the morning.

We took runs to base through 1-2-3s and Currie Glades all of which seemed to ski ok. The blow in snow had lowered the crunch line to well below the base of 3's and I am struggling to see why Anaconda and Concussion remain closed when their lower sections are well above the established crunch line. Final runs down alternated between Diamond Back ( groomed and rather slick in the final section) Gilmar Trail (ok as long as you held the left shoulder) and Lower Barracuda which was groomed but hard. Over all you couldn't get away from the fact that the lower mountain was ugly and icy, a fact confirmed by ski patrol who kept most of that part of the mountain closed.

We got into a lot of 1-2-3 loops and found that with the change in wind direction that was where the sift was ending up. We took a few loops back through the Knot Chutes which were still chunky. Temps dropped steadily throughout the day so that by the afternoon we were getting minus high teens which with the wind had to have "feels like " temp well down into the mid 20s.

A special mention has to go to the guys who were working on the Polar Peak Chair where the wind was 60 clicks at the top and conditions were out the other side of brutal. As far as I know ( and they do seem to be rather keen on not letting anyone know what is going on) the problems on tower 6 where the line is off the track is near resolution and the rime on the line which is another big problem might be resolved when they get the chair turning in the next day or two. As I say this is just all unofficial speculation as official sources seem to be unwilling or unable to give any kinds of updates on the Polar Chair - you do have to wonder why they don't want to tell their guests what is going on.

In the afternoon I was on my own and I linked up with my buddy Glen and we hit 1-2-3s ( filling in and getting softer) Knot Chutes (still very technical in the tight chutes) and the 1-2-3s again. Last run off the hill through 1-2-3s which by this time was flat smooth wind grooming was great and we then hit Diamond Back to give Glen a chance to have rip on his 80 ml under foot carvers even if it did mean that the others of us on our powder boards had to slither around a bit - that is what friends are for.

So ended another hard crunchy ugly cold windy day on the hill where the only mitigating factor was that the crunch line moved even further down the hill as the wind sift came into play. don't get carried away, most of the hill was hard ugly icy bumps. Overnight they are calling for -25 and no new snow so tomorrow looks like more of the same - worst luck.

4 comments:

  1. Kangaroo was actually quite lovely on Sunday with the blow in. Seemed like the run of the day to me.

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  2. You could be right. The whole hill is hard and icy so Kangaroo could be the only run skiing just a well as usual.

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  3. Thank you for providing this report once more. Great to read.

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  4. looks like the pay for powder gang will be rewarded Saturday

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