January 04, 2000

I guess I have to call it Excellent

Boy, it is getting difficult to find things to grump about in the hopes of keeping the threatening hordes at bay. There must be a few things though.

Let's see, there was a bit of wind crust on the edges of Falling Star that half heartedly tried to erase my silly grin after we scored the sign drop on Siberia Ridge and collected a very nice run down the Morning Glory trees. Speaking of wind, it propelled nasty stinging bits of snow at your face as you rode up the Timber Chair and even stuck to my goggles a bit, although it was calm almost everywhere else. The light at the top of White Pass was rather flat.

Umm, the mere 10 to 15 cm of new meant we could not wallow our way down mogul runs, but rather had to stir about in the ankle deep. In most less trafficked areas, one had to cross other tracks every few turns and the occasional snow flying up in your face was potentially distracting. What's more, there were several times we had to wait for 15 seconds or more for someone in front of us to get on a lift.

While I hear that the whole hill was open yesterday, once again the normal bad boys (Currie, Upper Lizard, Upper Cedar and Snake Ridge) remained closed this morning, but admittedly there was no shortage of fine skiing. The only real worry is that the temperature continues to climb and is now (7 PM) hovering around 0 C with just a few flakes falling. Given Fernie's reputation in such circumstances, one can't help but worry. Perhaps it would be wise for everyone to stay home just in case. ;-)