Day 124 Happy Hot Dog Day

Actually tonight isn't as bad as I thought it would be as the conditions we so good that we got distracted with the powder skiing and didn't have time to get into the serious alcohol abuse until quite late in the day.

We had 16 cms of fresh snow over night and on the way to the hill it was -8 so that we had a full on winter powder day with the snow on top of what we have had over the past few days. At first it looked like we might be getting a warm sunny day but through the morning it clouded over and by lunch time we had full on winter conditions with reasonably heavy snow fall. The snow stayed all day and as there was no one on the hill as we were all hot dogging I imagine we will be getting some really good skiing first thing tomorrow. Temps got up to around zero but are now falling back towards another winter's day tomorrow.

We took a bit of time to get going as we had to be in our retro Hot Dog gear which took a bit of sorting. My old Killy red one piece made it's annual guest appearance and as usual I was impressed by how good one pieces are and how much better ski gear was made back in the day compared with now. Usually on Hot Dog Day I start in the Lost Boys Café drinking beer to make the political point that the hill is prepared to serve alcohol if you are prepared to pay for it but conditions today were so good it was a case of screw political points - let's ski.

The High IT was open for the first time in several days so I tracked across to Gotta Go and had an awesome deep powder runs down to the cat track before taking an untracked Diamond Leg Trees all the way down to the Gilmar Trail. Stag Leap had been the best of the Big 3 for some days so we went out and found it rather tracked up but ok although slightly sun affected which was strange as we weren't getting any sun.

I thought Cobra Rock would be good but found it was closed which didn't make any sense but rules are rules - I discovered later that someone had forgotten to flip the sign (not for the first time up there this season) and I could  have skied it. I dropped Anaconda 1 which was untracked and awesome and Diamond Leg Trees were still pretty good. Next loop we went to Decline which was deep and untracked in the top and the Window Chutes which were just awesome and only a bit scratchy in the choke.

We then had a short break as my buddy Brad forced me to go to the tailgate of his truck and drink some beer. After that we went out to Touque Chutes where the snow was super deep and face shots all the way down before cutting in to Spinal Tap which was soft and deep and only became scratchy in the last few turns after the deadfall. Last run before a very late lunch was Skydive which skied as soft deep winter powder with many untracked lines all the way down.

After lunch we had very little time so I had to go to the Old Side and dig around in certain areas to see if anyone by chance had left any beer there, as luck would have it they had so we headed up Wallaby to join in with the Hot Dog party. I didn't feel the need to hit the jump as in honour of Hot dog day I had hit Hollywood Rock earlier and landed it bringing my season total to 19 attempts, 15 landing, 4 stacks which is about the best I have ever achieved.

We watched the fun then headed back via Boomerang which I have to say was just awesome GS turns in soft bumps. The Griz bar was a ticket only affair and that worked out really well as it was the regular crowd just enjoying and 80's disco and stacks of beer and we all had a totally awesome time.

Tomorrow looks like another full on winter's day on top of what we had today so in away I am glad I only had a bit too much to drink tonight. Bring it on.