freeze and thaw

Sunday ended up being very similar to Saturday, although H and I were once again on our own.  It was clear and sunny, not nearly as windy and slightly cooler, which meant that it took a fair amount longer for the snow to soften.  Off-piste was pretty crusty, especially in places that had been sun-baked Saturday afternoon and then frozen up overnight, like the run-out of Catherine's Area, so we had to stick to groomers - or areas that didn't get direct sun - for the first part of the day.

View from Sugar Mountain

H continued his dedication to his tele skis.  He's really improving: he's much, much faster now and more comfortable with carrying a little speed on these skis.  What he thinks he needs to focus on is making quicker transitions in his turns, from foot to foot.  I'm very impressed with his progress and his willingness to work for it - and the one good thing about the dry February we had was that with no decent new snow, he wasn't tempted to ski on his alpine skis.

After lunch, I did several off-piste runs, touring the mountain to see how the snow was faring:  Yellow Trail to East Greeley (snow was soft but not slushy, the colder temperatures keeping the snow in better shape); then Devil's Castle, which was definitely keeping the best snow (I'd done a morning run in the first bit so this time I went in a little further to the Sugar Mountain area); and then into Catherine's Area (the top was good but the run-out was still just a little crusty in spots).

Superior from Supreme

H and I rejoined each other in the afternoon for a few groomer runs as our legs began to feel some fatigue.  At 2:30 p.m. we decided that we'd had enough, although I wanted one more go at Catherine's.  Even though I was tiring, it was a good run since the run-out had finally softened into wonderful corn-snow moguls - just what I had been waiting for!  I found H at the Goldminer's Daughter patio and we each had a beer in that warm February-feels-like-April sunshine.  If you can't get a snowstorm, at least you can work on your goggle tan!