[Rebob]

stoked, check the last bullet on the letter from the Ministry of NRO, last bullet on the first page addresses the Callaghan Mainline.

[Rebob]

Oh. Boot tops up high today. Skied rather well.

[stoked]

[Rebob]

[Jordo]

Some dizzying stuff in that letter. I don't know where to start. I fear Scott Shaw-MacLaren will go far in the Liberal ranks.

[Rebob]

Skiing reasonable and still late-winterish on northern aspects at higher levels. Not really corn yet on SW and SE aspects above 1800m, but it will be coming soon. Lots of convective today shaded much of the pack.

[Rebob]

A little fresh down to 1400m this morning. Note that the snow reports now are often quite inaccurate, due to the lower elevation of the plot sites the mountains are reporting from.

[Rebob]

Took a while, but went to corn on southern aspects yesterday p.m. Still snow in the trees from last week's snowfall and wintery conditions on Saturday. Sunday's solar got things moving on a variety of aspects in the alpine, though nothing large observed.

One skier caused size one on a northern rollover noted on Saturday as skies cleared. Freezing levels forecast to go moonward this week (last night was the beginning), so one could expect stability to decrease under the heating as the upper layers go isothermal.

[mekon]

The fine line between "corn" and "slurpee" is crossed at Cypress well before early afternoon at least on the route that I took today. One should get out of the house earlier than I do. But there is still a vast amount of snow available to ski. Actually quite fun slurping down through the glade at the top of Strachan. There's been a fair bit of snow up there recently, judging by the beautiful smooth surface where it hadn't recently been tracked up by machines or skis or boots. The glade was like (very deep) butter.

One thought I had as I sweated up the slope was: "are there ever inbounds spring slides?" I imagine it'd be exceedingly rare, but I wondered if an isothermal pack might slip away.

These thoughts returned on top of Strachan, on the last bump before Christmas Gully or whatever it's called, where I met the "Monday Korean Hiking Club" as they called themselves: about 20 or 25 middle-aged Korean men and women (mostly women looking around 50) who had just stomped up the gully in their snowshoes. Their line was impressive. That's not exactly a low angle climb. I had hoped to watch them all glissade the gully, but they went down through the resort...

SPF 50 was the order of the day.

[Rebob]

[mekon]

But that couldn't happen at lil' old Cypress, now could it?

And you are right, I basically know the answer.

But sometimes we hang it out there anyway and live life on the edge like me humping it straight up "Horizon" and the "Monday Korean Hiking Club" taking on Christmas Gully head on! That group is clearly pretty gnar-friendly.

(I'll go look at Tremper, but I'm wondering what the difference is in triggers for a slurpee avalanche and a hard slab...)

[Nick D]

Did I see you mekon today?

We were up on Strachan about the same time. My wife doesn't ski tour (downhill and cross country only) but this year I bought her a pair of Hoks so, with a sunny forecast, I volunteered to pack her downhill skis and boots up Strachan, while she hiked up on the Hoks. We made it to the top of Sky Chair and one of the Korean hikers took our photo to prove to our kids and grandkids that we actually made it.

So we decided to eat our lunch on the top chairlift platform on the outside of the downhill chairs as it was dry wood (that's where I saw a tele skier heading down maybe that was that you?). We put Eunice's pack on the closest chairlift, too far out from the ramp to sit on but close enough for storage. After lunch the chairlift suddenly starts moving with the backpack. It goes about 30 feet and stops with no chance of rescuing it

So I called the number on the lift shack, but was asked to leave a message - thanks a bunch guys!!!

Then a groomer comes up with a bunch of guys to remove the ski area boundary rope line skiers left of Sky Chair. So I get them to call down to the maintenance guys who are working on the lift tower down below. So we ski down and they bring the chairs down so we can rescue the pack. Then we got to ski that slurpee snow all the way to the base.

The takeaway from this is, I don't think I'll get my lady wife into ski touring as gear keeps getting away from you

[Rebob]

[mekon]

That's a sobering account.

NickD-That was me. Did you see me faceplant in a pile of mush? Something very wrong with my wax. I wish I had said hello. I was trying to figure out why this guy going up T-33 had skis on his feet and on his pack...

Gorgeous day, no?

[Rebob]

Snowing in the valley a few minutes ago. Convective cloud and a cold front. Sunny in places. Yesterday 20C in the valley--today a snow shower. Must be May!