This was a short morning of ~2 1/2 hours skiing as I had to leave for my pickup at Mustang Snowcat after lunch. Weather was a harbinger of vwhat was ahead. It was 9F when I arrived at 9:30 and 8F when I left at 1:15. Thick overcast too, as is common here.
I was first here in the record snow year of 1999. Big White is well below average on snow so it looked much different. But there had been snow on the weekend so it was the softest snow I had skied this season. The steep terrain here is known as the Cliff, and in 1999 I put a first track down it as the T-bar accessing it had just opened. Then there was a long runout to the Black Forest base and a 2 lift sequence to get back. Now there is a double chair to run laps on the Cliff. Overview after boarding the lift.
Skier's right is an enticing bowl feeding into steep stunted trees which were probably buried in 1999.
There was a depression below those trees so a bit of a slog back to the lift.
Skier's left area is Parachute Bowl.
With current snowpack there are steep technical entrances, which I did not attempt due to unfamiliarity and bad visibility. I did ski something that way in 1999 and remember it being steep but quite wide open, which it obviously is not now.
I was first here in the record snow year of 1999. Big White is well below average on snow so it looked much different. But there had been snow on the weekend so it was the softest snow I had skied this season. The steep terrain here is known as the Cliff, and in 1999 I put a first track down it as the T-bar accessing it had just opened. Then there was a long runout to the Black Forest base and a 2 lift sequence to get back. Now there is a double chair to run laps on the Cliff. Overview after boarding the lift.
Skier's right is an enticing bowl feeding into steep stunted trees which were probably buried in 1999.
There was a depression below those trees so a bit of a slog back to the lift.
Skier's left area is Parachute Bowl.
With current snowpack there are steep technical entrances, which I did not attempt due to unfamiliarity and bad visibility. I did ski something that way in 1999 and remember it being steep but quite wide open, which it obviously is not now.