Craig's Report - January 14, 1998

More snow, but getting warm

There wasn't a lot of accumulation overnight, but it was snowing fairly hard this morning.  The temperature at the house was about -10C, but the hill was actually warmer, suggesting an inversion.  The few centimetres of  new snow was heavier  than yesterday and did a better job of masking the stuff underneath.  This meant a silky smooth ride for the cruiser folk who like the powder over groomed feel and very appealing looking stuff off trail as suggested by these pictures from Cedar Ridge.

In fact the off trail skiing was a bit of a mixed bag, with some lovely powder and some masked lumps and bumps often alternating from turn to turn.  The open areas of lower Easter Bowl even felt a little set up and almost wind blown.  Generally though the skiing was very nice although not outstanding.

Everything to the skiers right of Arrow, except Easter Bowl, was closed above the Tower Six road.  Of course the only way to get to Easter Bowl was from that lower road, so upper Easter was pretty academic.  Upper Cedar was also closed as was Snake Ridge, but the rest of Cedar was open.

Part way through the morning the snow started to taper off and then even changed to freezing rain for a while, which got everyone nervous.  It changed back to snow as I was walking be to the house and continues to snow lightly at 1:00 PM.  We are slightly above our forecast high for today, but it seems to be sticking around -6C at the house.  The forecast is for more snow and a high of -6C tomorrow, so hopefully there will be no traditional Fernie thaw.