Day 71 - Solitude

On the hill 9:00 to 2:15 with a break for lunch in the lodge; temps rising into the upper twenties with a high overcast sky, some peaks of sun and a little wind; 29 runs; 34,500 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; firm groomers; skied ok; lost Tom just before lunch - did the rest of the day on my own.



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Day 70 - Solitude

On the hill 9:00 to 1:15 with a coffee break; overcast with temps around 20° and a little bit of wind; 21 runs - covered 7 of the 8 lifts today; 22,100 vertical; skied the Line Supernatural 108's; groomers - firm and thin; didn't ski particularly well today; skiing with Tom Watson again this week.

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Day 69 - Big Sky

On the hill from 9:00 to 1:30 with a lunch break in the car - meatloaf sandwiches again; started the day with temps around 4° and a light snow, ended the day with temps around 6° and steadily increasing sunshine; 14 runs; 21,750 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; still more groomers; need to do skis badly.

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Day 68 - Big Sky

Out 9:00 to 3:00 with a quick lunch break at the car and a 2¼ hour 'break' on the Six Shooter lift when it broke down; clear and warmer today, 4° to start, 14° when we left, the sun made it feel much warmer; 13 runs; 21,100 vertical; started the day with the Head i.SG RD's and switched to the Blizzard Brahma #2's at lunch; groomers; good crowd; so Tom and I got stuck on the lift today - thank god we were the only two people on a six person lift - they had started the evacuation from the lift when they figured out their problem and eventually ran us off under what was eventually full power - the mountain comped us a free lift ticket and a $50 Big Sky Gift Card; today's picture is Chad, our friendly ski patroller with the evac rope!



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Day 67 - Big Sky

Out 9:00 to 12:45 with a nice lunch on the hill; cold with increasing cloudiness and very little wind; 12 runs; 16,875 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; more groomers; feeling ok - just needed to go into Bozeman to get the oil changed in the vehicle.

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Day 66 - Big Sky

Out 9:00 to 3:00 with a couple of breaks; cold and mostly cloudy with just a hint of wind, 0° this morning, 12° this afternoon; 18 runs, 27,500 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; mostly soft groomers; made a few with Jon Lamb before lunch; skiing ok; feeling ok; clean onto the new ski - think about starting to shorten the outside leg of the old turn as the first move of the new turn



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Day 65 - Big Sky

Out 9:00 to 3:30 with a long coffee break and a long lunch break; clear and cold, -16° this morning, 6° this afternoon, 16 runs; 23,000 vertical; skied the Line Supernatural 108's; soft groomers all day; skiing with Tom Watson; skied ok; feeling ok; covered most of the stuff around Mountain Village and Madison Base; looking forward to Trembler and Ice House among others tomorrow; the only good thing about our Mountain Village condo is this view and the hot water.



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Day 64 - Whitefish

WOW was that crowded. Out 9:00 to 10:30 - no break; heavy snow with temps in the upper twenties; 4 runs; 6,000 vertical; skied the Line Supernatural 108's; despite today's excellent conditions, I left when lift lines grew to unmanageable proportions; Big Mountain, new snow, and holiday Saturday → huge crowd.

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Day 63 - Fernie

Out 9:30 to 1:15 with a quick coffee break; heavy snow with temps in the twenties - 4" or so by the time I left; 12 runs; 18,350 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; powder; skied mostly in Timber Bowl with a couple off Great Bear and 1 down Currie Bowl; skied ok; 3 days of powder skiing has my right knee and calf barking quite loudly.

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Day 62 - Fernie

Out 9:00 to 3:30 with a coffee break and a long lunch back at the condo; clear and cold with 6" of new snow overnight, 7° this morning, 20° this afternoon; 11 runs; 16,000 vertical; skied the Line Supernatural 108's; fair number of people on the hill today - never really a lift line, but people on every chair; stuck mostly to Timber Bowl, but did 1 in Siberia Bowl and 1 in Currie Bowl; skiing ok; feeling a little leg weary - no vitamin I for a couple of days, maybe that's the problem.



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Day 61 - Fernie

Powder day. Out 9:00 to 12:15 with a coffee break; 8" overnight, but it seemed much deeper up top this morning - 20° and overcast with no real wind; 11 runs; 14,250 vertical; skied the Line Supernatural 108's; powder; first tracks in Cedar Bowl on Cruiser and Emily's; good crowd for opening bell, but the real crowd accumulated at the top of the White Pass Chair waiting for the rope to drop in Currie Bowl around 11:00 - maybe 250 people; lots of treacherous patches where the frozen snow underneath made the new snow on top just slide away when touched; my skiing today was hit or miss - great at times, horrible at others; quit early today when I just didn't go back out after lunch in the condo.

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Day 60 - Fernie

Out 9:00 to 3:30 with a coffee break and lunch back in the condo; this morning's mostly cloudy skies gave way to a warming and windy overcast this afternoon, 0° this morning, 20° this afternoon; 23 runs; 31,750 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; more firm and crunchy groomers; more people today, but still a light crowd - never a lift line; skied ok; feeling better on the seriously steep stuff.



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Day 59 - Fernie

Out 9:00 to 3:30 with a long coffee break and a longer lunch break back at the condo; clear and cold with no wind, -10° this morning; 20 runs; 30,375 vertical; skied the Atomic D2 3.0 Race GS's; last week's rain has everything here locked up firm - mountain ambassadors were recommending sticking to the groomers, so today was all firm and crunchy groomers; nobody else out till it warmed up a little bit in the afternoon; Polar Peak was closed; liked Heartland first thing this morning.



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Day 58 - Kimberley

Powder Day. Out 9:00 to 1:00 with a ½ hour coffee break; 10" overnight - partly cloudy with passing flurries and temps around 10° today; 9 runs; 14,500 vertical; skied the Line Supernatural 108's; powder with some soft groomers; huge crowd for opening bell; skied lots of soft, steep bumps and lots of trees; pretty easy to find small patches of untouched all day.



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Day 57 - Kimberley

Out 9:00 to 11:45 with no break - just never went back out after lunch; 2" overnight up top, rain at the bottom - mostly sunny in the am with dropping temps and a stiff wind; 10 runs; 14,300 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; soft, sticky snow up top, soft rain soaked groomers down low in the sun, and flash frozen, rain soaked groomers down low in the shade; skied some steep soft bumps today.



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Day 56 - Kimberley

Out 9:15 to 3:00 with an hour lunch in the condo; overcast with temps in the twenties and a little wind; 20 runs; 35,100 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; firm groomers; ran a 21 gate GS course 5 times this afternoon - great training over the rollers and down the steep pitch at the bottom; skied ok;

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Day 55 - Kimberley

Perfect day for an afternoon nap. Out 9:00 to 11:45 without a break; 10° with clear skies and a little valley fog; 11 runs; 20,000 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; firm groomers; the resort basically shut down at 12:15 when the main lift broke down - thank god I was in the condo eating lunch and didn't get stuck on the lift; didn't ski particularly well today; enjoying watching the para alpine racers - yeah, the sit-skiers and the one-leggers are inspirational, but the really impressive skiers are the one-armed Austrians, they're seriously good.



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Day 54 - Kimberley

Out 9:00 to 2:30 with a ¾ hour break for a burger and a couple of beers; 2" overnight, overcast with flurries and temps in the low twenties; 20 runs; 31,250 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; this morning's silky carpet gave way to some fairly firm and crunchy afternoon conditions; nice hill - good variety - they even have several runs with trees; Para Alpine World Cup Finals going on here this week - some impressive skiers out on the hill today; stuck mostly to the groomers, however did do one bump run and two day old, dust on crusters.

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Day 53 - Panorama

Really glad I didn't just drive by. Out 9:00 to 2:30 with only a 20 minute coffee break - not bad for my 7th consecutive ski day; overcast with temps around freezing; 23 runs; 38,500 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; perfectly carveable groomers all day; loved Skyline, Roller Coaster; Fritz's, Little Dipper, and Outrider; skied exceptionally well today - strong crossovers while maintaining good forward pressure - high, round and smooth - lots of carving above the fall line - great retraction and extension turn to turn without popping up; great little mid-mountain coffee hut - spectacular views; definitely want to come back some day.



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Day 52 - Kicking Horse

Out 9:00 to 2:30 with a half hour no coffee, coffee break; snowing with temps in the upper twenties; 10 runs, 30,000 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; Wiley Coyote was good again this morning; this hill would benefit from a different lift configuration - with the gondola being the only way to access about ⅔ of the terrain, there's way too much 'skiing out' or 'getting over' or 'you have to do this to get to that'; sufficiently humbled by this mountain.

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Day 51 - Kicking Horse

Out 9:00 to 3:00 with an hour long sojourn for lunch at the Eagle's Eye; relatively clear and not too cold; 12 runs; 32,500 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; groomers, groomers, and more groomers; changed back to my old boots and a decent carving ski - man do my feet feel a lot better; did 3 consecutive non-stop, top to bottom runs - 2 off the gondola (3,500 vert) and 1 off Stairway to Heaven chair (3,900 vert) - each run took approximately 8 minutes of skiing; feeling ok; lost Tom again this morning, but found Wiley Coyote.



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