At the Top of Polar - with Lake Koocanusa in the background -...

At the Top of Polar - with Lake Koocanusa in the background - Location

The Polar Peak chair managed its first day of sort of normal operation today, opening a bit after noon and staying open, I believe, until what will be its normal closing time of 15:30. I had vowed to hold off on riding it until the visibility was really good and any possible teething problems had been worked out. The latter seemed unlikely and I couldn’t see the peak from White Pass, but I couldn’t resist heading up for a peak peek.

The ride is short, but impressive as you fly over snow rimed cliffs. The evacuation procedures must be equally impressive. I opted for the “intermediate” Polar Circus as a prudent first run down and found the slope down to the saddle reminiscent of Falling Star from the top of White Pass, but it seemed narrower. I had originally thought the first clown chute might have been a better choice, but the entrance was completely blind and checking it out from the bottom seemed like a wise idea.

The cat track that is Polar Circus is fairly narrow down to the switchback and I suspect would be pretty intimidating for an actual intermediate. Below the switchback it seemed to be steeper and narrower and I was quite glad when I got to a point where there was enough snow below it for me to get off the thing.

The slope from there down seemed pretty mellow, but the light was so flat I couldn’t really tell what I was skiing on and it wasn’t altogether enjoyable. It will probably be better, even with the flat light, once one knows the terrain better. Still I think Polar is likely to remain mainly a good visibility choice. Later the peak was clearly visible from the base of the mountain, so my timing may just have been poor.

The skiing on other off piste slopes was very nice, with a few centimetres of sift over a compliant base. Okay, it may not be deep powder skiing, but I still like this kind of stuff a lot and I found things like Steep and Deep and Tom’s run to be a delight.

There were a few slick patches on the lower mountain, but generally the groomers were still quite nice. Moguls on things like Puff and Heartland may have bulked up a bit, but hadn’t yet developed too serious an attitude.

All in all some very nice skiing.

At 16:30 it is hovering about 0 C at the house and partially cloudy.