Ski day 42: Bluebird beauty

Vert: 9,885 m;   YTD cum vert: 356,785 m (surpassing last year's total)
Runs: 18;   YTD cum runs: 669


There wasn't a cloud in the sky the whole day. While there was no new snow, there was still plenty to go round if you knew where to look.

45 cm untracked. Guess where (I'm not telling but the photo doesn't lie)

Today was the kind of day where you could play in the (mostly cut up) pow if you wanted, like here just right of Gold scapegoat...

Untracked bits

 ...or blast around on the groomers (I hit a peak speed of 74 km/hr according to my GPS).


Continuing my exploration of places I rarely get to, I went into No Man's Land today. This is a space that is not marked nor named on the map; Patrollers told me about it. It's below the South Side Chutes traverse and above the Cleavage traverse, and according to the trail map is technically the top of Ewe First, Mother In Law and Goat's Head Soup. Reminiscent of Bye Bye Bowl, it starts off steep then rolls over to get steeper part way down.

No Man's Land at the top

I was bopping down here by myself (one of many "first track" runs I took in here today) and paused to take the pictures. A patroller came zipping down beside me. We chatted for a bit, and in his view, this was the best snow on the mountain today other than the Dive.

No Man's Land half way down to the Cleavage traverse

Speaking of the Dive, a lot of people rode it yesterday and today. This view amazed me. Sunday they bombed Galaxy and loosed a 3.5 avalanche. Yesterday they bombed Galaxy and something went. This morning they bombed Galaxy and set off what looks like a 1.5. You can see it -- and the tracks of today's Divers -- in the photo below (best to click on it to expand it). 

Galaxy in the background. Note the avalanche and the ski tracks.

Everything was great skiing today, and for a Friday, it was reasonably quiet. Here's busy, busy Bye Bye Bowl at 1:15 pm.

Bye Bye Bowl. Shame about the traffic

Here's OS Pitch on my way out at 2:30 PM.

OS Pitch. Freedom to achieve...

The best part about today was that although the sun was warm, the air was not (-20° at 8 AM, -5° at 10 AM), making the weather perfect and barely changing the snow (at least not that I noticed).


Kinda wish I was staying up at the Sunshine Inn tonight. They were having a special "night ski", running Strawberry and Divide for Inn guests from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. That would have been a kick.