April 08, 2001

Would you like gravy with your mashed?

The April snow continues and it fell heavily throughout the morning, but on most of the mountain the term powder was hardly applicable to the results. With the exception of the upper half of White Pass, the new snow was decidedly heavy and more akin to something you would find beside the roast beef at Chuck's diner than a powder junkie's fix. Still it was boot deep or higher in many places and skied pretty nicely down to mid elevations as long as you could find undisturbed stuff. Alas a single pass was often enough to generate a ridge of snowballs that was less than conducive to the smooth flow of the next traveler. Below the Bear's Den or the bottom of White Pass you were pretty much into gruel and on on flat areas near the bottom there was the grab and release of a sticky layer of new. Conversely the snow on the upper half of White Pass was quite good in quality, but only Timber was available as Currie was closed along with upper Lizard and upper Cedar.

The base is now being reported as 210 cm and coverage on the upper mountain continues to improve. It also seems to be in quite good shape on the lower mountain for this time of year, although Lower North Ridge below the Haulback top is growing brown snow again.

All in all it was a pretty good day, but for those unaccustomed to soft snow, it might have been a difficult one. The ongoing snow fall didn't leave much smoothly groomed stuff and of course the heavy deep stuff off trail is a rather acquired taste. If it ends up freezing, it is going to be truly horrid.

At 6:30 in the evening it is 3 C at the house and the top of the mountain is shrouded in cloud.