Day 118 wild, wild weather

And when I say wild, wild weather I mean wild, wild weather.

We woke up this morning to rain and deck temps of about +1. While we were getting ready to go to the hill the rain turned to snow and covered the whole valley floor with a white carpet. By the time we got in the car to set off it was back to rain again.

They were calling 6 cms of fresh overnight when we got to the hill and as it was raining quite hard at the base we headed for the new side. We anticipated a day a bit like two Mondays ago when the snow/rain line moved up the hill until it got above the White Pass base and we all abandoned the hill at 1 o'clock. We were wrong. The snow continued at the top all morning quite heavey and on one of our trips to the base we noticed that the snow line was moving down the hill not up. By lunch time it was snowing off and on at the base and all over the hill and the wind had got up to a point where a couple of trees came down and Timber lift was stopped for a short time. As I said wild, wild weather.

Obviously we weren't going to run to the base in the rain so spent all morning looping White Pass on Surprise Trees and Anaconda glades. It may seem surprising that just two runs would keep up happy all morning but those who know them know that there must be 20 different ways down each of these and in the conditions we had this meant deep untracked snow every run, particularly when we headed right out into the boonies. It is also worth mentioning to the uninitiated that tree skiing in Fernie is not like Europe where it just means a run cut through trees - in Fernie you just ski the ridge line and drop into trees wherever it looks good then ride it hard finding your own line through the trees.

Final run of the morning was Lone Fir. All the chutes on the way there were closed for avi control and even Lone Fir Mandatory had the sign down. Lone Fir itself was the first chute open and hardly anyone had taken the trouble to get out there. The run through the chute and down into Easter was awesome over the head face shots all the way.

The afternoon was a replay except that the winds were sweeping all the snow off Surprise and over the ridge into Anaconda giving the best steep and deep tree skiing of the year. The snow berm on the ridge caused by the wind had grown to chest height which made for some pretty spectacular break throughs.

Last run was Skydive which was again awsome with masses of blow in flattening out the first two thirds of the run. The final third had melted in the morning rain and was setting up in the cooling wing and blowing snow - much more challenging but great fun.

So more on the way, cooler temps and flurries/ showers through to closing day on Sunday, what an end to the season.

Day 117 Happy Hot Dog Day

Ok, lets deal with Hot Dog Day. In 1984 a movie was released called Hot Dog. This was a mixture of skiing and soft pornography and would have quite rightly been consigned to the dustbin of history were it not for a few die hard fans in Fernie who decided to comemerate the movie. Every year on a Wednesday near the end of the season we all dress up in 1980's ski gear, rip all over the hill pulling stupid tricks, drink loads of beer, go to the Griz bar and watch the young guys and girls do nude table sliding then go to the Pub and watch the movie. Today was no exception but that the weather provided unusually good skiing (fresh snow instead of slush) so that it was more of a normal powder day than a Hot Dog Day.

It was about +2 at the base when we arrived, -2 at the top and with another 7 cms of fresh providing a fresh base and the base itself rising to over 270 cms. During the day it remained overcast with pretty well continual flurries which must have added at least another 5 cms to the base during the day.

We went to the Old side this being Hot Dog Day and found great skiing on all north facing slopes, with many different ways down Cedar ridge and always back to Boom chair via Kangaroo (4 times). Up and down Boom bowl a couple of times which was a bit scratchy underneath but like everywhere else good soft powder on top.

Switched to the New Side and did two County Line Loops, first up Lone Fir which was just awesome all the way down into Easter bowl and then Secret chutes which were untracked and then Spinal Tap which did get a bit challenging in the lower sections and provided a surprise where the stream bed broke through. Time for lunch.

In the afternoon we went back to the New side which was strange for Hot Dog Day as we would normally spend the afternoon drinking on Wallaby and joining in the stunts but today was so good skiing that we wanted to carry on skiing. Up and down White Pass was good and as the light improved there was excellent skiing under the lift. Surprise Trees was also very good.

We finished with loops in Anaconda/ Bootleg glades ( great deep untracked skiing) Cougar Glades (untracked once you moved left in the trees) and finally a rip down Skydive ( great powder at the top and a little chunky in the lower section ) to finish a great day.

Loads of good Hot Dog fun in the Griz bar after skiing. Possibly more snow tonight, this is just getting better and better.