Heinz's Report - March 24, 2003

Crazy Mixed-Up Day

It started snowing late yesterday afternoon and it was still coming down by the time we went to bed. After the less than perfect days over the weekend (which I passed on) we and our out-of-town guests were getting excited! When we awoke we had about 4 to 6 cms on our deck, the ski hill was reporting 11 cm of new stuff and the sun was breaking out of the clouds. We were ready! But the ski hill was not� again. The electrical problems of this year reared up again, but this time with a vengeance. All of the power to the resort was off and no lifts were running�aaargh.

They managed to get them running by 10:30 am and we headed out still under sunshine. Our first runs were in Lizard Bowl where the 11 cms of new snow was on top of crunchy frozen from the past weekend rains. It was light on top, but definitely tricky underneath. We headed for the groomed on Cedar Cruiser which was nice and soft for a change. Snake Ridge had opened and we decided to head out there. On the way over, the snow on Snake Main looked heavy now that the sun had managed to bake on it for some time. Perhaps Redtree would be better since it�s more in the shade. On the way down, we dropped into the edge of Fish Bowl on the way over to Redtree. The first turns were great, but by the time we got back over to Redtree, the hard, icy stuff underneath became more of a nuisance. Redtree itself was quite bumpy and crunchy underneath and really not worth the effort.

We planned to make it over to White Pass and higher up where we hoped the hard sub layer would be better. But the ski hill had other plans for us. By the time we got to Boom Chair, it had just broken down again (This was the third time for me in the past week) and we had to hike our way back to the main area. We decided to pass on the Fernie Flintstone lifts for the day and head for the bar.

In the bar we ran into other more lucky souls who went up to White Pass earlier in day and they told us it was definitely better over there. When we quit for the day it had started to snow heavily. Before I finished this report, the rest of the family who didn�t stay in the bar and commiserate with us, returned and told me that the snow that had fallen during the day had helped make the conditions even better. By this time, we had been in the bar too long to try and make it out for another run. Besides, I didn�t want to risk getting stuck on a lift again. Sounds like a good excuse to me :).

At 5:00 pm it�s plus 1 Celsius and it�s continuing to snow. They�re calling for more precip for the next couple of days so here�s hoping. Now only if we could count on the lifts�

Heinz - heinzr@far.redtree.com