 Poster: A snowHead
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Firstly, to Box Hill - for thrills!
Barrie's Bank and Below the Viewpoint in great shape with sledger-packed powder on a cattle-grazed base.
Both runs festooned with half-cut chavs and other council-types on such diverse equipment as for sale boards, tarpaulins and parcel shelves.
Outfit of the Day Award goes to an enormous creature in a high-vis yellow coat with "Please pass wide and slow" on the back. I thought maybe a comma had fallen off from between "pass" and "wide", as the latter stanza would have been perfectly reflective of her physicality.
Barrie's Bank provided an entertaining circa-300yd descent in exchange for a 10 minute hike back up, the whole circuit therefore taking on average 10 minutes 19 seconds. On one occasion I strayed a little too far hors-piste and got tripped up by a malicious tree-stump lurking below the snow. This resulted in a classical "Frank Spencer" dismount, head-first over my tips at reasonable speed, to the delight of the assembled masses. Snatched snippets of conversations suggested that they viewed skis with the sort of amazement that one would normally reserve for witnessing a UFO landing in the park. Needless to say, I was the only earthling so equipped on Box Hill today. I allowed myself a slight smirk at the Burberry-clad adolescent strapping his brand new prison white Adidas trainers into his mate's snowboard, although I regret I was on the walk back up to the caff at the time, so didn't witness the inevitable injury that I'd bet my house happened shortly afterwards...
With a cup of tea and a slice of bread pudding from the National Trust mountain restaurant, I was nicely fortified for a pleasingly technical descent back to the car at Lower Boxhill Farm, involving freshies in the tussocky off-piste, a couple of five-bar gates, pedestrians in unlikely places (on a footpath? Whatever next?) and a fun schuss down the lane through a small flock of teenage wasters armed with a car bonnet. I was pleased to see it wasn't mine.
Regret no pics as I forgot the camera, but Dorking and the Mole Valley looked very nice indeed under a blanket of snow, and the dog Merlin had a fabulous time chasing me. He hasn't moved from his bed since we got home at about half five.
Thanks to a phone call last night from SussexSnow (A Scotsman called Nick who prowls Winterhighland but lives just round the corner from here), earlier in the afternoon I had secured my first ever turns on Ashdown Forest at Friend's Clump (a place, gentle reader, not a local euphemism),which delivered a 150yd straight line down a firebreak between swathes of gorse and heather.
There is a lot of snow on the Forest at the moment. In places I estimated 18" with no evidence of drifting - it was over my wellies. This is quite a difference from the 5" measured in my garden. I hesitate to say "Champeyne Powderrr" like Bernie on the Lake District Snowline, but it wasn't far off. Light and fluffy with not a hint of windcrust. Absolute magic, in fact.
More apres-work fun and games tomorrow. I fancy something lift-served, so will ring up Bowles at Eridge to see what's occurring on their not-so-dry slope. The Joy of Flex means a couple of daylight hours there are not beyond the pale. Wicked.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Brilliant. Thanks
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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norris, That was always my preferred route too. Looks as good as I've seen it. Nice pix. Quite nostalgic. 
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Am feeling very frustrated that I live at the bottom of this hill but do not have my own pair of skis. Have had fun sledging with the children in the Dorking area - a very nice sledging run with no trainer clad teenagers in sight!
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It looks quite chopped up. I am surprised to hear about hidden tree stumps as it is mostly meadow.
The road up from Rykers is steep as are some of the descents.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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lovely picture of Denbies by the way..send it to the Dorking advertiser!
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Latchico, I think the treestump was on the other side rather than the smooth NT bit.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Brilliant report!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Dot, welcome to snowHeads 
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You know it makes sense.
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norris, those pics are pretty reflective of what I experienced on Thursday, so thanks for indvertantly taking the heat out of my rollicking from Charlotte over forgetting my camera  They're also better than what I'd manage.
SussexSnow, thanks, I hadn't, but I will when I've finished typing this! I am eyeing a trip over to Wilmington tomorrow, as there are some good lines to be had over the Long Man and in that big bowl that faces south the other side of the ridge.
As hinted, yesterday afternoon's skive was to Bowles dry slope at Eridge, for lift served action a whole three miles from my house. The snow was lovely skier-packed powder, althouhg the Dendix was poking through in the middle where it had all been scraped off. Mind you, the sides were alright and a bit of pisting work with a ski redistributed the snow quite nicely. Very few punters - just myself and a chap called Terry. Not as thrilling as Box, obviously, but still fun and a good opportunity for basic exercises. I am proud to report a total of 17 turns from top to bottom on one run, but the average was more like two. A nice bit of fun for eight quid, although Dendix responds quite differently to really tight carved turns than the surrounding snow. All good stuff. The back bowl(es) behind the main slope was untouched freshies and the nursery lift wasn't running (understandable really, considering the patronage levels), so I helped myself to those, which included a grassy bank above twhere the dendix starts, thereby increasing the length of the descent by half as much again. It was quite similar in scale to how I'd imagine skiing down my stairs to be, but no less entertaining for it. My new friend Terry provided the cabaret by wiping out on his first turn on the grassy knoll and scraping the snow back to a wide swathe of forage in the process.
I have pics, but I can't fathom how to load them into here, and it's past my bedtime anyway. They'd be good candidates for "Guess the resort" in a couple of years time.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Sorry Lathigo, forgot to say, you are right. However, "mostly meadow" equals "partially a bit of room for treestumps too", and that's what accounted for my beautiful flying dismount. I will not admit to being floored by an ant hill, tussock or vindictive moles. So there. 
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