So, why were things better than I expected today. Well, avid readers may remember that last run yesterday the lower pitch of Skydive had got decidedly soft as had all of the hill at a similar level. My fear was that in the cooler conditions (it was -6 on the way to the hill today) the lower hill would at best be crusty and at worst refrozen crud. In the event the colder air seemed to have dried out the snow so what we had was rather chunky and quite hard work but by no means a difficult skiing surface. This meant that top to bottom runs overall could be classified as good today despite the fact that we had no new snow over night.
It started as a bluebird day, so much so that the opening of the upper hill was delayed due to heli bombing all the ridge lines which was kind of cool to watch as a curtain raiser to the day. Temps rose quite quickly so that we had slightly plus temps at the base during the day and a couple of degrees below freezing all over the rest of the hill. Things might have been different if it had remained bluebird but it did not. By mid morning the weather had clouded over and stayed that way with the odd sunny break all day keeping the direct sunlight off the hill and making sure that the snow did not soften even lower down. It looks like softening will not be much of an issue tomorow for as we drove away from the hill it was -1 and looks like we will be seeing a temp of -8 overnight even here in the valley.
I had a rather subdued day as I was helping to get Lynda back into the skiing groove. She has been away for about 4 weeks and when you add that to all the family issues she has had to deal with plus a bout of the Fernie Flu it was not surprising that she was having trouble getting her head back into skiing. I am pleased to say that by mid afternoon when she left the hill she was more or less back to normal.
We started on White Pass and did several White Pass loops of Highline, Heartland, Quite Right, Gun Bowl, Pillow Talk etc and found them all good tracked powder and very nice skiing. We then moved on the Currie Bowl where Lynda stuck to Alpha Centauri and Concussion. I hit Concussion which was tracked powder down to the Gilmar Trail and then Gilmar Gully which was hard packed but taking a nice edge.
I then had three loops all the same which is quite unusual for me. High Saddle which was ok all the way down with only one or two icy turns in the middle of the chute. Below the Saddle it was soft deep snow which was only lightly tracked. The exit was through Easter (chunky deep snow) and Freeway which was hard pack - a special mention to the a--hole who dropped an empty beer can in Freeway which I recovered. If you are reading this (if you can read) do us all a favour, pack up your bags, get off the hill and never come back. Last loop before lunch was Alpha Centauri with Lynda and it was still skiing soft all the way down.
After lunch we looped White Pass a few times and then had a final run (for Lynda) down Alpha Centauri which was just as good as before. Left to my own devices I went of Polar Peak which had rather variable viz which came and went but some nice wind sift that had blown in particularly in Papa Bear although Grand Papa was also pretty good. We took a run down Spirit Bear which was a bit varied and encouraged by my runs down High Saddle in the morning we tried our luck in Low Saddle. The chute was pretty sketchy with rocks and ice sheets that we had to slither through before cutting right and getting some good untracked skiing. Easter and Freeway were still in good shape on the exit.
Last run was Skydive which was very mellow down to the final pitch and not all that bad even then in the chunky snow. The lower mountain was so good that I have decided to give the Old Side try tomorrow relying on the fact that the snow will be in good shape no matter how low down we go.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Day 76 more snow
Overnight we had another 23 cms of fresh bringing the three day total to around 60 cms. Whilst some of the big dumps my grab the headlines, this steady accumulation is actually what gives us a good ski base and day after day of good powder skiing with pretty well all of the hill open.
We got to the hill to find the holiday crowds had been swelled by the 20 centimeter crowd (in Fernie if it snows more than 20 cms overnight no one is expected to go into work - they go skiing instead) so things were a bit of a gong show. We though yesterday was the warmest point of the current weather cycle but we were wrong, today was. It was zero on the way to the hill and +1 driving back. During the day the base temps rose to +4 and even at the Polar load early afternoon I noticed it was about +1. Luckily it was overcast so with no direct sun light the snow was not badly affected and stayed in pretty good shape higher up and even lower down it was a bit mashed potato but nothing too serious. There was also some low cloud/fog which came and went although for the most part viz was a bit flat but ok.
Just like the last few days we went to the New Side with a view to getting as high as possible where we thought the snow would be best. Currie bowl wasn't open but Anaconda was so we dropped in and found only one track in front and it was very good. Bootleg Glades were also good so I hit the near side chutes and also found only one track in there as well. It was all great powder skiing.
Next loop up we lined up for the fence drop on the Currie bowl in full Chinese Downhill style. I had word that the Reverse Traverse wasn't open so I dropped 1-2-3s and got untracked lines. Actually I drooped 1, traversed 2 and dropped the far side of 3 which was all good powder. The run to base was via the trees to the right of Bootleg and the left Diamond Back which I don't think have a name. There was a bit of cat debris in the top but once through that there was seriously steep untracked tree skiing all the way down to Gilmar Trail.
Next loop Timber Chair broke down with us on it. We were slowly run to the top and then looking back we could see the chair had stopped. I was told at the top of White Pass it was only going to be a 15 minute problem so I ran to base through Skydive which was tracked but deep soft snow. Actually the break down lasted for over 2 hours with regular updates telling us it was only going to be 30 minutes - not good customer communications. I went to the Old Side and did a couple of Boomerang/Boom Ridge loops which were all soft deep tracked snow. Having been told that Timber was running I went back only to find it wasn't - I went for an early lunch.
As I came out after lunch I was told that Timber would be down for at least another half hour but when I got to the lift they opened the gate and I was on the first chair up. I headed to Polar Peak which I knew had been opened and had been looped by about a dozen lucky bunnies who had been "stuck" up there when the Timber Chair had broken down. Actually things worked out ok as the snow on Polar had been pretty slabby and wind affected so the little skier traffic that had taken place had broken it up into soft deep snow rather nicely.
The afternoon was spent looping Polar Peak (Shale Slope, Grand Papa Bear and Papa Bear several times) and all the chutes were soft deep broken up wind slab higher up and some interesting and rather slabby powder lower down. I had intended to run to base through Mama Bear and Lone Fir but when I got to the top of Cornice Chute it was totally untracked and I couldn't resist but to drop it and track out to the Big 3. I ran down the Brian which had huge untracked areas and although a bit heavy lower down took it all the way to the cat track.
I went back up Polar for a few more loops and it was still skiing soft and deep so I did one more drop through Spirit Bear which was hardly tracked and Concussion which was tracked up but soft. Last run of course was Skydive which was nice and soft down to the last pitch where it got quite heavy but nothing too bad.
So in summary a pretty good day with temps just a bit higher than ideal and of course a load of unwelcome lift issues. The forecast is for cooling temps and a few flurries over the next day or two. looking out a bit further it looks like we will get some serious snow next week with temps staying well below zero so all in all I am pretty optimistic.
We got to the hill to find the holiday crowds had been swelled by the 20 centimeter crowd (in Fernie if it snows more than 20 cms overnight no one is expected to go into work - they go skiing instead) so things were a bit of a gong show. We though yesterday was the warmest point of the current weather cycle but we were wrong, today was. It was zero on the way to the hill and +1 driving back. During the day the base temps rose to +4 and even at the Polar load early afternoon I noticed it was about +1. Luckily it was overcast so with no direct sun light the snow was not badly affected and stayed in pretty good shape higher up and even lower down it was a bit mashed potato but nothing too serious. There was also some low cloud/fog which came and went although for the most part viz was a bit flat but ok.
Just like the last few days we went to the New Side with a view to getting as high as possible where we thought the snow would be best. Currie bowl wasn't open but Anaconda was so we dropped in and found only one track in front and it was very good. Bootleg Glades were also good so I hit the near side chutes and also found only one track in there as well. It was all great powder skiing.
Next loop up we lined up for the fence drop on the Currie bowl in full Chinese Downhill style. I had word that the Reverse Traverse wasn't open so I dropped 1-2-3s and got untracked lines. Actually I drooped 1, traversed 2 and dropped the far side of 3 which was all good powder. The run to base was via the trees to the right of Bootleg and the left Diamond Back which I don't think have a name. There was a bit of cat debris in the top but once through that there was seriously steep untracked tree skiing all the way down to Gilmar Trail.
Next loop Timber Chair broke down with us on it. We were slowly run to the top and then looking back we could see the chair had stopped. I was told at the top of White Pass it was only going to be a 15 minute problem so I ran to base through Skydive which was tracked but deep soft snow. Actually the break down lasted for over 2 hours with regular updates telling us it was only going to be 30 minutes - not good customer communications. I went to the Old Side and did a couple of Boomerang/Boom Ridge loops which were all soft deep tracked snow. Having been told that Timber was running I went back only to find it wasn't - I went for an early lunch.
As I came out after lunch I was told that Timber would be down for at least another half hour but when I got to the lift they opened the gate and I was on the first chair up. I headed to Polar Peak which I knew had been opened and had been looped by about a dozen lucky bunnies who had been "stuck" up there when the Timber Chair had broken down. Actually things worked out ok as the snow on Polar had been pretty slabby and wind affected so the little skier traffic that had taken place had broken it up into soft deep snow rather nicely.
The afternoon was spent looping Polar Peak (Shale Slope, Grand Papa Bear and Papa Bear several times) and all the chutes were soft deep broken up wind slab higher up and some interesting and rather slabby powder lower down. I had intended to run to base through Mama Bear and Lone Fir but when I got to the top of Cornice Chute it was totally untracked and I couldn't resist but to drop it and track out to the Big 3. I ran down the Brian which had huge untracked areas and although a bit heavy lower down took it all the way to the cat track.
I went back up Polar for a few more loops and it was still skiing soft and deep so I did one more drop through Spirit Bear which was hardly tracked and Concussion which was tracked up but soft. Last run of course was Skydive which was nice and soft down to the last pitch where it got quite heavy but nothing too bad.
So in summary a pretty good day with temps just a bit higher than ideal and of course a load of unwelcome lift issues. The forecast is for cooling temps and a few flurries over the next day or two. looking out a bit further it looks like we will get some serious snow next week with temps staying well below zero so all in all I am pretty optimistic.
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