Perish the thought, but we slept in. We're not total slackers, we called the snow report at 6am and heard "4 new inches since the mountain closed... NOT currently snowing." To me that meant dust-on-crust, and a Monday in the office. When we actually made it to the living room however and looked at the deck, the house was in full-blown emergency... nearly a FOOT was on the deck, how the hell can that be?? We made it to the hill by 9 in record time, and one look at Concie below us on T-head was enough to make us wonder... someone had either made a mistake, or we'd gotten nearly a foot of snow in 2 hours.
It was the latter.
After turns through knee-deep piles on Blizzard, we headed for the top- a brave trek across the gusty, windblown Face to get to an epic run down Sunset to Moonlight trees. The snow is not only deep, it's light. Again, we were in shock- yesterday's 40 degree temps seemed to blow out with the sunny skies, it's about 20 up there with a foot of fresh! We went from the most perfect weather for the Winter Carnival I've ever seen to one of the best powder days of the year... it was RAINING when we came home from the movies last night- go figure!
Mind you, when scraped off in spots (lower High Noon, say) there was indeed some *cccrrrrrhh* sounds beneath us. But if you stayed in the trees, hunting for the goods, you had no problem finding them. You know where that is... we'll selfishly keep our secret stashes to ourselves today, we earned them.
In addition to the surprising conditions, also odd were the pockets of people. For instance, Rudy's was littered with timid skiers going around the push piles. Yet we saw not a soul on Storm Face and Sunset. Even upper High Noon was void when we were there, yet after a lap up Sundown there were hundreds at the top, just stagnant; as if waiting for each other.
To avoid the groups going down from there, we took another lap down Sideburn, and I saw one person between there and Rainbow to Hurricane. Some phenomenon I can't explain was keeping the groups together enough that there were wide open powder turns down Hurricane still at 11:30. We caught our last turns down Concentration finally, making a last minute lap up Thunderhead again to earn them, and well worth the wait. Up to our knees yet again.
This beats out all the jealousy I had over the weekend for our pal Jake who was storm chasing in the south, the Champagne has returned!!
-See you in the Deep!
Well after several weeks of ski camps, drop-ins by college buddies, and family visits (and TONS of snow, we are up to 250 inches so far), the sun is out and the groomers are fast. I spent the last three days enjoying the sunshine and blue skies, and taking advantage of warmer temperatures and soft snow. While the mountain honestly is still in great condition, we are approaching that moment when we need more snow too. Maybe I am just spoiled by all the snow the last couple of seasons (489 inches and 60 powder days last season and 100 inches each in December and January this season) or maybe it’s the “hard pack” I have been hearing under my ski. Either way I think we are all ready for some more freshies.
Today was the best of the last three with temperatures in the 40’s and lots of blue sky. We (my BFF and me) started on the lower mountain carving up the big wide slopes of Vagabond and then headed up Burgess Creek to check out the sun soaked Sunnyside. It did not disappoint with small hero bumps of soft slushy snow. After that, we headed over to High Noon and Two O’clock (hey didn’t two o’clock used to be a black run???) and finished with Daybreak. Both a little scraped off, but still holding a good edge. Next we traversed to Storm Peak, which was also a little scraped up, and down to rainbow. And I must say that lower Rainbow was the run of the day. I got incredible turns down through the shadows on the left side and didn’t hear that east coast scraping sound the entire way. The last two runs of the day consisted of the “Lap of Love” (Buddy’s run to Calf Roper to Rainbow to Moonlight) followed by a trip up Elkhead, and a surprisingly great run down the freshly groomed Upper Valley View. To finish the day we arrived at the top of the Bashor race course just as they were breaking down for the day and took advantage of the still fresh cord that had been waiting for us all day. Now it’s time to take a couple of days off and wait for this weekend’s snow. See you in the deep!
We didn't get up early today, and instead watched the snow fall in piles of snowflakes the size of pancakes from our offices until we could take it no more. The 2" and 5° on the 5am report kept building and building, and by the noon report there was a foot. So sometime after lunch we both started putting our gear on for some late day turns and made it to the top by 2.
The wind, snow, and cold were relentless all day apparently; Storm Peak was such a blizzard we couldn't even get across the plain to drop off onto the Face and had to cut across the track to Sideburns, where we dove into thigh-deep powder, blind as bats. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face; even the top of Sundown, which is sometimes milder than Storm, reminded me of Eric Weihenmeyer's ascent up Everest- blowing sideways, bundled mountaineers huddling together deciding which line to take, and visibility nil. Needless to say it was not a day for the camera folks; apologies.
We headed for the favorite stashes as usual, and if there were tracks in 1:30 trees at any point today, they were already covered. Craig buried himself in a treewell, luckily landing upright, because he just plainly couldn't see! Faceshots and fog combined, we were both as blind as Weihenmeyer. By the second lap up Sundown my goggles were toast, and I had to nip into the Patrol shack for a quick clear up.
From there we dropped down Sundown liftline, enticed by skiers below our previous ride, and despite a few screeching halts, Craig bombed those knee deep bumps like a porpoise, getting hoots from the riders above, while I surfed behind to make sure he didn't find another hole to hide in. By the time we hit the bottom of Moonlight we were already spent.
We headed to the top for a frosted-goggle top-to-bottom through the meadow below Storm and the untracked left side of Hurricane. The blizzard was just as bad at the bottom, six inches of fresh lay waiting at the bottom. It's gotta be snowing several inches an hour.
Tomorrow is going to be ridiculous! WOOT!
"See you in the deep" is an understatement.