Craig's Report - February 8, 1999


Merely Excellent

Picture 1
(Gorbi Bowl)

Whatever was falling at the house Saturday night looked suspiciously like rain and certainly left a soggy mess in front of my garage, However Sunday morning the trees on the hill were still white and enough snow fell through the day to give my snow blower a better than usual workout this morning.

Commitments kept me off the hill until nearly lunch and with Currie still obviously closed I decided that Snake Ridge would be my best bet to find something without too many tracks. However there seemed to be lots of folks on the hill today and while it was still possible to find some fresh turns, even upper Gorbi Bowl and Steep and Deep had been pretty well sliced up when I got there.

 


(Mitchy Chutes from the Timber Lift)

The undisturbed snow was indeed excellent, but it seemed a little moister than it was last week and thus tended to pack down more. This made chopped up runs somewhat, well, choppy and while packed and mogul runs carved very nicely, they were firmer and the snow stickier than my ideal.

In addition to Currie, upper Lizard was closed and in fact when I was making my way to the South side, they had even closed the Tower Six road, presumably so they could do some blasting up in the bowl. Everything in Cedar, Timber and I assume Siberia was open.


 

Picture 1
(Top of White Pass from the Timber Ridge)

These next three pictures were all snapped from the traverse through the those rock chutes to the skiers left of White Pass. They serve no real purpose other than I have so rarely been at the top of White Pass in anything like reasonable visibility, I got carried away.


 


(The end of the trail through the Knot's Chutes)

The traverse is more manageable than it might appear from the chair, but is still certainly for advanced skiers and could carry some risk to your skis or board.

 

Picture 1
(Timber Ridge - Currie on left, Timber on right)

To the skiers left in this picture is a significant cliff, but down on the little bench in the center of the picture there is a run into Currie called Gotta Go. I suspect the name was coined by someone just after jumping into this steep sucker. Of course everything off of the left of this ridge goes into Currie and was closed when I was there.

The trees to the right are very nice, but were well worked over and even had moguls in places. I still haven't gone to see what is straight along the ridge, but I would guess the upper part of Diamond Back.


 

 

At 2:50 PM it is about 0 C at the house under a mainly cloudy sky.

(Click on any picture for a larger version)

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