The abrupt shift in temps yesterday at 2PM signaled the arrival of a new storm from the NE. With temps in the -20C range, the 8 inches that fell overnight were of admin's pixie dust variety.
Base area temps stayed in that -20C range all day, and it continued to snow most of the morning. So as on my day here in 2004 it was a day to wear everything I owned. After one top to bottom run on Drifter (2,000 vertical of combined powder pleasure and discomfort) Adam went back to the room to add a layer and I bought a couple of chemical heat pads to stick on my sock toes.
An interesting weather feature was a relatively warm inversion layer, about -6C near the top. On some chair rides you would feel this abrupt temperature change and goggles would fog temporarily. And similarly you would notice skiing into the mass of frigid air while descending.
We resumed skiing with patroller Darrel Luco, with whom we had skied back in 1999. First run with him we went out to the farthest south chute, Minus 1, which was 1,000 vertical of near Chatter Creek quality pow. We also traversed out to the far northern boundary and skied a run which Darrel had helped cut last summer.
The weather undoubtedly made the locals' drive from Calgary tougher, so lift lines were only about 5 minutes average. With a couple of thaw breaks I considered 6 top-to-bottom runs, 18,700 with 10K of powder to be a full day. Even Patrick might agree :wink: .
Base area temps stayed in that -20C range all day, and it continued to snow most of the morning. So as on my day here in 2004 it was a day to wear everything I owned. After one top to bottom run on Drifter (2,000 vertical of combined powder pleasure and discomfort) Adam went back to the room to add a layer and I bought a couple of chemical heat pads to stick on my sock toes.
An interesting weather feature was a relatively warm inversion layer, about -6C near the top. On some chair rides you would feel this abrupt temperature change and goggles would fog temporarily. And similarly you would notice skiing into the mass of frigid air while descending.
We resumed skiing with patroller Darrel Luco, with whom we had skied back in 1999. First run with him we went out to the farthest south chute, Minus 1, which was 1,000 vertical of near Chatter Creek quality pow. We also traversed out to the far northern boundary and skied a run which Darrel had helped cut last summer.
The weather undoubtedly made the locals' drive from Calgary tougher, so lift lines were only about 5 minutes average. With a couple of thaw breaks I considered 6 top-to-bottom runs, 18,700 with 10K of powder to be a full day. Even Patrick might agree :wink: .