February 26, 2000

A Helpful Little Deposit

I was skeptical when I read the ski report this morning, for they were claiming seven centimeters of new snow and very good conditions off of the groomed up top. In fact this proved to be quite accurate and indeed the skiing up high was very pleasant in ankle deep powder. Of course the skiing had been pretty good already up above the rain line and the catch was in the definition of upper. Unfortunately the rain crunchies and ice were all too obvious well before the bottom of the Bear. Still even down low the new snow significantly improved conditions, even if they were still much less than ideal.

The result was that only the White Pass chair had any decent vertical in the good stuff and even there you had to pass through at least some of the ugly on each run. Yes, I am forgetting about the Face Lift and it may indeed have had a few nice turns, but its short vertical never seems worth the hassle of the slow ride and the long lines that form whenever there is any significant number of folks on the hill. I generally only use it to traverse to Snake or Easter and then only on quiet days.

Speaking of crowds, they were much lighter than I had expected, which of course was the worst, given that it has been busy all week and this is the Griz Day weekend. However we did not encounter any onerous lines and while there were lots of people on the hill, it actually seemed less busy than yesterday.

At six PM it is -2 C at the house under a partially cloudy sky.


Upper Currie was soft and friendly.

Rush hour on Highline? This seemed to be a very popular way down to the White Pass chair today.

On Surprize, a run cut last summer in Timber Bowl, more or less beside Black Cloud. Part of Siberia Ridge is in the upper left.

My eight year old daughter in the Cedar center trees.

From the same location, but capturing the view up the Elk Valley.