Heinz's Report - January 30, 2003

Better than Expected!

I awoke to the thunder of the blasting this morning and was surprised. We had about 5 cm of new snow overnight and it didn�t seem like enough for all the commotion. When I headed out around 10 am I was a bit skeptical. The snow was quite crunchy underneath and looked like it might be sketchy.

The boards at the bottom of the lifts advertised 11 cm new snow and conditions labeled as �dust on crust�. Up top, it looked a bit more than 11 cm but well skied out already. I headed out to Cedar Bowl to see if there were any freshies left. The snow between Blueberry and Cedar Centre was still relatively untracked but it was crunchy underneath. Boom was also variable with some windblown icy patches and good powder between the bumps. It seemed the trick was to find the right exposure where the wind hadn�t blown the new stuff off the frozen ice below.

Timber Bowl was soft and the skiing looked inviting. But I wanted to check out 1-2-3 - that was my estimate for the best exposure. I was not to be disappointed! The sign at the top of Currie Bowl warned about slides on the steeps. I managed to get a couple of small slides going in the traverses across the 1-2-3s, but the snow was deep and soft in the descents. There was a bit of windblown in parts, but nothing much to complain about. The bottom of Currie Bowl (Gilmar�s trail) was NOT good with the new snow scraped off the frozen hardness from the rain on Sunday. This will be the problem this year: great snow up top, but tricky getting home on the bottom. I headed back up for another run before lunch to try out Concussion Chutes on the Ridge and dropped down what I believe is Currie Creek. The snow here was excellent � no windblown patches and plenty of new deep fresh.

I spent the afternoon with the old farts and we did a lot of the groomed runs like Cruiser, Arrow, Dancer, Silver Lining, etc. These actually improved from the morning and we found plenty of soft stuff on the edges and near the trees. Consensus from the group was that it was well worth the trip out and definitely much improved from earlier in the week. As I finish this report off, a bunch of the locals who live on the hill are busy stuffing envelopes to send letters to the owners regarding recent issues. If there are any FAR owners reading this, please go the Community Association link on Craig�s main page for more information.

At 8:30 it�s zero outside our back door and they�re calling for more snow tonight.

Question to all readers: There was a sign posted on the Timber Chair calling it the longest chair in North America. Let us know if you have a longer one � Timber is rated as 8563 feet in length.

Heinz - heinzr@far.redtree.com