April. The outside temperature at 85 The sky a hazy blue The grass is
getting yellow But the snow on the northern slopes of Mt Olympus still
persists Yes, it has finally been a decent skiing season over here on
the island of Cyprus.

This past winter I decided not to submit a quick report for each and
every time I visited our tiny ski resort. But now, as the season finally
reached its end, it's a good time for a review of what has proved to be
the best winter since 1993.

Things did not start well. The whole Eastern Mediterranean Ð Greece,
Turkey, Lebanon, and Cyprus went through a very dry and warm fall. Few
storms that never gave any snow were all that reminded us that winter
was around the corner. December the least said about it the better.
Warm and dry, the third driest December in the history of Cyprus. Not
even the radar domes on the top of Mt Olympus enjoyed a white Christmas.
It seemed that another link would be added to the chain of warm, nearly
snowless winters, and another season of perhaps three skiing weekends
would be all that we would enjoy.

Come morning of January 4, I was checking weather maps on the Net. The
message was very clear: SNOW. But just by looking outside, at the blue
skies, I knew they got it wrong once again "as usual" or that's what
I thought. By late in the day, the temperatures at the lowlands had
drastically dropped and the mountains disappeared in dark clouds. I
picked two friends and we headed to the mountains. Drops of rain greeted
us around the 2000 ft mark. And suddenly, around a bend at 4,500 ft the
rain turned to snow. My friend's Ford Escort XR3i, fast as it might be
on the plains, made it clear that the slick roads at 5,000 ft were  alien
territory no chains meant we had to turn back. But not before throwing
each other the first snowballs of 2000, made by using about half an inch
of fresh powder that had already accumulated. By the time we left,
darkness had arrived, and driving back among increasingly heavy snow I
sensed again the "receding stars of Star Trek" effect for the first
time since I departed Vermont in 1994.

The storm intensified overnight. By the time it started to depart the
island in the afternoon, a good foot and a half of snow covered the
highest areas, with the snow line descending down to almost 2000 ft
very low by Cyprus standards. I visited again the hills the next day,
and just by looking around I knew the season had started for good.

The whole January passed with many cloudy days and temperatures below
normal. More and more snow kept falling. By the end of the month, the
base at the ski resort was already the deepest it had been since the
epic winter of 1993. It even snowed a bit in the lowlands. Winter was
here, and was here to stay.

Needless to say, the visits to the Troodos Ski Resort started as soon as
it opened. As an Air Traffic Controller I work in a shift program and
this meant that quite often I could enjoy packed powder as soon as
grooming of the trails was complete on weekdays sometimes nearly
alone. This season I had the good fortune to find a colleague who was
really interested in learning to ski. He joined me in nearly all my
trips, and by teaching him the basics, I soon started to realize that I
was improving my own technique. I recalled most (I think) of all the
teaching tips that J.Spin used to teach me in VT and they did work.
Charis, my colleague, soon started to ski in style, and quite early he
even became a parallel skier. No doubt the J.Spin tips did their job,
but the great conditions had also been a factor

The month of February was a carbon copy of January and that meant even
more snow. It soon appeared that it would be possible, for the first
time since I started to ski on Cyprus in 1995, that I would be able to
ski the extensive pine woods (see the Cyprus piece at
FirstTracksOnLine.com for details). The woods need quite a deep base to
be skiable due to dense undergrowth. But the snow kept piling and
piling. Charis was continuously improving by mid February he had
successfully skied all the trails, so I took the decision that we should
head for the woods.

On February 23, nine inches of fresh light powder were the decisive
factor. Although both Charis and I were on a nightshift that night, we
decide to spend the day tasting pine tree roots and maybe last year's
peony bushes. The drive up was a nightmare, even with snow chains, but
it was certainly worth it. The nine inches of new had settled on top of
more than a foot of powder which was still in its original condition, so
there were almost two feet of light pow on top of more or less virgin
snow. Dream stuff. We used the lifts to get to the Sun Valley 2 area,
which is quite steep, and the pines would assure us of the best snow. To
my surprise, numerous ski tracks indicated that quite a few others had
similar ideas. Both sides of the hill were all chowder. But what about
the middle part, in between the main trails? Not a single track in view.
We jumped right in. It had been quite a while since I last skied in deep
powder, but within seconds I was experiencing that wonderful feeling
and for the first time ever on my homeland. Charis, his first time ever
in the fluff, just could not believe it. We went up and down several
times, always choosing new lines among the trees, never ever getting
into one of the hidden bushes. The clouds rolled in, mixing with the
clouds of powder flying all around our bodies, and snow started again to
fall. Plain fantastic, by far the highlight of the season. The natural
slalom course set by the pines, with the occasional jumps and bumps
seemed to be from another world.  We explored some other wood areas, but
as expected the woods on the North Face were all chopped up, as they
were in Hera. I seriously started to consider hiking all the way to the
northwest face of the massif, which could give us a drop of more than
1,000 ft. But we decided to play it safe since we were both on duty the
same night, and Charis experience of off-piste was non-existent. We kept
playing until no line remained untracked. And we must had been quite a
sight, arriving at the airport right by the sea- dressed in wet ski
clothes, with skis on the roof rack, and of course wearing huge grins on
our faces.

The last and biggest major storm hit on March 1. Two and a half feet of
snow fell and the thought of extensive powder was just filling our
heads. But it was not to be. The snowfall was very extensive, and the
road crews were busy opening the roads to the many cut-off villages than
to the ski lifts. Thus, two days passed before we could make it up
there. It was too late for light powder the fog and some sunny
intervals worked the snow turning it to much denser stuff. The groomed
was great, and again we hit some powder in the trees but nothing
compared to the previous experience, in spite of the heavier snowfall.
In hindsight, we should had attempted to get as high as we could and
perhaps explore some new areas away from the highest peaks... But it's
too late now I guess...

The month of March was not as snowy as the previous months. Still quite
some snow fell, but the highlight was the trip to Lebanon, for which a
report is following. Some more skiing and the high temperatures towards
the end of the month meant that the season drew to an end. A total of 11
visits (more than in 1998 and 1999 combined) were made to the Troodos
Ski Resort, and for the first time I managed to experience real deep
powder on the little island of the Mediterranean which I call home. The
only thing that remains is to hope that next year will be at least as
good and hopefully better than the one which just ended. In the
meantime I have to get my climbing gear ready, my swimsuit and flippers
unpacked, and get ready for the sunny months to come.