after 4 months, day 83 on the snow finally delivered what I hoped for - a decent dump of fresh powder snow in the alpine followed by a cold day with good visibility to actually enjoy it. Playing off piste up in 7th heaven there were places it was deep enough that the ski tips disappeared with plenty of nice fresh tracks areas. Not had much chance to practise my off piste technique this season but it was coming together by the end of the day. Only one major head plant where one ski decided to dig into the underlying snow rather than rise up the bank i was approaching. No pain, but I did have to blow the snow out of my nose and clean out the inside of my glasses. came home absolutely knackered and apparently grinning from ear to ear.
Overall March has been mixed - the dry spell at the end of feb ended up lasting 26 days into mid march - the alpine stayed in pretty good shape but was getting a bit thin by the end. The weather then turned and we've had a lot of rain and heavy wet snow in the past couple of weeks - trashed the mid mountain even further but topped up the alpine quite nicely. Hopefully now we will have a few cold days so it can be pisted in and it will last into april. This is probably more like the conditions should be here, although the stats say its still warmer than it should be.
Apart from than life has been pretty routine - ski, apartment, the occasional friday with the hairfarmers or a curry. Short bout of man flu kept me off the mountain for a few days and had to take it easy for a few ski days until the lungs recovered. We're now fully booked for vancouver island, seattle and the alaska cruise in may, and have started to flesh out the details for touring the rockies this summer. And we are fully booked for arizona and california when Lee and Lisa come over in august.
Blackcombe mountain closes on april 19th, but whistler will stay open until may 18th, long after we leave - usually its the other way round but the mid-mountain on whistler is staying in better condition due to better snowmaking, and the gondola allows download from the alpine when it gets rough, so I'm glad they have swapped it over for this year. Gives me an extra 10 days to enjoy the chic pea cinnamon buns.....
Overall March has been mixed - the dry spell at the end of feb ended up lasting 26 days into mid march - the alpine stayed in pretty good shape but was getting a bit thin by the end. The weather then turned and we've had a lot of rain and heavy wet snow in the past couple of weeks - trashed the mid mountain even further but topped up the alpine quite nicely. Hopefully now we will have a few cold days so it can be pisted in and it will last into april. This is probably more like the conditions should be here, although the stats say its still warmer than it should be.
Apart from than life has been pretty routine - ski, apartment, the occasional friday with the hairfarmers or a curry. Short bout of man flu kept me off the mountain for a few days and had to take it easy for a few ski days until the lungs recovered. We're now fully booked for vancouver island, seattle and the alaska cruise in may, and have started to flesh out the details for touring the rockies this summer. And we are fully booked for arizona and california when Lee and Lisa come over in august.
Blackcombe mountain closes on april 19th, but whistler will stay open until may 18th, long after we leave - usually its the other way round but the mid-mountain on whistler is staying in better condition due to better snowmaking, and the gondola allows download from the alpine when it gets rough, so I'm glad they have swapped it over for this year. Gives me an extra 10 days to enjoy the chic pea cinnamon buns.....
