February 11, 2001

In Living Text

Still no pictures, but the cheery tone of my last report and the 'excellent throughout' that the ski hill is reporting just begs for an update. Actually the skiing is still pretty good and indeed there is lots of soft pack snow and even a few of the reported powder stashes (albeit well stashed), but the snow is now pretty well used and unfortunately the rocks and pebbles are back in the problem areas. There has been little snow since last weekend and there were also a lots of people on the hill this weekend, so some wear is inevitable.

Although I don't think conditions were any better today than yesterday, I came away with a much more upbeat outlook today (a report yesterday might have been downright mean). This is probably because we were on rental snow blades this afternoon and these things are a hoot, at least on the firm stuff. On soft pack they were a little short on flotation for my middle aged bulk and having one's tips just suddenly break through and head straight down into the mogul you are on, gives a skier what I must imagine is a pretty good simulation of a boarder's experience with a toe catch. I was definitely glad I didn't have my camera on my chest today for I really wasn't interested in a close up of my internal organs.

With rental boards on my feet I was inclined to try a few things I have been skipping, such as Puff (don't bother) and the gully beside Freeway (icy patches, but a great place for REALLY short boards), but my dramatic soft snow experiences pretty much kept me on the trails.

I have had lots of generous offers of assistance with my bandwidth problems, including to my amazement, one from Resorts of the Canadian Rockies. While that might result in too strange a mix of bed fellows, the possibility of the pictures returning at least occasionally is looking good. I say occasionally, because skiing without a camera is kind of nice, as is coming back from skiing without thinking about filing a report. ;-)

At five thirty it is -4 C and mainly clear with a nice alpenglow on Mt. Fernie.