March 30, 2001

The Best Day of the Best Week of the Season

It was an excellent morning. There, I've gone and used that 'E' word and I just hate to let my superlatives get out of control lest I have nothing left for those choking powder days when serious breathing equipment is mandatory. Okay, it wasn't one of those days, but it was such a very fine morning, especially for this year, I'm afraid I just have to dig into the heavy adjective drawer. Who would have thought that in such a dismal season, which has seen more near death experiences than Dick Cheney, we would be skiing fine boot high or even occasional knee deep powder on March 30th? Despite my caveats that it could happen, I sure didn't see it coming and in fact we had planned to set up our trampoline this weekend. My apologies to those who didn't come based on my advice, but I hope you will understand if it doesn't keep me from wallowing about a bit.

Virtually everything on the upper mountain was excellent (there's that word again) this morning and even the lower slopes were in pretty good shape. Only the Face Lift and upper Cedar was closed, so there were lots of fresh tracks to be made and with the claimed base now at 170 cm, one could even be a bit bolder in alder territory. There was a blinding snow storm going on when the lifts first opened, which did make visibility a bit of an issue, but that soon cleared out and by mid morning the sun was making it's presence felt. Unfortunately that was not good news for snow quality and by noon the South facing slopes were running more to mashed potatoes than powder, but the North sides of the ridges were holding up well.

So what will the coming days bring? As I write this in the mid afternoon, there is a major thermonuclear meltdown going on down here at the house, but the forecast has the possibility of flurries tomorrow. So depending on whether it snows, rains, freezes or melts, we could be looking at conditions ranging from awesome to gawd awful. Only the Griz knows for sure, but I am not counting either the tramp or the skis out just yet.

At 2:30 it is 7 C at the house with bright sunshine.