The only break in the past 48 hours of driving rain top to bottom occurred early this morning depositing 4 inches of new in the upper Alpine. We headed up Blackcomb with a forecast for light precipitation, slightly lower freezing levels, and less wind. We rode both Wizard and Solar Coaster in the rain to find it raining at the Rendezvous. Also found out Glacier and 7th Heaven were closed for the day. The only saving grace was the winds were down. So, we figured we'd ski until the crowds or the rain got to us.
By 9:30, the lines on Jersey Cream were already 15 minutes and growing. At 9:45, we saw the light for Crystal go green, so we headed there and had first tracks down Ridge Runner. It had been closed the past 2 days. The top quarter of the run was 8 inches of heavy slightly wind-impacted powder which skied well if you kept your speed up. About the entrance to Arthur's Choice, the snow turned into something unholy. Thick stop-you-in-your-tracks mashed potatoes. Couldn't turn or do anything but try to go straight. Arthur's Choice out. After suffering through that, the bottom half was just rain impacted groomed. No repeats and the hordes were heading to Crystal anyway. Back up Jersey Cream (long lines) and did a couple laps on Solar Coaster before going in for an early lunch. The Glacier Lodge was packed at 11:15. We discovered our clothes and gloves were not as wet as they were at lunch on Thursday, so that was a good thing.
Headed back out at noon and discovered the rain had stopped and the line on Jersey was 20 minutes. Saw there were no lines on Solar Coaster, so headed for Bark Sandwich. Excellent. But once out and past the bottom of Cat Skinner Chair, ran into dense fog and heavy mist from there to the bottom of Solar Coaster. No wonder there were no lines. We were having fun on the top half, so suffered the bottom half and no lift lines for many repeats. About 1:30, it started snowing lightly half way up Solar Coaster with rain on the bottom half. After we skied out Bark Sandwich with the help of a ski school instructor taking his class of 15 grooms through there repeated times, we headed back to Jersey Cream at 2 where the lift lines were gone. Cycled that until we quit.
Getting through School Marm on our way back to the Upper Village reminded me of shooting wombats back in Beggar's Canyon. Or skiing the bottom half of Crystal Mountain the last time I was there. But, our skis survived.
Poor weather, mediocre snow conditions, big crowds, but still managed to make a fun day out of it. Wondering if our stuff will dry out by the time we have to pack tomorrow.
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