With the aphorism looping in my conciousness like a mantra, I’ve negotiated snow with every variation of soft, sticky, rotten, and re-frozen over the past week. I enjoyed a couple of afternoon sessions in Spring corn on the face of Red, some soft and consistent lines on Jumbo and the Ledges, and a few shallow powder turns at the top of Short Squaw, but mostly it’s been about conquering the crap. Yesterday Jordy convinced me to join him for a couple of quick laps on Granite before getting on with our respective day’s. It was raining, the visibility down to one chairlift, and the wind gusting. Not a busy day at Red.
The 3cm of wet new snow on the upper mountain was so sticky we had the sensation of skiing in slow-motion through the gaping glide cracks on Short Squaw, but the rain softened snow on Steep Roots was a vast improvement on the frozen ice bulges of the days before. The forecast is for sunny spring conditions by Wednesday, and I’m looking forward to working on my tan.
