The hill reported no new snow overnight although we seemed to have had some slight dusting down in the valley by the time we got up - perhaps the snow came after the measurement was taken first thing this morning, it would certainly be out of character to under claim any snowfall, particularly in this most desperate of all years.
When we arrived at the hill it was +1 and snowing, or at least white icy stuff was coming down and settling. These conditions persisted most of the day all over the hill with temps staying at or about zero and snow coming down off and on in flurries. By my reckoning we must have had at least 5 cms of fresh snow during the day and maybe a little more. Only by late afternoon did the snow stop and things started to warm up to a temp of +7 as we drove away and by then we were getting some rain showers in the base but probably they were coming down white at some point up the hill.
We went to the Old Side to check out some of yesterday's reports and had a great morning's skiing. The viz wasn't great but the new snow was giving a good covering on yesterday's snow which was giving some quite acceptable powder in places. Surprisingly the under base was not as hard and ribby as I would have expected given the temps and the snow cover and where it remained soft (for what ever reason) the skiing was very good powder on a soft deep base.
We spent all morning looping Cedar Ridge from Cruiser on the left to King Fir on the right and it was all nice untracked soft snow with just a little crust on the last couple of turns. It seemed to me that mine were the only tracks in there which quite possibly could be true given the total lack of people on the hill, even by Fernie standards. Haul Back T bar was temporarily closed all day so the only way to get out of Cedar was along Cedar Trail which was no great problem as this was the only way out even if you got to the top of the T bar. To get to Boom chair you had to trail all the way across to lower Kodiak and take a pretty sketchy run down to the Boom load. This took way more time than usual resulting in fewer laps than we might have hope for.
We started running out into Cedar to ski the Cedar Centre Trees and had a couple of very nice runs down through those in deep powder, particularly in the places that were not opened yesterday. All returns to Bear Chair to complete the loop were through Boomerang which skied ok with a rather scratchy base but more soft snow accumulating all the time. I think it was 6 times we ran back through Boom and whilst it never was awesome, it never sucked either. Somewhere in there we did run down Linda's which was ok but with the tracks from yesterday proving very icy and bumpy. We went for a very late lunch.
After lunch my buddy Brad and I hit the New Side and found that Lift Line had lots of blow in at the top which skied easily but got tougher towards the bottom as the chunky skied up snow was setting up a bit. Brad dragged me to Cobra Rock which I hadn't skied before - you traverse above the Knot Chutes and drop over into Currie in the chute after Gotta Go. It was hardly tracked and great steep soft snow although we did have to slow a bit in the choke - the only thing that sucked was getting back to White Pass along Trespass Trail.
My turn to lead Brad astray so we hiked Cornice Ridge and hit Lone Fir. It was ok in most of the chute but with a few icy turns in the tight sections. Below the fan was as good as I can remember with soft deep untracked snow and we carried our speed all the way through lower Easter Bowl - even Freeway skied soft and easy at the end. Getting back to White Pass we just had time for a quick loop out through Anaconda via the Gun Bowl which was good soft snow but poor viz. Anaconda over the hump was just like yesterday - untracked but with today the added bonus of some serious blow in, do I need to say how good it was.
Last run and we headed out to the Big 3 and had spectacular run through the trees on the very far right of Skydive which were deep and untracked but rather twiggy towards the end. We traversed out along the Megasarus Trail respecting the closure signs at that level and ran to base off the trail via Freeway which was still skiing well.
So all in all some very mellow skiing in the morning and some quite spectacular tougher skiing in the afternoon but all in new snow and a number of good untracked runs obtained by sheer hard work and not just by paying for it - don't get me started.
Beers and good ski banter followed by a hot tub and a quiet night in, a very good day. There still seems to be some off and on precip in the valley so maybe we will be getting another slight covering of snow overnight just to freshen things up - we can but hope,
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Day 110 another surprisingly good day
Overnight it rained in the valley so yet again we expected some snow up on top but a deterioration on the lower hill - this is becoming a bit repetitive, just like every other weather pattern we have had this winter.
On the way to the hill it was +4 and light rain. As we looked up the hill we could see the snow line quite low down and by the time we actually got skiing it was stopping precipitating in any form and stayed that way for most of the day with the odd flurries as an exception. The overnight report called about another 8 cms on top which felt about right but lower down it had arrived as rain and the accumulation was big fat zero - maybe even a minus figure. During the day temps rose to about +5 mid mountain and way warmer at the base, although as direct sunlight came and went the snow softened but didn't get to mushy. As we drove away from the hill tonight it was down to +2 and coming down as sleet although I see that looking out on to the deck this appears to have stopped and things are warming up again - crazy weather.
We made our usual decision to go high and stay high on the New Side. Although this was not a bad decision it does not appear to have been the slam dunk of the past few days when the Old Side just sucked. Reports suggest that there was some very good skiing to be had on the Old Side in soft new snow so perhaps we should have tried it but over all we were not disappointed.
Lift Line (the only way we ever took from Timber Top to White Pass load) was covered in soft new snow with a firm chunky base which softened as the day went on so that by the end it was very easy and mellow soft snow skiing which was hardly tracked. We spent the morning looping White Pass through a variety of different ways which was socked in at the top with viz only becoming really good after lunch - Knot Chutes (soft snow and about as easy and mellow as I can remember) Surprise Trees (cut first tracks out there and found them a little chunky at first but they softened all day to give easy skiing) Gun Bowl (a bit of a grope in the poor viz but good soft untracked snow) Quite Right, High Line, Lift Line, all great soft lightly tracked snow on a firm base becoming softer as the day went on.
Last loop before lunch we hit the chute just before Surprise and found great untracked deep soft snow. Last run before lunch was Decline which just seemed to ski even better than yesterday with untracked lines in soft deep snow and super fast GS turns. During lunch we heard that White Pass lift was down so it looked like we timed that right as well.
After lunch we went back to the New Side where lift Line was just as good as before. We cut across the top of Knot Chutes to investigate Gotta Go and had an amazing result. It looked to us as if Gotta Go had not been skied for weeks (maybe it hadn't) and was totally untracked. We soon changed that with the most amazing deep powder rip down to the bottom and then a just about ok push back along Trespass Trail - a very good experience.
We spent some more time looping Knot Chutes or the untracked lines in Gun bowl followed by some good soft stuff in Surprise Trees or Pillow Talk all of which was soft and with plenty of untracked lines - there were other people on the hill today but for some reason they just didn't seem to be interested in skiing the good stuff - thank goodness. Next we looped out to Skydive and had a really good run down the right side of the top section before respecting the closure signs and skiing out along the Megasaurus Trail. the ski to base in Lizard bowl was bumpy slick refrozen artificial snow which was at least fast !
Final time up White Pass and we had yet another good drop of the Knot Chutes which were still in good shape. We had thought of doing Surprise Trees but got side tracked by Anaconda Glades where we hiked the hump to the first chute and amazingly put first tracks in there for some great skiing - who ever heard of getting first tracks at 3:50 in the afternoon. Last run was rip out to Decline which was a little softer than earlier in the day but still some great untracked skiing particularly in the trees on the side.
I haven't done the White Pass skiing justice as we had many different lines up there in soft snow, actually too many to remember after a few beers so just trust me it was good. Beers and an early night with sleet falling as we left the hill which may mean some new stuff to play with tomorrow. I can't help but wonder how good we would have rated a day like today in a normal snow year, I suspect nowhere near as highly as we have in grim year like this but then that's how things go.
On the way to the hill it was +4 and light rain. As we looked up the hill we could see the snow line quite low down and by the time we actually got skiing it was stopping precipitating in any form and stayed that way for most of the day with the odd flurries as an exception. The overnight report called about another 8 cms on top which felt about right but lower down it had arrived as rain and the accumulation was big fat zero - maybe even a minus figure. During the day temps rose to about +5 mid mountain and way warmer at the base, although as direct sunlight came and went the snow softened but didn't get to mushy. As we drove away from the hill tonight it was down to +2 and coming down as sleet although I see that looking out on to the deck this appears to have stopped and things are warming up again - crazy weather.
We made our usual decision to go high and stay high on the New Side. Although this was not a bad decision it does not appear to have been the slam dunk of the past few days when the Old Side just sucked. Reports suggest that there was some very good skiing to be had on the Old Side in soft new snow so perhaps we should have tried it but over all we were not disappointed.
Lift Line (the only way we ever took from Timber Top to White Pass load) was covered in soft new snow with a firm chunky base which softened as the day went on so that by the end it was very easy and mellow soft snow skiing which was hardly tracked. We spent the morning looping White Pass through a variety of different ways which was socked in at the top with viz only becoming really good after lunch - Knot Chutes (soft snow and about as easy and mellow as I can remember) Surprise Trees (cut first tracks out there and found them a little chunky at first but they softened all day to give easy skiing) Gun Bowl (a bit of a grope in the poor viz but good soft untracked snow) Quite Right, High Line, Lift Line, all great soft lightly tracked snow on a firm base becoming softer as the day went on.
Last loop before lunch we hit the chute just before Surprise and found great untracked deep soft snow. Last run before lunch was Decline which just seemed to ski even better than yesterday with untracked lines in soft deep snow and super fast GS turns. During lunch we heard that White Pass lift was down so it looked like we timed that right as well.
After lunch we went back to the New Side where lift Line was just as good as before. We cut across the top of Knot Chutes to investigate Gotta Go and had an amazing result. It looked to us as if Gotta Go had not been skied for weeks (maybe it hadn't) and was totally untracked. We soon changed that with the most amazing deep powder rip down to the bottom and then a just about ok push back along Trespass Trail - a very good experience.
We spent some more time looping Knot Chutes or the untracked lines in Gun bowl followed by some good soft stuff in Surprise Trees or Pillow Talk all of which was soft and with plenty of untracked lines - there were other people on the hill today but for some reason they just didn't seem to be interested in skiing the good stuff - thank goodness. Next we looped out to Skydive and had a really good run down the right side of the top section before respecting the closure signs and skiing out along the Megasaurus Trail. the ski to base in Lizard bowl was bumpy slick refrozen artificial snow which was at least fast !
Final time up White Pass and we had yet another good drop of the Knot Chutes which were still in good shape. We had thought of doing Surprise Trees but got side tracked by Anaconda Glades where we hiked the hump to the first chute and amazingly put first tracks in there for some great skiing - who ever heard of getting first tracks at 3:50 in the afternoon. Last run was rip out to Decline which was a little softer than earlier in the day but still some great untracked skiing particularly in the trees on the side.
I haven't done the White Pass skiing justice as we had many different lines up there in soft snow, actually too many to remember after a few beers so just trust me it was good. Beers and an early night with sleet falling as we left the hill which may mean some new stuff to play with tomorrow. I can't help but wonder how good we would have rated a day like today in a normal snow year, I suspect nowhere near as highly as we have in grim year like this but then that's how things go.
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