Craig's Report - April 2, 1999

Late Report

(Upper Cedar Bowl - above boundary)

I am actually writing this on the 3rd, but I didn't get around to posting a report yesterday. Still I had some pictures left over, so I thought I would post them anyway.

Way up top, above the area boundary, the snow still looked pretty soft and nice, but a substantial ice crust was already evident down by the Cedar high traverse where this picture was taken.

(Excessive Ball to Brains Ratio?)

The soft snow up top was a blessing for the cliff jumpers over in Currie. This fellow, the dot at the top of the red line, followed approximately the route of the line down. He pretty much landed the first jump, but did a cartwheel or two shortly after. He did collect himself, but got out of shape on the second jump and actually landed on his back. It looked awful, but after a few seconds he emerged from the snow laughing. Brain damage perhaps?

(Corner Pocket)

I was mainly herd skiing yesterday and we didn't try any of the shady north facing slopes. The closest we came to that was peeking down the Corner pocket.

(In the crud on Tom's Run)

We opted for Tom's run, one of the Concussion Chutes, and found heavy but slightly stiffening crud. Pretty tough stuff, but here 8 year old Brylee does a very credible job of it. However after this, the herd consensus was that further grazing should be on the groomed or at least compacted areas.

(The run out from Currie)

The cruisers were in excellent shape, in fact too good to be healthy given the speeds that just seemed natural. Off trail stuff that was compacted, like Sunnyside, was good as long as you got the timing right. The snow would start to stiffen very quickly once the sun was not directly on it.

Even a spring grinch like me had to admit it was a pretty nice day to be on the slopes and the more normal folks seemed very pleased indeed. <g>

At noon on the 3rd it is 5 C at the house and the sun now seems to be out in force. The clouds earlier had convinced us that it might not soften on the hill. That now seems pessimistic, but I doubt we will head up.

(Click on any picture for a larger version)