Day 115 Another great day of winter skiing

On the way to the gym this morning for my daily 10 km run (ok I won't mention it again) it was -2 and stayed that way as we drove to the hill after my morning coffee. I was worried because it did look like we were in for a sunny morning and at this time of year it doesn't take long for the sun to work it's destructive magic on a skiing surface. I needn't have worried as it clouded over soon after we got to the hill and stayed that way all day.

Actually we had light flurries from mid morning onwards which didn't really give any accumulation but by the end of the day what we had qualified as light snow and some minor accumulation was taking place. Temps stayed wonderfully cool all day and a patroller buddy said that the daytime high up the mountain was -3. Even the valley temp was zero as we drove away from the hill and the snow was proper winter snow from top to bottom all day. The other feature of the weather was the wind that was particularly strong on the New Side and had the effect of sifting the snow around and providing some surprisingly deep pockets of wind groomed snow in places.

We went to the Old Side to check things out as we hadn't been there for a few days. I don't know if Bear Cave Chutes had been closed yesterday but I dropped into deep untracked powder and although it was only a few turns it was very good. After that we looped Cedar Ridge from the Boom Top entrance to King Fir and back and it was all excellent tracked powder.

We got word that Snake Ridge had opened but only from the Hut Traverse so we could access that from the Boom Top without having to run back to Bear. We did  3 Snake Ridge loops which involved some serious side stepping to get out there on the traverse. It was hard work (on top of the gym this morning) but worth it as there were very deep untracked lines to be had over the whole Snake area. We had 7 exits through Kangaroo this morning and it was skiing well after we discovered that the best snow was on the hard right protected by the trees from yesterday morning's sun. We went for a fairly late lunch.

After lunch we went up the New Side and found that the traverse just below the Reverse Traverse was open and the ski down on Currie Powder was an easy groomed run. Obviously we hadn't had enough climbing so we went up to Lone Fir and found the chute to be soft deep and mellow. The fan was super deep and with Lizard closed there were no tracks coming in from that side to spoil the fun. Easter bowl was soft easy bumps.

Next I hit the Fraser Tooth and as expected it was soft and deep and some of the best and steepest tree skiing on the hill if you stayed in the fall line. Next loop I tried Gotta Go and for the first time dropped into the early tight chute which skied well. I avoided the choke by dropping into the trees to the right (The Fangs ?) and found a soft snow bye pass of the choke although it was steep and tight. Diamond Leg Trees were predictably soft and deep. I just had time for a loop through Cobra Rock which was lightly tracked and every bit as good as I expected although there had been a bit of side slipping traffic in the steep chutes to the right. Diamond Leg Trees were just as good as before.

As I was tight for time I didn't drop Hollywood Rock last run as I had done yesterday but forgot to mention it in last night's blog - current score in my favour 13/17 with 4 stacks when it was really big. Last run of course was Skydive but tonight with only Kyle and me to enjoy it. That was everyone else's loss as it skied very soft and mellow all the way down and even after a long tough day like today we could really rip it.

I only had time for a quick juice in the Griz tonight as I was due at Straight Line to get my new skis mounted. They did a great job and I now am the proud owner of a new pair of the DPS Wailer Alchemists (they don't seem much different from my old skis which is great as I just love them) and a pair of Marker Jester bindings which everyone tells me are indestructible, we will see.

Forecasters are calling for some good amounts of snow tonight and another cool day tomorrow so we can hope that winter will continue for a while yet.