Craig's Report - January 22, 2008

Cold and Stiff

Cold and stiff were the adjectives that today best collectively described the snow, my body and my skiing. The temperature, like the Canadian stock market, recovered significantly today from the dismal lows of yesterday (it was minus 28 C at the house yesterday morning and lets not talk about the market), but neither quite found its way into my comfort zone. The snow was stiff in most places and downright slick in some. While most of the off piste stuff was quite edgeable, it was smooth and fast enough in some places, the KC Chutes come to mind, that a long slide seemed quite possible if one were to fall over. While I suppose that on any reasonable scale the conditions were not bad, I was more than happy to get off the hill and back to my cuddly keyboard.

The hill is scheduled to close on April 6th this year, which is a week to two weeks earlier than normal. This presumably was decided on economic grounds and probably mainly impacts season pass holders. Personally I see it as something in the same league as the smaller boxes for higher prices so beloved of soap peddlers, but like soap, I am almost certain to keep buying passes regardless. Thus I, and I suspect most passholders, have little choice but to sigh and go on, for unless the potential loss in pass revenue offsets the savings in closing earlier, the policy is unlikely to change. Still customer satisfaction can have economic benefits as well, so if you are one of those really upset by this, it can't hurt to politely let RCR know. Their contact information is available on www.skifernie.com.

At 16:15 it is -11 C at the house and clear.