Sunday made this weekend worthwhile, though it was not the effortless corn I remember from April 2000 and May 1990. There had been about 10 inches early in the week, a partial warmup Friday, then Saturday's fog, wind and maybe 2 inches more. Sunday dawned clear and cold for April, 16F at the base and 10F at the Summit. But with minimal wind the spring sun did soften a few areas to corn, the intermediate runs on Sunrise and Skyliner in particular. By noon it was probably 30+F at the base and ~25F up high.

I got up there at 9AM, took a warmup on Skyliner, then 2 runs on Summit before meeting my hosts (high school classmate Kirk Reynolds and wife Nanci), their friends Brian and Mary-Louise (Aspen ski instructor) and Schubwa before 10AM. The second Summit run I took the short hike and traversed into the western part of the Cirque Bowl, which had tracks from blown in snow. Recent wind must have been more from the north than normal, because the subsurface was hard, and I would hit it on about half the turns. A return to this area with our friends an hour later was easier as skiers had spread around the new snow for a more consistent surface. Exposed eastern sections of Cirque Bowl had wind-stripped hardpack, so we avoided those.

Our friends headed over to Northwest for several runs. The top of Northwest had been tough in the fog Saturday, but now these small bowls had windsifted powder for maybe 500 vertical, then would dump into a single black cruiser back to the lift. We ventured into the trees a couple of times, but not for long as at that lower elevation there was some crust.

This group moves fast, and with the similar season passholder mentality that I've observed from admin in SLC and Craig Morris in Fernie, like to hammer it hard for 3 hours and then go home. In this case, Kirk and his friends skied 22,000 in about 3 1/2 hours.

I wanted to check out the backside of Summit, which had the memorable corn in 2000 but would likely be more variable this time. Kirk and his friends were convinced it would be a coral reef, plus if you go back there you're committed to nearly 2,000 vertical of ungroomed plus the 3 mile cattrack to Northwest. Since I'm only up there every 7 years I had to go check it out about 2PM. By then the sun had been working on the south exposure for some time and the surface was a pleasant surprise. No hard snow, and the surface was the "cream cheese" that admin described in Mineral Basin (similar exposure) last week.

So I went back for 2 more laps before Summit closed at 3:15. Next run I traversed farther to west exposure. This still had the windsift powder like the top of Northwest, but for a longer 1,000 vertical down to the tree line. The snow in the trees was heavier, and at this point I could feel the toll of the day's vertical. Final Summit run I traversed all the way to the NW exposre above Pine Marten Lodge. A bit more wind effect and work here, so I decided to call it a day at 3:30PM, which allowed me time to shower and change at Kirk's house before catching my flight home.

Big vert day...for me anyway.

Yes, 40,700, 5th highest day lifetime.