Ski Day 35: The end of an OK year

Vert: 10,340 m YTD Cum Vert: 349,884 m (1,147,488 vertical feet!)
Runs: 18: YTD Cum Runs: 631

The last day of the year last season was awful, with overcast, rain and unpleasant ski conditions. Sunday was not that. For starters it dawned sunny with yet another couple of centimeters of powder.





Given the beaucoups de snow over the last week or so, the stuff under the powder was very nice, so long as you stayed on the groomed, somewhat like Saturday. There wern't as many avis as they have been in the past, with the real notable ones being the ones in the Eagle Basin...



and two in the dive (one under Galaxy, one under Steel Pipe). The sun came and went, but by noon, snow showers were around. We rode up Tee Pee Town thinking about eating outside on the deck in the sun for lunch, but by the time we made it to the village, it was puking snow, so we ate inside.




And that's the way the afternoon went. A brief dump of powder snow, a bit of sun to melt it and make it sticky, another dump, another sun bit, repeat. The fresh stuff was nice, and if you caught the cycle right, you rode up in lousy viz, and down in sun. If the timing was off, it was up in sun, down in a white out.

The snow on some of the groomed stuff was incredible (like Bye Bye Bowl) but the stuff on the not groomed was challenging, with blocky stuff, real ruts, or powder on heavy stuff (all also to be found in Bye Bye Bowl). So you could have your pick of conditions.

Soon, I will post "2010: The Ski Season in Retrospective". Because now we are done skiing. I am stuck in town this coming weekend, they we are off to Europe, and will miss closing weekend. I will, however, note this:

• We broke 1.1 million vertical feet this season;
• We were 160 m short of breaking 350,000 vertical metres;
• Last year in 34 days we skied 612 runs. This year, in 34 days we skied 613 runs. Ain't stats strange?