Craig's Report - January 03, 2008

It's Horrible; Go Away!

Okay, it is anything but horrible and I am not quite that churlish, but I was surprised by the number of folks out today. Apparently the fabled Alberta work ethic has been replaced by a sense of sloth that at least dimly mirrors my own ne'er-do-wellness. True the hordes were nothing like last week and many of our rides up involved little or no waiting, but at times we were subjected to waits of perhaps five minutes or more! I know it may not seem bad to many, but if you are spoiled rotten and feel it is your natural right to slide on the chair without breaking stride, it seems cruel and unusual.

With another 16 cm overnight and perhaps another 8 or 10 through the morning, the skiing was once again generally superb. Upper Lizard, except for Easter Bowl, was closed as was all of Cedar Bowl except for Cedar Ridge. However Currie was open, although the chutes were only accessible from the lower 'County Line' traverse. With a fair number of people and some significant closures, it did not take long for obvious spots to get well used, but even late in the day we were able to get lots of freshies on our last run.

The snow was a bit denser than what has been falling recently and in places you could ride pretty high even in undisturbed snow. However the turning was still easy and in other places, the uncut snow was still loose and fine for wallowing. Ungroomed high traffic areas are now prone to infestations of less than mellow moguls, sometimes with well scraped backsides, but that is about the only negative I can think of, other than perhaps the need for radar on the very top bit of White (Out) Pass.

At 17:40 it -1 C at the house and overcast. Unfortunately there are some predictions of rain tomorrow afternoon, although it seems that temperatures will then again drop and it will switch back to snow.