Craig's Report - March 28, 2007
Spring, Sun and Flashbacks
It was a classic spring skiing day, with challenging crunchies in the morning (or at least so I am told), but softening up nicely on the South facing slopes as Mr. Sun had his way with them. While I am not a big fan of spring skiing, I must admit to having found some really fine skiing pretty much every day this week. Of course by picking the wrong time and place, you could also have found some pretty terrible stuff, so sticking to the afternoon shift and making judicious slope selections probably helped. Snake Ridge, Sunnyside, the Currie Chutes and the Morning Glory glades were all predictably excellent choices today.
The lower slopes seem to be holding up pretty well given the unrelentingly warm weather. Things do get pretty sloppy late in the day and there are some bare spots appearing, but so far these remain minor and fairly easy to avoid. There is still lots of snow on the upper mountain and probably will be long after the hill closes. It is worth remembering though that the snow pack is now slowly sinking and that punji that used to lurk in your favorite chute may be making a return visit.
Today was Hot Dog Day where folks are encouraged to don retro ski garb and those old straight skis. Folks really seemed to be into it this year and the hill was alive with colourful outfits that made you wonder how our culture ever survived the seventies. Packs of �hot doggers� prowled the hill doing what I hope was a bad imitation of how we used to ski, but appearing to have a great time doing it. At 16:50 the sun is beating down on the porch, pushing the thermometer up to a blazing if optimistic 14 C.
 A beautiful day to be in the sun on the Currie Chutes. |
 The bottom of the hill is showing some heat strain, but is holding up pretty well so far. |
 Not a good day for the fashion sensitive. |
 I made a rare trip up the Face Lift today, so here is a shot of the high traverse across Cedar Bowl, from the Snake end. |
 Cedar Bowl and pretty much all of Cedar Ridge from the same place. |
 Even the KC Chutes were pretty good today, at least at the time I went, although it helped to avoid shady spots. |
 The upper part of Steep and Deep was really very nice. |
 Farther down Steep and Deep the underlying crust broke down and became pretty mushy. Still not bad skiing, but a bit disconcerting given this is what is beside it. |
 The standard Currie shot from the top of White Pass, showing the Currie Chutes with a very brown Fernie town site in the valley beyond. |
 Did I mention it was colourful on the hill today. Perhaps a tribute to seventies era hallucinogens? |