Brent Kearney

Yesterday morning there was a little over 20cm of fresh snow at Sunshine Village, on top of the 48cm from the previous four days. The sun came out, and the ski conditions were great.

Unfortunately, the Angel and Continental Divide chair lifts were still not open, so its still just low elevation skiing. It was a lot less crowded than opening day, so there were plenty of fresh tracks to be had all morning. Despite the deep snow, one must be vigilant for shallowly buried rocks and stumps. Check out this nasty ski-eater that I uncovered. On rocks, you’ll either get too much traction, or not enough, depending on the shape of the rock and how you hit it. So be wary this time of year.

The back side of Lake Louise, and the Paradise Bowl opened this Tuesday, and I’m really looking forward to skiing there this Saturday! A liftie at Sunshine told me that they plan to open the upper elevation lifts (Angel, Continental) on Saturday as well. I heard dynamite blasts at Sunshine on Thursday; ski patrol is probably doing avalanche control in Delirium Dive. It would be fantastic if the main chute was opened this weekend.

The best line of the day at Sunshine, in my opinion, was any fresh track off of Headwall or Laryx (both of which are skier’s left of the Standish Chair top), maintain speed to get across the gully and Strawberry run, through the trees, and then down the west face, which until about 11am offered untouched, boot-deep powder snow. I outlined the approximate route in red:

See you on the slopes!