Snow quality is still good – especially on the Upper Mountain

Today was not quite as good as yesterday – partly due to the snow being a bit more chopped up, but mainly since the sun was hidden behind a thin cloud layer. So the visibility was great, just not super bright photo taking weather. We had planned to head up and do some photos, but the light just didn’t suit it – so we had fun skiing around

Still, I found the off-piste to be soft and fun – while the groomers were smooth and overall fantastic. Still a few hard packed / polished surfaces which is unusual for here, but it looks like they will stay most of the season (unless we get a decent series of snowfalls).

Symphony zone was great fun, with minimal bumps – but towards the lower part of the lift line the off-piste was pretty hard so I ended up sticking to the groomers down there. I spent a lot of time lapping Harmony chair, with the highlights being a few runs through Upper McConkeys.

McConkeys - Harmony zone

That photo of Upper McConkeys I took from the Harmony chairlift – mainly because that is my friend Sarah skiing it. My first run down it, I fell about 4m above where she is , and slid about 10-15m ending up down just above that rock on skier’s left. It was a bit of a heart thumper, because I was on my back sliding head first and couldn’t get my skis around. Once I did, I stopped easily, but for a split second there I didn’t know if I could swing my legs downhill. Anyway, you gotta get back on that horse, so I skied it 2 more times, and loved it – nice and steep, with decent snow in there. There was one hard packed lump which I blame for my fall

The temperatures were quite warm today, although it didn’t really seem that warm. I was a little bit hot while skiing, but just perfect on the chair rides. Also the snow stayed ‘cold’ so it was all good. During the ski out to Creekside, you could tell how the snow on the lower mountain had become ‘wetter’ during the day – and harder as the sun was going down. Still, it was not bad, I enjoyed the run.

The forecast is calling for a few light flurries on and off for the next few days – which will be awesome. The snow is good, and will get better. Lets hope that one of those systems stalls and dumps a big one on us !! You could see the skyline turning dark towards the end of today, with the winds picking up – so that is normally a sign of a storm coming our way…..

Tonight, there is some kind of skeleton event at the Sliding Center. Skeleton is when they lay on their stomachs and go head first down the Bobsled track ! Crazy people ( I still want to try it though ). I think it costs $5 or so to watch, so if you are Whistler right now, go and check it out. You will be amazed at how fast they actually go. I will be there, and hope to get some decent photos / video which I will upload later.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Snow. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.