Day 79 busy in the parking lot but no one on the hill

Yeah, it was strange today. We got to the hill about 15 minutes late due to having to pick up a buddies skis from town on the way to the hill. We only just managed to get parked in the very back of Lot 2, this being a holiday Monday, but when we actually got on the hill there were no line ups and at least in the parts of the hill we skied no people.

All the weather reports talked about starting temps of -14 but actually it was about -6 when we hit the hill and stayed at about that temperature all day all over the hill. It was sunny to start with but by the afternoon we had cloud and fairly significant flurries which may well give up some good fresh stuff between now and tomorrow morning.

As White Pass had been broken down yesterday and as a result Currie bowl had been close we went to the New side for what we thought would be the best snow. We bumped into our buddy Rob who was on his split shift today and he had skied the Old side and confirmed that it wasn't that good.

We drifted around Skydive, Stag Leap, Decline, Concussion, Cougar Glades, Secret chutes and Spinal Tap. All were good packed in snow taking an edge due to the huge skier traffic this holiday weekend. The best snow was Spinal Tap with the soft snow having drifted into the creek bed making for great soft deep skiing.

In the afternoon it was much the same thing on much the same runs with much the same results. Only deviation was that we went out to Anaconda and Bootleg glades and the snow in Anaconda was still good deep powder, the best on the hill at the moment. Met up with my buddy Randy and hit Spinal Tap one last time and finished witha rip down Skydive which after the big bumps at the top was just awesome soft bumps.

Devastating evening with my Irish sailing buddies and now bed ready for what might be a powder day tomorrow.

Day 78 Crowds but some good stuff if you know where to look

First the toast we raised to RCR tonight in the bar tonight. On the busiest Sunday of the year they had White Pass chair down all day which meant that at least 25% of the terrain and nearer 30% of the advanced terrain was not available with the maximum high season ticket price place. This of course had a huge knock on effect on the rest of the hill with ugly lines particularly on Bear. Why was this a cause for such celebration ? reason - I lost count of the number of people I heard in the lift lines, locker rooms, day lodge and Griz bar saying that after last weekend when the Old side was down and this weekend with no Whitepass they would never would never come to Fernie ever again. The reason that this is such a cause of celebration for us is that the numbers in future will be way down and we will have the hill to ourselves, a problem for RCR but as they seem to be bent on creating these problems who are we to discourage them.

A bluebird day with no new snow and a starting temp of -15 getting up to about -2 by mid day. We decided to hit the New side on the grounds that the Old side would have been trashed yesterday. With White pass down and promised for 10, then 12, then 2 then not today we did what we could off Timber. Lift Line, Black Cloud, Surprise, Siberia Ridge (particularly good). When it finally dawned that White pass was not opening we went to the Old Side.

As we thought Bear chair was ugly busy but just like yesterday Boomerang was ok, in fact rather less busy than a usual weekend. We had a few runs up and and down Boom, Boom ridge and Linda's and found that just like the New Side there was no fresh snow but good tracked powder which was soft bumps taking an easy edge.

We all thought that the Haul Back would very busy but to everyone's amazement it was even less busy than Boomerang. This was the situation for the rest of the day and to this moment I am at a loss to explain why this part of the hill was so quiet on what was an otherwise ugly busy day. We looped Cedar ridge several times via Kangaroo to celebrate.

After lunch we got word that White Pass was going to stay closed so it was back to the Old side for more of the same - best snow all day was Boom ridge skiers left which remained soft bumps so you could really cut loose top to bottom. End of the day we risked the Bear chair crowds for a traverse out the the area boundary and then a drop down Steep and Deep which was well tracked out but great fun.

Beers with our Irish buddies in the Griz bar afterwards and then more beers at home. A pretty good day given the crowds and the crap lift maintenance.