Craig's Report - December 12, 1998


Fernie Layer Cake

Snow on top, rain on the bottom.  How many times have we seen that?  It was raining last night at the house when I went to bed sometime after midnight, but there was a soggy layer of snow in the driveway this morning.  It didn't seem to precipitate any further until my young daughter and I headed out for a few runs in the afternoon.   I didn't really ski enough of the mountain to justify a report, but I took some pictures, so...

The top seemed very nice and while the snow was heavy it was still fun to ski.  As you proceeded down the snow got progressively heavier until it was the consistency of something Quaker Oats would be proud of.

Here Tara navigates the sticky lumps on North Ridge.  Even below this though, on the upper part of Spruce, I found some untouched stuff that while heavy was still a treat.   By the bottom of Spruce though I found it just plain heavy and sticky.

It was snowing heavily at times.  This is the top of Sun Up, which I notice now rates its very own sign and a surprising black diamond. 

 


A little further down Sun Up my daughter selects her route through the few remaining alders.   Although not obvious, it was still snowing hard here, but the snow was already getting stickier.  The rain line was somewhere just below the bottom of Bear.

There weren't many folks out and a friend I talked to said it was easy to get nice fresh lines in acres of untouched over on Snake.  I can believe there was some fine skiing out there, but ...

Not down here.  Near the bottom the snow was rain soaked and spongy and a some brown slush was appearing.

There are decent odds that it could be very good up top tomorrow, but what it will really be like is anybody's guess. 

Just before 5 PM it is 1 C and raining lightly at the house.

(Click on any picture for a larger version)

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