Good views Terrible snow

 

These are Tuesday's spectacular sunset pictures.  I headed up very late with Stuey and we climbed up through a marine layer of fog and into the sunshine.  In town and down below it was misty and grey.  But up high it was gorgeous.  Like really spectacular.  And we were the only ones on the mountain.  There was not a single car in the parking lot.

Of course we paid for our sunset.  By the time we got above the marine layer the crust was starting to freeze.  So we took our pictures and snowplowed down the mountain.  It was awful breakable crust and terrible skiing.  In the jibber bowl we had to do what I call 'Zorro' turns - long traverses back and forth with turns at the end.  This is what I do when I descend on XC skis and can't turn very well.  And it is a good trick in downhill gear for when the conditions are terrible and turns difficult due to a breakable crust.

But then once we got back into the marine layer near the bottom of the jibber bowl the snow was still soft with no crust on top and the skiing was good. 

As we drove into town in the gloomy mist with the windshield wipers on it was hard to believe that it was clear up above.  I thought that while the skiing had been terrible at least the price was worth the view.  

Patrick