Day 18 warm, wild and windy, but still pretty good fun

Let's deal with the warm first - as I suggested yesterday a warm up was on the way. For some reason the forecasters can never get a warm up in the Elk valley right. A few days off they call for temps of about -2, then about a day before they raise their sights to +1, and when it arrives as it did today the temps hit at about +5. I have no idea why their computer models should be so far off that this error margin is always the case but, it always is - it's about time those guys got their asses in gear or at the least just added about 4 degrees to whatever their computer tells them is going to be the temperature.

The wild and windy was just what it says. We arrived at the hill and found no lifts moving. The problem was the wind which was a major event prevented any lifts from working plus the fact that a dozen or so mature trees were down all over the hill and a lot of chain saw work had to be done just to make things safe. About 10:30 the New Side opened and we went up to find that whilst White Pass was open Currie bowl remained closed - do I need to say it was socked in at the top !

The New Side snow was a kind of thick Jersey cream powder as a result of hard wind pack and warming conditions, this was feature over most of the hill most of the day. Lift Line down from Timber top to White Pass was particularly thick and almost heavy but without being wet. We had several loops back through Surprise Trees which were in pretty good shape as they had been protected from the worst of the wind effect but still had plenty of ( not sure what to call the thick cream we were skiing on.)

Currie opened and we hit out in Concussion but found the snow very slabby in the up slope winds so that the only safe way to ride was fairly fast GS turns to keep you on top. Logic said that the snow must have blown into Easter bowl and logic was right - we had two loops through Easter from the top which were very much go where you please in wind sifted deep powder.

Lynda tried 1-2-3s and reported them as chunky whilst I dropped Ananconda Glades and found very nice soft cream in the first chute with all previous tracks filled in. To finish for a late lunch I dropped Bootleg glades for the first time and found them in ok shape but with many traps for the unwary between the boot deep pitches of heavy powder.

After Lunch we went to the Old side and found two things, firstly because of the lower elevation the snow was a little heavier with the melt effect and the destruction caused by the wind was much greater - like about 10 times greater. All pitches were much enlivened by finding branches or whole trees down just where you were least expecting them.

The snow had a great breaking quality so it was possible to fall line ski pretty well anywhere you wanted and we did off Cedar Ridge, Boom Ridge, Linda's, Bear chutes and all points in between several times. Some said the slightly melted powder was tough but I found it ideal slow motion snow to push around. Only downside was being stuck at the bottom of Haul Back for 25 minutes due to a break down but as I got a little end of the day timing latitude on the next two runs down Boom ridge I guess it was ok.

The only real problem with a warm up is precip. If it comes down cold it comes down white and if it comes down warm it comes down wet. In this cycle we seem to have got away with it as the base has held at 134 cms and the precip has held off. We now seem to be moving into a cooling cycle although temps on the deck are still +2 and if/when the precip arrives tomorrow evening it should be cold enough to come down white - watch this space.

Day 17 what we don't get with new snow we get with wind sift

So, we got to the hill and found that yesterday we had another 5 cms of new snow since yesterday's measure and the base was 128 cms, about 2 cms less than my estimate in yesterday's report so not a bad guess. Everyone seems to be a bit twitchy about the snow base but the figure for this time last year was 130 cms and Boxing Day was 128 so we are well up on last year and should just chill out a little while waiting for the big dumps that will come.

With no overnight snow all we had had was what we left there last night but with a bonus. The boards showed that the forecast in terms of wind was calm, so obviously we had strong ridge line winds generally blowing snow from East to West and giving a nice accumulation on the down wind slopes with smooth if heavy powder. The only worry was the temp which got up to just plus figures at the base during the day and about -5 on top. with more precip in the forecast this nearness to zero is a little worrying.

We went to the Old Side and after a quick rip down Bear we moved out into Cedar Bowl via new lift line enjoying the blown in powder. I guess because there had not actually been new snow the skier numbers we way down and we just looped of Cedar Ridge about 10 different ways always finding fresh wind sift and always able to go a little further than previous days, slowly expanding the ski range.

On the occasions we headed back to Bear we went via Bear chutes which as a lee slope was also deep windsift. Heading out across Cedar Bowl we got to Steep and Deep and found plenty of untracked powder still there but best of all the exit gullys are starting to fill in so with very little bushwhacking you can get down pretty well any way you want.

A few more trips through Boomerang, Boom Ridge and Linda's were all in a mixture of yesterday's powder and today's wind sift which counted as powder. We even tried Buckshot for the first time and although it was a bit twiggy it wouldn't take much more snow to make it a pretty nice ride.

As a result of such great powder/wind sift skiing we had a very late lunch and this only left a very short time available for afternoon skiing on the New Side.

Concussion was great with soft snow having filled in the far Currie chute entrances. Next I decided to try and hike up to Corner Pocket to check out the Saddles. Corner Pocket was wall to wall tires with the only way in I could see down a clingon rope. I took this as a sign that all the other Saddles would have been pretty crap and dropped back through Toms which was lightly skied and good powder.

Next was a hike into Lone Fir which was a bit twiggy so we skied the right shoulder before dropping into the chute and still had some pretty tight stuff to negotiate in order to get out but the chute below was awesome deep snow.

In response to a request in the bar tonight here is a detailed description of how to get to Easter bowl which has great blow in all the way down. Drop into Down Right in Currie bowl off the top of White Pass. At the first hump cut left across Currie Glades and Currie Powder and just keep traversing until your eyeballs bleed. Hold the reverse traverse out to Skydive Traverse and then continue over the bridge on the shoulder above Currie Creek and out to the closed signs. Side step up to the left for about a minute and there you are at the top of Easter Bowl - simples.

A final run in the top of Decline and then a drop off to the left into Secret Chutes found only one track ( perhaps for the whole of the season) and the snow was so deep and soft that it was face shots all the way down into the top of Freeway.

Beers with buddies who will not let me forget that Free Press has designated me as athlete of the week following my first ski column that appeared yesterday. Off to the Ghostrider game - go riders go.