Craig's Report - January 7, 1997 - 1:30 PM

Some Great and Some Not So Great

It continued to snow yesterday evening until just before we went to bed, but this morning the snow depth in the driveway was actually less than it had been yesterday afternoon. This was presumably due to settling caused by warmer temperatures. It was about -3C at the house this morning although it is now about +2C with alternating sun and cloud..

There was some truly excellent skiing on the hill, but not all of it could so qualify. The top of Cedar Ridge had perhaps knee deep snow that was rather heavy, but certainly acceptable. This made for some very nice lines, although areas like the bottom of King Fir still had frozen surprises hidden under the new snow. Conditions were similar farther down in the trees on Linda's run and I heard a fellow describe Boomerang Ridge as a mine field. Lizard Bowl had suffered from the wind and had a heavy wind slab that was not too hard to ski, but was hardly powder.

Cedar Bowl was generally pretty good and I had a really nice run down through the trees between Cruiser and Cedar Main. Lower Cedar main was somewhat wind packed, but that helped cover the rain crust underneath and was really rather pleasant. The Haul Back continues to be dead, so we are back to the days of the screaming schuss to try and maintain speed for the Cedar Trail escape.

The run of the day was down Snake Ridge. The traverse from the top of Bear (the Face Lift continues to be closed) was fast and relatively easy, so I was surprised to find no tracks down into the trees beside Snake Main. This was lovely face shot stuff (perhaps a little heavy if you are really picky) and when I drifted out onto Snake Main I was amazed to find it totally untracked. Very nice indeed.

I hadn't checked before, but when I went to leave about noon, Easter Bowl was completely closed although the rest of Lizard Bowl was open. There was quite a bit of wind up top and presumably wind loading was becoming a problem.