Springing back into Winter

Last Wednesday was a great day. Very poor visibility but a lovely 10-15cms of fresh. The snow continued to fall until mid afternoon and at times the flakes were as big as 50 cent pieces. My first run was probably one of my best runs of the season.

Thursday was a grey and damp day and due to the weather conditions I have no photos from the Ski Patrol Race held late on Thursday morning. I paid my entry fee but after 3 return visits to the course, that wasn't finished being set up, I succumbed to the ever rising freezing level and left the mountain in a rather soggy condition. I'm sure the results will have listed me as DNS (Did Not Start) but it should have read DDR (Don't Do Rain ;-)

On Friday the sun re-appeared to reveal deep tracks across the off piste, put in play mostly on Wednesday. Thursday's rain had gone to the top of the resort and then the tracks were snap frozen. Ugly stuff indeed but the few runs that were groomed were very nice. The groomers were nice again over the weekend but the off piste was still heavily rutted at mid levels and up high in untracked areas it was like breakable crust - not what the doctor ordered.

Alas, it rained heavily on Sunday night and the wind peaked at 119kph. The reports said 5cms of fresh up top and snow falling to middle slopes. Thank heavens for all the snow making over the past few nights that bolstered the man made runs before the overnight deluge. I didn't bother joining the 6 who went out on the mountain yesterday ;-)

Anyway as it so often happens, things turned around and this morning there was a dusting of surprisingly dry snow in the village. I re-inserted the fleece into my shell and went out into the -14C wind chill. Winter was back and the quality of the dry snow was delicious. Visibility was poor up high but the snow was worth it. After 3 runs of freshies down the front I started venturing higher and wider. There are still big areas of frozen ruts and sastrugi but the wind drifts off the Bluff, Rim Run, Merritts Falls and Sponars were tasty as :-)

Sundance last Thursday

An unusual site from first chair on Friday morning

Deep frozen ruts all over the off piste

Monday morning and the grass had reappeared

This morning and it was gone again

The hay bales on Meadows revealing not a deep cover but fresh

Early Tracks

Good for those who can get them

The second wave still getting nice freshies

With no Nastar we reclaimed World Cup

Despite the KT web site still claiming Little Beauty has been groomed each night, I had a very enjoyable untracked run as the fresh snow had filled between the bumps.

There's not much on the horizon at the moment but persisting cold temps will hopefully maintain the good snow quality up high.

And for those hanging out on my next grump (I've forgotten to add one to my past few reports), here's one: one world for some and another for everyone else.