There I was, deep in sleep, listening to the radio, "...Treble Cone 30cm, Remarkables 15cm, Cardrona 15cm..." Woah there! Sloth wakes up to find this isn't a dream - it's all there, all good! Open the curtains, "holy crap!!" 
Mr Dumpy, where did you come from? Thought you'd headed north? So just yesterday I was out in Wanaka in shorts, doing summer stuff. Today was going to be the day Mildred finally came out of the cupboard. But no, Mr Dumpy was having none of that, came in the night, took a big *** all over the mountains, and took off again, leaving Mr Bluebird. Sweet as! Ok, for all you Europeans thinking "oh wow, only 15cm", bear in mind this is right at the end of the season and that's quite a dump over here.
Right, where was I? Oh yeh, so jumped up, no time for breakfast or shower or anything, in the car and into town - typical this was the day I had to drop Sarah-Jaye off for the bus (she was spewing she couldn't come and ride with me today)...as well as drop the car off at the garage for new brakes. D'Oh! So, did all that then ran back 15mins to town to just make the Remarks bus. Loving the powder as we stopped to get chains on - fluffy, dry and plenty of it!
Got up there just before 9am, no lifts open, nobody around. Got to Alta lift as it started - pistes untracked, corduroy, perfect. Looking up towards Sugar Basin - powder, no grooming, no people. Park crew digging the park out. How excited was this Sloth?!! Everything going through my head at the same time - where to go? where to go? Sugar? Yeh, looks great. Nope - gotta be Shadow Basin. How good a decision was that then? Check out my lines...
Farmed out up there again, then noticed patrol removing the closed signs for Alta Chutes. Been meaning to ride them all season, but never got the right conditions. 3 people making the start of the bootpack ahead of me - now's the time Sloth! Wind got stronger and stronger going up there, having to hit the deck several times so as not to get blown back down the face. After about 15 mins of trudging through soft powder, got to the top. Other 3 already strapped in and took off as I arrived. Just started to take some photos as the wind went mental - dunno how fast, but it was blasting ice and snow into me and pushing me into the chutes. With no board on. So there I was, top of chutes I'd never ridden before, weather closing in rapidly, unable to go back the way I'd came from cos that's where the wind was coming from. Took every lull in the icy blasts to edge closer to the chute, quickly strap board on and jump down over the edge. Spent the next 15 mins or so wondering whether I was gonna get stuck up there, sheltering under a rock, unable to see what's below. Took the first opportunity of it clearing and nailed it down through awesome soft pow. Dunno which chute that was but think either Escalator or Elevator by the look of the map. Great news. Loved it. Bit of a hike out of the bottom, met up with a couple of others then a further pow run back to base. Loving this.
After a much-needed breakfast, headed up to Sugar Basin - loads of untracked pow still - barely anyone on the mountain (and only beginners anyway!). Found the lightest, fluffiest, driest stuff all season up there, jumping tussocks, rocks and anything else all the way down. Spent ages doing that lot with someone I'd ridden with b4, then back up Shadow for another hike. Had spotted South Face with only 2 skiers' tracks on, so had to be done. Bigger hike to this one, up and along a rocky ridge, looking right down on whole resort. Amazing views...
Got our lines in, pow not quite so good up there, but was nice and steep and loving it all! Back over to Sugar after that for more riding stuff I'd meant to all season - managed to find some sort of hidden gully back to below the car park - Sloth trying to get as far as possible by jumping tussocks. Damn things don't move if you hit them tho!!!
Yeh, so there it was. What a day! One of the best of the season, thankyou so much Monsieur Dumpy - we love your work.
Sloth
xx