30 Jan – A day of powder snow on top of grooming. The powder was about 10 cm deep and extremely light and fluffy. There were about 50 on us lined up for the first lift. You would not want to stand between any of them (us Bells excluded) and the powder. We had several runs down Sundowner (500 meters vertical and about 2 ¾ km long) with untracked powder on each run. Then, headed over to Morrissey and skied untracked powder on “I Dunno” till we had to go in for lunch. (You can tell they were running out of names for the run. Imagine the conversation, “What will the call the new run, Harry.” “I dunno.” So, now we have an “I dunno” run. (5,000 metres vertical)
Jill Cooper came in today to stay in her condo. Brought up a car load of supplies after a long day of delayed, missed and re-connected flights from Chicago. Arrived at about 8pm. We also had Bruce and Juliet Brooks over for tea. Bruce is 80-something and bought his first snowboard with his first pension check. Goes flat out all day. Damn hard to keep up with. Juliet is learning to ski. They are from Prince Edward Island and we have know them for about 10 years. They go home to Toronto tomorrow.
31 Jan – A day of beautiful grooming on that snow that fell most of yesterday. Not so many people out today. It would be hard to get better snow conditions – soft groomed snow that holds an edge perfectly and does no chop up much with traffic – not that there is much. A few runs on Suncatcher (parallels Sundowner) for Jill’s first runs of the season, then over to the Sunburst chair to try OSV. OSV was built a couple of years ago as the Austrian ski-racing teams training run. It is usually closed to the public and has Austrians hurtling down it at speed. A cup of coffee, then over to Morrissey. Not much groomed so we headed back for lunch after a few runs. (5,200 m vertical).
1 Feb – Another day of fantastic grooming (you might get sick of that). We skied Peak-a-boo (a groomed black – this run is the only black run on the Sundance chair. Its snow does not stay fluffy and is more like Oz snow – a bit crunchy.) then three Stings and three runs down Bluff (another groomed black that runs parallel to Sting. Bluff is a very deceptive run. For most of the way down it is like a steepish blue run, you cannot see the ‘bluff’ but you can see flags at the bottom. Then, suddenly you are over lip and skiing down the steep cliff. The first time we did that run, Geoff was airborne over the top of the cliff. Cranking like crazy down the top bit thinking, ‘why is this a black run?’. Then, ‘Ah, that’s why! Holy shit!’ These days we treat the ‘bluff’ with respect. When it is groomed as well as that, it is little wonder that Bluff is a favourite of the locals. Helen was 3
rd skier down both Bluff and Sting today. That is, only two people had been down before her to mess up the perfect grooming.
So after those 7 black runs (4,800 m vertical), we headed out around the cross country track. The form is beginning to return. We both got up most of the hills and were nowhere as exhausted as last time. Skiing with more efficiency. It will only take another 5,000 km before we get good at this. 12 km x-country in 1 hour 20 mins.
Scott Cooper arrived today to spend the weekend.
2 Feb – It would be hard to class this as a great day. On his first run down Sting, Geoff (who is writing this) managed to collect the ‘Merge’ sign at the bottom and hit the snow pretty hard and has a bit of concussion. He had the rest of the day off. He is a bit confused – though most would argue who could tell. Helen has been looking after him. That bit of reckless skiing has cost him a week off skiing. (There is a separate e-mail about this incident.)
3 Feb – Geoff indoors. Helen did a little downhill and a little x-country. Scott Cooper went home in the afternoon.
4 Feb – Geoff indoors. Helen’s boot took this opportunity to break and wait until it was put on to reveal this. Its repair took about 2 hours and gave Helen a late start.
5 Feb – Geoff indoors. A day of snow. Upwards of 10 cm feel during the day. Jill Cooper and Helen skied all morning in heavy-ish powder. Helen met a young fellow also on tele-skis and showed him how to get down Broadway (a groomed black run). We ventured out for crepes for lunch and raided the chocolate shop on the way home. It was snowing quite hard.