April 03, 2000

Continuing Spring

The standard pattern repeats itself. A clear night freezes the wet snow. The sun comes up and melts the snow making for nice mush wherever the sun beats down. As for where the sun doesn't shine, well let's just not go there. :-)

Timing can be everything in the spring and the general consensus was that I was a bit late by not heading out until after lunch. Apparently 11 o'clock (until 11:03?) was the prime time, but it was still pretty nice in those sunny regions where the snow had previously been consolidated by either groomers or skiers. However a trip down less the less packed snow on sun drenched Steep and Deep was an exercise in learning to love true sun rot. Conversely the ice closure was still in place on Cedar Ridge and a little sniffing at the sides of it certainly suggested that North facing slopes might be less than wonderful.

Still, there was lots of nice goopy stuff to swizzle about in while absorbing those UV rays. With the exception of Steep and Deep (I heard Red Tree was excellent), I had nice mush runs on all of the South facing slopes including, to my surprise, Morning Glory. I did almost come to grief on the latter though when I slurped around a bush and was almost eaten by a couple of pits with vertical sided. I assume these were constructed for sun baking purposes, but come on guys, fill in your solariums when you are done. :-)

In the very cool geekware department, you have to check out the automated weather station that Terry Pettigrew has set up at Snow Creek lodge. Just point your browser at http://208.181.15.221/weather for current and recent conditions. At 5:30 PM it is 11 C (rounded) up there while my thermometer on my sun baked porch is a much less accurate 16 C. It is still mainly clear out.