that's more like it

Sunday was more like what we expected Saturday to be.  It wasn't completely clear blue skies but it was more sunny than cloudy, the temperature was warmer and the winds died down (for the most part).  The groomers were in great shape while the off-piste snow was a little tougher.  The sheltered, shady spots were still soft but anything that ever got any sun was pretty frozen.  We followed our usual course - a few runs at Sugarloaf, then move over to Supreme when traffic got heavy - seeking out the best snow we could find.

In Devil's Castle

From Supreme, we gave Catherine's Area a try, even though we knew it was too early for the snow to have softened in the sun.  Ski patrol graciously opened the eastern gate into the Apron and H went to check it out.  His legs were pretty tired when he met me at the lift with his report: the traverse was set quite a bit higher than it had been the weekend before, requiring a lot more side-stepping and elevation gain.  Still, he said that the snow was good, protected from the sun, so we went back in, opting to ski through the chutes rather than do the side-step all the way up to the cliffs.  He was right - the snow was quite good.

The Little Apron and the Far Wall

After lunch, we went into Devil's Castle from the western gates off Sugarloaf and traversed nearly all the way across to Far Wall/Little Apron.  The snow was wonderful there, deep and soft (if you stayed in the shade) and only a little tracked out.  It was so good that we went back and did it couple more times.  Since we're on the spring side of the ski season, you have to take advantage of good snow where you find it.

View from the Castle

My legs were burning at that point, so we cruised back over to Supreme for some more runs there.  I got inspired and suggested we give Catherine's one more chance.  It had softened pretty well, especially the last pitch before the run-out back to the lift where the moguls were so soft - I felt like I could ski bumps like that all day.  We figured that was as good a run as any to end on.