Day 45 Happy Birthday to Polar Peak chair

Yes, it was one year ago to the day that Polar Peak chair opened for the first time so today is it's first birthday. It was a pity they couldn't get it open to celebrate but to be fair it was cold with brutal winds and the windchill on the top doesn't bear thinking about. First loop through I stood under the chair and sang Happy Birthday - two guys came over to ask what I was doing and when I explained they moved off pretty quick. I didn't have time to explain that we are small town and have to make our own entertainment.

It wasn't as cold as yesterday (-9 as we arrived at the hill and warming a few degrees during the day) but with the socked in moisture in the air and quite strong winds it felt a lot colder than the mercury was reading all day. It was snowing as we arrived and with the windsift we seemed to get a new covering of snow that skied rather better than the 4 cms or so that had to be the true measure.

When I say "we" I am using it in the Royal sense as everyone had deserted me today so I was on my own - I actually quite enjoy a day pleasing no one but myself. Even for a Monday in January with cold temps today was quiet. There were time when I found myself skiing for 20 minutes or more without seeing a sole - of course I mean soul, after all you wouldn't expect to see that many fishes on a ski hill.

I decided to have a New Side day playing in the few cms of new snow and windsift. Having arrived at the hill about half an hour late due to some over celebrating last night I ran straight through to last bell with no break.  A special mention has to go to Lift Line which was full of soft new snow and was my route from Timber Top to White Pass base every time and was some of the best snow on the hill. Other than that it played out as -

Currie Creek - although late I cut the first tracks out that way. I never intended to ski the creek but I was tempted as I skied over it and as Oscar Wilde said "the only way to rid oneself of temptation is to yield to it" - Dropped in and had a great rip to the bottom on new snow on a soft base.
Cougar Glades - where I had been going in the first place and where I had to cut first tracks beyond my own at the top of Currie Creek from the previous time. Great new snow on a soft base (I'll stop saying that now as that was how it was everywhere) and the exit was above the rain crunch line.
Stag Leap - a bit slick in the trees but after that great until the crunch in the last third.
Lone Fir - still deep snow in the chute and the new snow had improved the fans beyond recognition. The exit in Easter still had some fresh lines.
Anaconda/Bootleg Glades - The widsift had come over the ridge and was deep and soft. Trees to the left of Bootleg still have untracked lines.
The Brain - most of the way down it was seriously good powder and untracked with tight lines in the trees. The final few turns were in the rain cruch and a bit technical but fun to test yourself.
Decline/Window Chutes - Really nice rolling terrain in Decline and soft untracked into Window chutes through the trees. The log drop is now just about 4 foot and so easy with the only problem being the rain crunch starting just as you hit the choke on the exit - what fun.
Secret Chutes/Spinal Tap - more good soft snow with the rain crunch in Spinal Tap only starting about as you are negotiation the tight deadfall sections on the exit - more fun.
Gotta Go - as usual fairly untracked as most people don't fancy traversing across the top of the Knot Chutes. A bit scratchy in the choke but great soft snow below.
Siberia Ridge - as always almost ignored by the skier traffic so good snow and the lower section is now like a great terrain park with air to be had off all the logging trail berms.

After a quick hike up for a very sweet Big Bang it was out the Skydive for the final run. Only three of us today and no crazy racing but still a nice fairly fast rip down. As with all of the Big 3 the bottom third was chunky but ok if you kept your speed up.

Wonder what tomorrow will hold ?

Day 44 a bit nippy

Yup, on the way to the hill today it was -20 at the base and about the same over the whole hill. During the day it rose to about -10 with some sun and the ridge lines socked in by cloud. On the way home tonight it was -12 on the temp indicator in the car so I guess it may be warming up a bit. Polar Peak was closed all day so the Currie Head Wall may have to wait a day or two but the reason for closing was that with wind chill on top it was -32 and you can't risk taking punters (many of whom may not be best prepared) up there in those conditions.

We went to the New Side and found that the combined effect of the very cool temps and a wind event in the night was that the snow had become very chunky and hard work. There were also death cookies breaking away so that on more than one occasion today I landed a ski on one coming out of a turn and had some quick work to do to stop one of the skis breaking away down the hill and taking me with it.

We drifted out to Cougar Glades and had a good run through the trees still finding soft untracked snow close to the trees but the hard pack did mean you had to stay hard over your skis all the time. Next loop we went down Skydive. The bumps in the top have smoothed out a bit and the top sections still had some soft snow to surf on. The lower third was well below the rain crunch line from a few days ago and was hard work. My guess is that it will take at least 10 cms of fresh to repair the lower parts of the Big 3.

We were getting cold so we worked our way over to the Old Side which as usual was few degrees warmer but still no stroll in the park. We spent the rest of the morning running around Cedar Ridge (several ways) Boom Ridge, Boomerang, Linda's, all of which were ok skiing on a firm base but with some soft on top. We did consider working our way out to Snake Ridge but with the cold snow proving grippy the juice didn't look worth the squeeze and a buddy that went out there confirmed this was the case.

A special mention must go to Kangaroo which was about as bad as I can remember it with a "marginal condition" sign from patrol at the top. The top section was hard icey bumps with ice tufts to catch you and twigs, roots, stumps and rocks to add to the challenge. The lower section made the top look like a piece of cake - it was breakable rain crust all the way through and a real nightmare. Having done it once we just couldn't believe how bad it was so we went back to do it again and found it just as bad - there are times when we are pretty dumb.

In the afternoon we met up with more friends and played on the New Side -

Currie Creek - we didn't mean to go there but it looked so good and once we were in it was a super rip to the bottom.
Decline - surprisingly soft in the top sections and nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be low down, a bit crunchy and no more.
Anaconda Glades - the first chute over the hump was full of deep but heavy snow. Once you got the hang of it the snow skied almost like deep powder.
Bootleg Glades - the nearside trees were still mostly untouched and it would have been a spectacular high speed rip if it haden been for catching my basket in a small bush and getting yanked into the back seat.

For the final rip down Skydive at 4 there were 9 of us which is a record for this season. Of course with so any of us there we just kept pushing each other until we all had a great rip on the edge of control even through the crunchy sections at the bottom. We had beers and nachos in the Griz as a goodbye to our buddies Steve and Liz who are heading back to the UK tomorrow. This gives us a few days before our next guest arrives from Ireland - as I have always said - you would be amazed how many friends you have when you own a house in Fernie.