Tuesday 13 January 2009

Ski Day 5 -- Howlin' Wind

Vert: 8,305 m YTD Cum Vert: 44,115 m
Runs: 13 YTD Cum Runs: 73

Karen's mom's funeral and assorted other stuff associated with it kept us away from the slopes from Dec 28th to this past Sunday, Jan 11. In the 4 days before the 11th, Sunshine had 67 cm of snow. So with all that fresh, how was it?

REALLY STINKING WINDY!

Lineups were about average for the gondola, and about 2 km of cars were parked down the road. It was snowing and overcast all day, with temps around -7°. There was at least 8 cm of fresh overnight, but it was hard to tell as the wind was whipping it around everywhere, so it ranged from blown clear, to drifts waist deep, and more.

Goat's Eye was the place to be. The wind at the top was strong, but only about half the wind up on top of Divide. The wind caused huge white outs near the snow fences, but away from that the snow conditions were great. Here's an AM view of the lower part of Silver Scapegoat, looking down towards Bronze Scapegoat & Gladerunner.



The top of Divide, and the tops of the Angel and TP Town Lifts were virtually unskiable in howling (50 mph?) winds and near whiteout conditions in the afternoon. But the snow was very nice anyway, so long as you were willing to braille ski. And despite the reported 60+ cm in the past week, and a new base of 155 cm, it didn't strike me that the coverage was dramatically better than after Christmas, though more runs are opening on the top of Goats Eye.

We didn't stick around late. KC was recovering from a cold and a funeral, and we were up on Divide, which was a waste of time. We didn't feel like going back to Goat's Eye, and like the bigger vert that you don't get on Standish or Wawa, so we bailed at 3. A season's pass will do that to you.

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