A very ‘Good Friday’ - Winters Back!

Nothing beats a 4 day weekend except a 4 day weekend with a foot of fresh snow. After two weeks of spring like weather in the Kootenays a system finaly came in off the Pacific that brought plenty of precipitation and cooler temps. Friday morning I awoke early to a sight not see in far too long, Elephant Mountain dusted in the white stuff:

(click the images for a larger view)

With this confirmation it was time to get the ski back out and head up to Whitewater to see what had fallen and if the temps were holding stable below zero. Luckily the drive up was just after the plough had cleared the road as I had already taken the snow tires off of the car. Once at Whitewater it looked just like when I had last seen it two weeks prior (except of course the summit chair no longer has seats on it):

My early start paid off and I was only behind a single group with their dog so the up track was kindly taken care of. Unfortunately 100 feet from the parking lot my Gecko skins decided to act up again and the tail clip came clean off. This time there was no solution as I failed to bring along my voile straps to affix the skins to my skis and with Gecko Skins once they touch snow it’s game over.

With over 30cm of fresh fluffy pow the skiing was pretty excellent. Once at the bottom I decided that the 1300’ boot pack up wasn’t that bad and that I could be back at the top for round two in just over 30 minutes. Besides, you can’t put in a boot pack and not use it more than at least once.

On the second lap the snow had more moisture but was still fun, first tracks down the Blast and Diamond Drill are always worth it.

So who else got some snow this ‘Good Friday’?