Craig's Report - December 25, 1997


Merry Christmas Everyone!

Mister Hill must not have been a good rock this year because Santa didn't leave any soft fluffy treats under, on or around its many trees. While we weren't exactly skiing on lumps of coal yet, the snow was getting pretty tired in places and a freshener would be appreciated. One Christmas treat was that the Face lift opened as shown by this shot taken looking back down towards the top of Bear.

The snow up there was a bit crusty in places, but there were lots of opportunities to make your own tracks. Snake Ridge was also open although the traverse dropped pretty low and required a bigger than normal climb at the Snake end.

I was skiing with the powder pup today (my ten year old son) and some vestigial parental responsibility made me decide we should wait until I have a chance to check out Red Tree before heading over. However from the number of crashes I had today and the way he handled trees like these in the center of Cedar, perhaps he should be checking it out for me. <g> As you can see there is still some soft stuff available even below the face lift, but it is getting pretty scarce unless you want to be very intimate with the local shrubs.

This shot shows the alder choked KC chutes in the foreground, with Snake behind it. Amazingly enough there were tracks down through the bushy part of Extreme Hazard. It is hard to believe that later in a good snow year all those bushes are covered. Check out last year's March 10 report for an example.

This shot looks across the lower part of of Bow and Arrow with Sunnyside in the background. Although perfectly skiable, you can see a fair number of small twigs and shrubs sticking out. (You can click on any of this year's pictures to get a larger image) Some of the lower runs with more traffic are getting a bit thread bare. Lower North Ridge below the top of Haul Back and Wallaby are both spotty as is the lower steep section of Cedar Main. Rocks were even in evidence in some places, which is practically unheard of in Fernie.

There is a possibility of snow forecast for tomorrow and even a little would help the thin spots considerably, but for those like me that owe allegiance to the tree gods, another metre of snow would really be nice as it would allow a lot of those favorite chutes to open up. I wonder if the Powder Gods would accept a first born powder pup? :-)

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