December 30, 2002
Text and photos by Gerry George
Well I finally got off my rump to try out the conditions. I went up yesterday but forgot my gloves and was rather discouraged with where I had to park so I headed back home. How is that for local snobbery?
Today I remembered my gloves and got up early enough to get a good parking spot. Fifteen centimeters of fresh also got the ole motivational juices flowing.
I was actually pleasantly surprised with what I found. I bumped into some friends, Todd, Terry and Marty and we ripped around the old side mostly. Cedar Ridge, Boomerang and Linda’s run all had good fluffies but there was some serious navigational skills required at times to avoid the early seasonal hazards. Terry hooked some devils club in Linda’s and ended up upside down and backwards into the trees. Rocks seem to be virtually non existent on the upper half of the old side but do watch for logs, stumps, trees, alder, devils club and sambucus sticks. I don’t think I saw any other shrub species that are showing through the snow pack.
The trip to the new side was rather adventurous as you have to negotiate the lower half of the mountain. Some of the lower runs seem better than others but it is like a different world from up above and most require one heck of a lot more snow. The new side is actually in good shape at the moment. Concussion chutes provided the best run of the day. That is until you reach the cat track out of Currie. The track itself isn’t that bad. It is where it widens out that is gets gnarly. There are two ways to deal with it. Slow and methodolically, turning lightly on the mounds, or fast and oblivious with no concern over life, limb and ski bases.
So overall I was pretty stoked on my first day out. Flurries in the forecast, which could mean anything here but hopefully we will get enough to make even the lower 1/3 of the mountain fun to ride.
Gerry
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