Craig's Report - December 10, 2004

Powder n' Paste

The season started very well. While we weren't likely to be duking it out for the first chair ride, my daughter and I were out early for our sloth worshipping clan. After passing over a huge line at the temporarily stalled White Pass chair, we opted for a warm up run down the Morning Glory trees and that turned out to be a fine choice. If one were really picky (and I am), the boot high plus 'powder' was a bit stiff, but it still hissed by underneath in a most satisfactory manner and made for an excellent first run of the season.

With only the Timber, White Pass and Elk chairs offering rides, the White Pass line persisted through the morning, but the Elk was practically deserted. With the concentrated effort at making snow on Dipsy and Lizard, I wasn't surprised to find them in pretty good shape, but didn't expect that the upper part of the Elk run would have such good coverage. Below the bottom of the Bear chair the snow became obviously thin, but skiing to the bottom without excessive fear of ski trauma was still easy.

Throughout the morning the sticky snow was working its way up the mountain and it had pretty well reached the top, by the time I took my last run just before one. The good news was that the White Pass line had finally dwindled to nothing, but the bad news was it was now raining hard on the bottom of the mountain and in fact may have been raining as I exited the Surprize trees. Sadly this in line with the predictions of the weather gnomes, who are calling for a torrential downpour tonight and tomorrow morning and a freezing level up in the sky somewhere. :-(

At 15:30 it is 1 C and salmon are swimming upstream in my driveway.


Morning Glory - good name for the first run of the season.

My daughter butt checks the snow consistency and finds it satisfactory.

Our second flight over the White Pass line found it reduced, but still tedious.

The top of the White Pass chair treated the crowds to its trademark zero visibility conditions.

The trees beside upper Highline labour under a heavy snow load.

The Elk run had surprisingly good coverage.

The wonders of snow making. Dipsy from just below the Bear's Den. That is the Bear run in the background.

The Bear Chair was actually running, but only the patrol were getting rides to the tempting upper mountain.

The intersection of Lizard and Incline that I have had in the last couple of reports. Significant change over the last two weeks.

Since one of the 'secret' new gladed areas mentioned on the official web site is in plain view of the White Pass chair, I don't think I am spoiling the fun by revealing that it is between Puff and Heartland. After taking a trip down it, I must say I found it to be an excellent improvement.