Day 118 Still pretty ok

As I said last night we keep going to the hill expecting this great run of winter skiing to come to an end and everyday we find that the conditions are still ok. Well, with warm temps yesterday afternoon and a starting temp this morning of -7 with no new snow we had every reason to suppose that today the hill would be pretty ugly but once again conditions were well on the right side of ok as long as you went to the right place.

The forecasters got it dead right in that it was a bluebird start but about mid day it started to cloud over until we had 100% cloud cover by the end of the day. It was quite windy and the cold wind did have the effect of keeping the south facing areas even in the direct sunlight in a not too soft a state although they did get soft. The north facing slopes stayed in good winter conditions with smooth soft snow even in the afternoon temps which got up to +7 in the valley as we drove away.

We saw that the Cedar High Traverse was open for the first time in a few days so we headed up the Old Side to take the trip out to Snake Ridge. We actually cut first tracks out to Steep and Deep but found it a bit crusty from yesterday's sun so we turned left on the shoulder into Redtree which was much better soft wind sift down to the last few turns which were very crusty. After that we just had a few loops on the North facing parts of Cedar Ridge and King Fir which were great winter snow and were smooth and soft taking a nice edge. First lap I exited all the way down Kangaroo which was very icy but after that I bailed after the first pitch - the second pitch was that bad.

We went to the New Side and found that Lift Line to Mitchy Chutes were awesome flat winter skiing and we took them every time on the way down to White Pass Load. High Saddle looked ok so we dropped in and found soft snow all the way through the chute and good winter snow below that. Easter bowl was flat and taking a nice edge but a little firmer than yesterday. Last run before lunch we hiked up Lone Fir and found the chute full of soft snow and as easy to ski as I can remember. We exited through Easter.

After lunch at the excellent Big Bang Bagels (great food and great value) we went back to the New Side planning an afternoon very similar to yesterday's majoring on the North facing slopes. Low Saddle had a couple of rocks to hop round in the top but was easy skiing after that and Perch Chutes seemed untouched all the way down to Easter. Gotta Go was calling and now I have found a route round the choke through the trees on the right it is steep but very mellow and the snow underneath very soft, deep and lightly tracked. Diamond Leg Trees didn't seem to have been touched since we skied it yesterday and was great soft deep skiing.

Next we hiked Easter Meadow which was only lightly tracked and the chute into Easter which is normally very tight was full of soft snow. Easter itself remained in great condition. To vary things we headed out to Cobra Rock and found the High IT just getting a bit mushy. Cobra Rock skied just like Gotta Go and our run down was just the same and just as good including Diamond Leg Trees.

We just had time for a White Pass rip in under 3 minutes before getting the last chair up to ski Skydive. Today the numbers were back to 5 of us and the run skied well with bumps in the top, the rest of the run skiing very soft and even the final few turns were not as crunchy as yesterday. We had a good time in the bar with Sid the Squid and Air Bentley (there guys told you that you would get a mention) before heading home. The forecast seems to be calling for significant amounts of snow over the next few days during the holiday - I guess it just goes to show that God is a Calgarian.