Craig's Report - January 08, 2006

Not an Excellent Day, But Better Than Most

�Not an excellent day, but better than most.� That was my 14 year old daughter�s pronouncement at the end of our ski day. From the whoops of delight and various comments I overheard on the hill, I suspect many folks would disagree with the first part of her comment, but it expressed my impressions perfectly.

There certainly was lots of deep snow and the quality, especially up high, was pretty good, but for the most part it was rather too heavy and in some places a bit slabby to earn an excellent description from me or my apparently equally picky daughter. That doesn�t mean there wasn�t lots of fine skiing and it certainly was an amazing improvement over the soggy conditions of the last couple of days.

Once again I had no idea what to expect as we headed out and the firm crunchiness of the transit from the Elk to Bear chairs wasn�t all that encouraging, but as sometimes happens our lackadaisical almost noon start worked in our favour and we arrived at the top just after lower Lizard (below Tower Six road) had opened. This allowed us to score some fresh lines in lower Easter, that were quite pleasant, although the snow was deep and heavy enough that you almost might have been able to straight line it without picking up excessive speed. To be clear, when I say heavy, I am not talking about soggy water laden snow, but rather stuff that is just a bit stiff. You could carve it up pretty nicely, but there were no fluffy contrails hanging in the air behind you. Down on Freeway though, it was back to the snow ball making stuff and the cut up and packed bits could make for a bumpy ride.

Currie also opened in the early afternoon, although the high traverse into the Currie Chutes remained closed. We weren�t there for the opening, but still arrived early enough for a very nice run down 1, 2, 3 and once again the advantage of the extra elevation at the top of White Pass was evident. A later trip down the center trees was also pleasant, except for the unusual amount of giddy skiers and boarders zooming through every opening.

On a totally off topic note, those of you who have enjoyed Bernie�s reports on this page in the past, might be interested in his latest adventure. He and Linda along with their daughter Jenny and her partner Dave are off on a motorcycle trip to Panama and back. Bernie is going to try to keep us up to date on his blog at http://central-am-adventure.blogspot.com/ Here is wishing them an exciting, but safe trip.

At 17:40 it is 0 C at the house and a few flakes are falling.