Craig's Report - April 5, 1999

A Touch of Powder

(Snake with new finery)

The Griz bunny turned up for a surprise Easter visit last night and left behind ankle to boot deep powder in our bowls. Although the Timber Chair apparently died some time yesterday and was closed this morning, there were no significant line ups and still lots of untracked stuff left when I finally made it up in the mid morning.

(Snake Ridge)

While the new snow was most welcome, in most places it wasn't enough to mask all the lumps and crud underneath. This picture is looking right down Snake ridge with Red Tree off to the left and Steep & Deep on the right. I skied down more on the Steep & Deep side and while it was certainly decent skiing, the roughness underneath precluded smooth tranquil powder turns. However when I tried Cedar Ridge and I found it to be quite good, at least as long as you could avoid the spots scraped by earlier traffic.

(Lizard from Dipsy)

After a couple of quick runs, I hooked up with my wife and seven year old daughter and while waiting on Dipsy, I snapped this picture of Lizard. Freeway is on the left, sort of behind the tree, and China wall would be just out of frame on the right. What is interesting is how much snow there is in the gully and the in the alders beside China Wall. If you saw this area in the summer, you would never guess that it could ever have relatively wide open skiing.

(Tara in the trees between Lift Line and Puff)

At the bottom, we discovered that Timber Chair had just opened, so we headed up to check out the new side powder. Puff and Heartland both only had a few tracks on them, but we opted for the trees between Puff and Lift Line. The new snow was relatively thin here, but the moguls underneath were quite smooth so the ride was quite pleasant.

(Acres of untracked in the center of Currie)

In deference to Tara, we opted for the gentler trees in the center of Currie and found ourselves in an almost untracked paradise. The surface was firm under the new snow, but on this low angle stuff the thin new covering was enough to generally keep you up off of it. However I did discover that there are few things that will try the patience of a parent with powder fever as much as a dawdling seven year. Perspective Craig, perspective. <g>

Farther down the underlying lumps became more evident, but I found nice soft turns right down to the gully. Down there the snow did start to get rather heavy and sticky and about then the sun began appearing occasionally adding its hot touch to the snow.

At 3:15 P.M. it is 5 C at the house with the sun continuing to peek out from a mainly cloudy sky.

(Click on any picture for a larger version)