Craig's Report - January 6, 1998

Deep Snow, but limited terrain

The January snow fest continues and face shots were plentiful this morning.  The official numbers claimed 53 cm in the previous 24 hours which is enough to get any powder hound's pulse racing.  The temperature at the house hovered just below zero last night, but the snow was surprisingly light.  It wasn't the fluffy powder that cold days bring and a fellow I talked to in the locker room pronounced it a bit heavy for his liking, but I and everyone else I talked to seemed to like it just fine.  The only problem was that almost nothing was open.  In fact only Bear, Boomerang and North Ridge were open on the upper mountain and the hordes of powder crazed skiers and riders soon had that well tracked out.  By 10:00 AM you were hard pressed to find an untouched line in even the darkest most alder ridden depths and it seemed like there was a boarder behind every bush.  That is not to say there weren't still lots of fine soft turns, but this wasn't quiet isolation on the mountain.

Everyone was hoping that Cedar Ridge would open, but I heard they had at least one full run avalanche and were undoubtedly being extra cautious after the disasters elsewhere in BC this last weekend.  I had to leave before noon and there was still no sign of them opening it, but if they did it would have been excellent indeed.

I had the camera today, but somehow picture taking wasn't high on the priority list and thus this report will have to make do with the sorry specimen I snapped from the Boom Chair.  As you can see the snow was still coming and it has continued all day.   It is only snowing lightly at the moment (9:00 PM) but the valley has a heavy snowfall warning for tonight and tomorrow.  The radio weather reports mentioned that 'R' word, but the temperature is currently -1 C at the house and the latest Environment Canada forecast looks encouraging with a high tomorrow as also -1 C.