December 31, 2005, Paradise

90 inches or so with 9 inches of new, temps around 33 degrees, snow deep, somewhat heavy but with several layers ... 4 inches new, few inches of soft rain crust, eventually a saturated area; certainly skiable, but with tele gear required energetic rear foot weighting and agressive unloading to get up out of the deeps for the next turn; stop and wait too long, the saturated layer would put a nice ice layer on your skis.  Wet slides everywhere (Gary V. quit skiing Sat and went home becuz of the slides, we got to Para on Sat and it was raining lightly and I didn't get out of the car).  One on the slopes above Paradise Road ran across the road.  At least two in the back bowl, skier's left and right from the low-angle, east facing slope, a couple of good sized ones between Bundy's blunder and Sluiskin Falls. Didn't make one want to hit anything steep. abc