Unofficial Fernie Report for 2007/03/08

[craig at redtree.com]

Unofficial Fernie Report - 2007/03/08

Craig's Report - March 08, 2007

Winter Returns, Sorta


 
The stuff rattling off of my window late last night sure didn’t sound like snow, but at some point in the early morning things got quiet and we awoke to snow falling heavily.  It sort of looked like it might continue all day, but tapered off in the late morning and had completely stopped by the time I headed up the hill a little after noon.  While the folks that were there were raving about the morning, I didn’t need to worry about what I missed, for there were still plenty of freshies to by had, particularly on Snake Ridge as the Cedar traverse had just opened. 



 
The snow on the upper mountain was very friendly. near boot deep powder that nicely masked whatever was underneath, particularly on my Snake runs.  The snow stayed very good down to about the top of the KC chutes, where it fairly rapidly took on some sludge characteristics.  Even this skied well where untouched, but a bit of traffic could quickly generate mashed potatoes, and not necessarily well mashed at that.  Even more traffic would pack it into that lumpy, glistening stuff that is always eager to find a stray edge to catch.  The net result was that I found the skiing on the upper and nominally more difficult runs delightful, while some of the beginner runs actually seemed harder to navigate. 



 
The hill seemed to have a split personality when it came to weather today for while it was quite winter like up at the top of White Pass, low on the mountain the temperatures remained mild and even with the new snow it still definitely felt like spring. 



 
My excuse for the limited number of pictures today is that apparently when my camera’s batteries are low, the first thing to go is the autofocus.  I had more, but fuzzy would be an understatement. Sigh. 



 
At 17:20 it is 1 C out on the porch and the sky is overcast. 



 



Picture - <http://redtree.shawbiz.ca/2007/medium/craig20070308_0.jpg>
Cedar Bowl from the top of Cruiser a little after the traverse had opened. 

Picture - <http://redtree.shawbiz.ca/2007/medium/craig20070308_1.jpg>
Who says the afternoon shift can’t find fresh stuff. 

Picture - <http://redtree.shawbiz.ca/2007/medium/craig20070308_2.jpg>
Another lap and more freshies. 

Picture - <http://redtree.shawbiz.ca/2007/medium/craig20070308_3.jpg>
The cornices in Timber were developing nicely and looked pretty cool today. 


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