Before I start I have to make a point which I have made before and that is that my blog is not a ski report. It is an account of what I have found on the hill and how I skied it. When I look into the future I am thinking about how skiing will be for me and not for anyone else. Put another way, when I say skiing was ugly and looks like it's getting worse I am talking about the free riding terrain all over the hill that I enjoy. A groomer skier may find conditions exactly to their liking and the hard groomed ice an ideal surface from their point of view. In a nutshell I can never tell anyone what it will be like for them, only what I think it will be like for me.
My comments at the end of the blog yesterday that things would get a lot worse when temps dropped and the surfaces firmed up proved to be dead right, more of which later. The heading relates to the fact that we had weekend crowds and the only terrain worth skiing (in my view) was the top of White Pass so the line ups at the White Pass load were just about as big as I have ever seen them. To put that in perspective they would bee seen as light weekend traffic in places such as Whistler, Lake Louis and most of Europe.
On the way to the hill it was -2 with a sun/cloud mix. The result was that everything that had been deep elephant snot yesterday (basically everything below White Pass load and even some stuff just above it) was boot deep breakable rain crust and very ugly skiing away from the groomers. During the day temps rose slightly and it clouded over so that by about 2 o'clock it started to snow and is still snowing heavily even down here in the valley as I am writing this. As the ridge lines had been in the clouds for the last 7 days and if the forecasts are to be believed may be socked in for another 7 days the hill took the opportunity to heli bomb the ridge lines this morning. I am not sure if I have ever heard so many explosions or seen so much debris come down off the head walls but it was pretty spectacular sight. Temps in the valley tonight are supposed to stay below zero and we may be getting 15 cms of fresh snow on the hill out of this cycle.
I went up to White Pass and stayed there partly because I thought it would be the only good skiing on the hill (I was right) and partly because I thought they might open Polar Peak (I was wrong) - unfortunately pretty well everyone else on the hill came to the same conclusion.
Lift line was soft snow on top and a bit crusty lower down. I then skied the Tight Knot from the traverse which was slightly slabby but untracked. Surprise Trees was ok in the top but getting crusty on the exits. I then had a couple of loops through the Gun Bowl and Quite Right which all skied as nice soft snow. On my next loop Anaconda Glades opened and I put first track into Anaconda 2 which was soft and deep but got crunchy on the last few turns. The good news about today's conditions was that as Trespass Trail was an icy track you could push and skate back to White Pass just about as easily as I can remember so that is what we did.
The crowds at White Pass were huge and even though I was riding single I had a long delay at the load each time - credit to the lift team who made sure that every chair went up fully loaded and so did the best they could with the hand they had been dealt. For the first time this year year I decided to hike the boot pack up to the the top of Knot Chutes just to avoid the crowds and spent the rest of the morning dropping various Knot Chutes from the very top and then doing all the lower chutes from Tight to Jim. My loops were completed by doing variations on Anaconda Glades in some of the tight lines between 2 and 5 which all skied well in the top and with a couple of crunchy turns in the bottom. Trespass trail held up as an quick icy track and a relatively easy return the White Pass.
Last run before lunch I hit the Reverse Traverse out to the general area of Tom's Run which skied soft and mellow in the top with a little rain crust at the very end.
In the afternoon I went back to White Pass and continued much as the morning hiking Knot Chutes and skiing Anaconda variations. About 2 o'clock it started to snow and by 2:30 it was puking down. We stopped hiking Knot Chutes due to the poor viz but kept on traversing in and running Anaconda. Mid afternoon we decided to try the Big 3 and I chose Decline on the grounds that if it went wrong we could always bail on the Megasauraus Trail. Just as we got to the trail things were starting to get crunchy but with the new snow accumulating fast I thought it might be ok to ski the lower section. I have never been more wrong in my life. The lower section was boot deep rain crust with the new snow not giving any kind of support and it was real survival skiing all the way down. Great just to get out of it with no injuries and what ever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
For the rest of the afternoon we just went back to Knot Chutes ( very nice skiing if you don't try and take maximum air at high speed on the way in and stack it) Anaconda (really starting to get into some very tight and steep lines) and Trespass Trail (getting slower in the new snow but then that has to be a good sign) until it was time to leave. In a departure from usual we decided that as the Big 3 were all going to be crap we just did another another Anaconda drop to finish - by this time the new snow accumulation had removed all crunch from the lower turns in Anaconda.
I skipped the bar tonight as it was the Snow Dreams party which means it would be packed with people I don't know and the music would be too loud to talk about skiing - I'll be back tomorrow. Snow is still puking down on the deck and if we get the promised 15 cms then even the lower sections of the Big 3 will be skiable tomorrow.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Friday, January 22, 2016
Day 43 my worst fears, but not quite
Apologies for the late post cause by a large number of beers with my good friends Rob, Katie and young Joey. The reason I qualify today's offering by saying that not quite my worst fears were realised is because it's true. I had feared that rain on the warm weather system would cover the hill all the way to the top. In the event it only reached up the hill most of the way to the White Pass load on the New Side and the Snow Plot on the Old Side so it wasn't quite the disaster it could have been but still pretty bad.
Overnight it rained in the valley and temps on the way to the hill were zero but with rain falling out of a warm air mass the temps were not going to give us snow. During the day the temps at the base got up to +3 and I noticed at the White Pass load it was +1 and probably only about zero at the very top - needless to say Polar Peak was not open.
We went to the New Side as only an idiot would want to ski the lower elevations of the Old Side in rain. We were getting very wet heavy snow from the White Pass load up with poor viz on top and the skiing surface very heavy Jersey Cream at best and getting towards elephant snot lower down. Our intention was to do loops of White Pass to avoid dropping into the on/off rain showers below which were just about falling as wet flurries on top and for the whole morning that is what we did..
I looped Knot Chutes from the traverse in and everything from Tight Knot out to the Jim Chute was skiing ok in soft deep wet snow. Returns to White Pass were mostly through Surprise Trees in many variations which were ok in the top but getting very heavy and wet low down.
We went out in to Currie Bowl to ski down for lunch and found the high Reverse Traverse closed but the Polar Sink traverse open so we were able to get out to the Big 3. We chose Cougar Glades which were ok in the top but got very heavy down just above the cat track. The ski out in Stag Leap degenerated into pure elephant snot and was very hard work.
In the afternoon it was back up White Pass where if anything the viz was worse and the rain line was even higher up than the morning with the ran/flurries intensifying. Just like the morning all drops were all through various Knot Chutes which were just about ok but heavy, returns to White Pass were through the general Surprise Trees area which by now had become very wet and heavy in the rising rain line. We ran to base twice during the afternoon and got soaked in the pouring rain down below both times. The runs were -
Anaconda/Bootleg - Good skiing in Anaconda 2 which I just beat a ski group in to and which only got really heavy about 2 thirds of the way down. Bootleg was very heavy but just about skiable.
Gotta Go/ Bootleg - Gotta Go actually skied pretty easily in the top and the choke but lots of avi control debris was around lower down. Bootleg was as before but with a hard clear base in the middle that suggested to me that it had slid out some time during the day.
The top section of Triple Trees deserves a special mention as it was fantastic soft skiing for the first half and almost uncontrollable elephant snot down to Trespass Trail, which incidentally was a hard push back to the lift.
Last run came 10 minutes early but as no one else seemed to be around me and Dan headed out to Skydive. The snow at the top of the run looked ok heavy powder, and indeed was. I did say that somewhere down the run it would turn to rat shit and that point was high up by the Decline Skydive split. By the final section we were dreaming of rat shit as being a wonderful skiing surface as we struggled in some of the steepest elephant snot I have ever encountered. Only by using all of our crappy skiing experience did we get down in half way decent style in a series of big GS turns.
The beers in the Griz were very well deserved tonight. I did have to smile as everyone talked about how bad the conditions had been. Tonight it is forecast to freeze and when you get what we skied on today as refrozen crud then you will really have something to complain about. Whatever it is I will be there enjoying the challenge.
Overnight it rained in the valley and temps on the way to the hill were zero but with rain falling out of a warm air mass the temps were not going to give us snow. During the day the temps at the base got up to +3 and I noticed at the White Pass load it was +1 and probably only about zero at the very top - needless to say Polar Peak was not open.
We went to the New Side as only an idiot would want to ski the lower elevations of the Old Side in rain. We were getting very wet heavy snow from the White Pass load up with poor viz on top and the skiing surface very heavy Jersey Cream at best and getting towards elephant snot lower down. Our intention was to do loops of White Pass to avoid dropping into the on/off rain showers below which were just about falling as wet flurries on top and for the whole morning that is what we did..
I looped Knot Chutes from the traverse in and everything from Tight Knot out to the Jim Chute was skiing ok in soft deep wet snow. Returns to White Pass were mostly through Surprise Trees in many variations which were ok in the top but getting very heavy and wet low down.
We went out in to Currie Bowl to ski down for lunch and found the high Reverse Traverse closed but the Polar Sink traverse open so we were able to get out to the Big 3. We chose Cougar Glades which were ok in the top but got very heavy down just above the cat track. The ski out in Stag Leap degenerated into pure elephant snot and was very hard work.
In the afternoon it was back up White Pass where if anything the viz was worse and the rain line was even higher up than the morning with the ran/flurries intensifying. Just like the morning all drops were all through various Knot Chutes which were just about ok but heavy, returns to White Pass were through the general Surprise Trees area which by now had become very wet and heavy in the rising rain line. We ran to base twice during the afternoon and got soaked in the pouring rain down below both times. The runs were -
Anaconda/Bootleg - Good skiing in Anaconda 2 which I just beat a ski group in to and which only got really heavy about 2 thirds of the way down. Bootleg was very heavy but just about skiable.
Gotta Go/ Bootleg - Gotta Go actually skied pretty easily in the top and the choke but lots of avi control debris was around lower down. Bootleg was as before but with a hard clear base in the middle that suggested to me that it had slid out some time during the day.
The top section of Triple Trees deserves a special mention as it was fantastic soft skiing for the first half and almost uncontrollable elephant snot down to Trespass Trail, which incidentally was a hard push back to the lift.
Last run came 10 minutes early but as no one else seemed to be around me and Dan headed out to Skydive. The snow at the top of the run looked ok heavy powder, and indeed was. I did say that somewhere down the run it would turn to rat shit and that point was high up by the Decline Skydive split. By the final section we were dreaming of rat shit as being a wonderful skiing surface as we struggled in some of the steepest elephant snot I have ever encountered. Only by using all of our crappy skiing experience did we get down in half way decent style in a series of big GS turns.
The beers in the Griz were very well deserved tonight. I did have to smile as everyone talked about how bad the conditions had been. Tonight it is forecast to freeze and when you get what we skied on today as refrozen crud then you will really have something to complain about. Whatever it is I will be there enjoying the challenge.
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