January 22, 2001

A Dab of the Good Stuff

The 2 or 3 centimeters in the driveway and reported 7 up top would hardly have been noteworthy in a normal year, but then this hasn't been a normal year, and so it seemed like more and certainly enough to hint at how much better it can be than what we have been skiing. Up in the bowls there was ankle deep, somewhat dense, but still good quality powder and it felt very good indeed to again be making turns in real snow. ;-)

Alas it did not take long to get scraped into piles in the higher traffic areas and by mid day I would have been hard pressed to say that there was much improvement in those areas. Indeed in places the resulting boiler plate and soft mound combinations seemed in ways a poorer ski than the previous straight hard pack.

The off piste skiing was generally quite good and while even the open parts of Snake Ridge had seen quite a bit of traffic by noon, soft turns were still available in most places. Route selection and alder avoidance continue to be key skills though.

At 15:30 it is cloudy and -1 C at the house.

The Cedar Center trees provided a few very fine turns.

Patchy clouds, here drifting in front of Easter Bowl, caused the occasional foggy patches, but overall the visibility was okay.

The first few turns of Snake Main look nice, but you can expect a trap below.

It is hard to believe that this portion of Steep and Deep will become a snow field in a good year. Below at the left are the still furry KC Chutes.

There was good skiing around Concussion Chute, but there were dues to be paid later in the form of alder laced moguls.