As the weather was the main story today I will focus on that rather than just on where we skied although they are of course linked.
Overnight the temps didn't quite get below freezing and it rained down town most of the night so we were fairly sure that there had been quite some snow on the hill. When we got there we found 10cms of fresh on top of all the recent stuff but the snow/rain line rather higher up than we expected at about half way.
Up the hill the sun had come out and the new snow was getting warm and even out of the sunlight the air temp was very warm - perhaps even +5. The result was that on south facing slopes everything went to slush whilst on East and North facing slopes the new snow just became a bit heavy down to about half way then it turned to rain crust. The lower slopes turned to total water slush just like summer skiing and it's hard to see without new snow or snow making how they will last to the end of the season.
Come the afternoon at about 3 o'clock it was all change with the clouds rolling in, temps dropping and snow (ok snow pellets) starting up pretty hard. On the last ride up on White pass I had about 1cm of accumulation build up on me just during the ride. All the upper mountain was covered with the new snow which slowed down the surface but refroze a lot of the base that had melted, all in all pretty strange conditions.
By evening it was all clear again but reports of some possible new overnight. Daytime highs are forecast to go to +12 by Tuesday but by Friday the highs are supposed to be -7 and snow, as I said very strange weather.
Against this background we hit the New side and had fresh tracks in Highline, Surprise Trees, Cougar glades, Decline and 1-2-3s. A final trip into Anaconda found slightly tracked but very deep fresh snow and Bootleg was much the same at the top and a bit scratchy at the bottom. Then an early lunch.
After lunch with things getting much hotter we kept on hitting Anaconda further and further across each time followed by different ways down Bootleg. Encouraged by just how good Anaconda had stayed I hiked Knot chutes then traversed into Gotta Go and dropped into Currie bowl that way and found that the snow there was approaching awesome.
Final run down Skydive was good not much tracked at the top, light rain crust in the middle and soft starting to set up at the bottom. The high traverse at the County line hadn't been open all day and the lack of traffic in Skydive was probably something to do with the fact that many people think that you can't get to Skydive traverse from the low traverse which you can quite easily.
Riders lost last night so 1 all heading to Nelson for two games, at least it means we will have a game back here on Wednesday no matter what. More snow needed.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Day 90 return of the powder
Reports overnight said that it had rained in the town (true) and it was due to rain on the hill all day (false). It had snowed about 11 cms on the hill over night (more in places) and with overcast conditions didn't really do much during the day.
We decided to go high which meant the New side and hearing White pass was closed for avi control we hiked Mitchy chutes which like most of the hill was untracked with 10 cms or so of fresh on whatever had been there. As we skied out of Mitchy chutes White pass chair opened.
The whole of the New side had over 10 cms of fresh (much more in many places) and where it was untracked the bumps were smoothed out and ready for some serious free riding.
Hit Cougar Glades ( untracked) Decline ( untracked) Stag Leap (two tracks) Secret chutes and Spinal Tap ( a few tracks) Skydive ( mostly untracked) the Brain ( untracked on the right shoulder) and Decline and the Window chutes (surprisingly quite tracked but the log drop down to 5 ft with a soft landing. Worth mentioning that each time down from Timber chair to White pass we took a different line close to lift line but in the trees - snow so soft that long GS turns through what had previously been tight lines where the order of the day. Late lunch.
PM we went back to the new side with not much time. Hit Anaconda glades halfway along which were still very soft followed by Bootleg glades near trees - also good. Next we hiked up to Lone Fir which was a little tight through the main chute but which opened up into some awesome fresh powder all the way down into Freeway. Due to time took a quick loop back through Milkey Way trees then out for the final traditional rip through Skydive. Even at this late stage of the day Skydive was just fantastic with good freeriding on the soft snow/bumps two thirds of the way down with the final third requiring a bit of attention with softening snow on a hard base.
A very good days skiing. A patroller buddy in the bar said that they were calling for 8-18 cms tonight which would have a fantastic effect but no sign of any new yet.
We decided to go high which meant the New side and hearing White pass was closed for avi control we hiked Mitchy chutes which like most of the hill was untracked with 10 cms or so of fresh on whatever had been there. As we skied out of Mitchy chutes White pass chair opened.
The whole of the New side had over 10 cms of fresh (much more in many places) and where it was untracked the bumps were smoothed out and ready for some serious free riding.
Hit Cougar Glades ( untracked) Decline ( untracked) Stag Leap (two tracks) Secret chutes and Spinal Tap ( a few tracks) Skydive ( mostly untracked) the Brain ( untracked on the right shoulder) and Decline and the Window chutes (surprisingly quite tracked but the log drop down to 5 ft with a soft landing. Worth mentioning that each time down from Timber chair to White pass we took a different line close to lift line but in the trees - snow so soft that long GS turns through what had previously been tight lines where the order of the day. Late lunch.
PM we went back to the new side with not much time. Hit Anaconda glades halfway along which were still very soft followed by Bootleg glades near trees - also good. Next we hiked up to Lone Fir which was a little tight through the main chute but which opened up into some awesome fresh powder all the way down into Freeway. Due to time took a quick loop back through Milkey Way trees then out for the final traditional rip through Skydive. Even at this late stage of the day Skydive was just fantastic with good freeriding on the soft snow/bumps two thirds of the way down with the final third requiring a bit of attention with softening snow on a hard base.
A very good days skiing. A patroller buddy in the bar said that they were calling for 8-18 cms tonight which would have a fantastic effect but no sign of any new yet.
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