Ducked out to the Tahoe Meadows area up near Mt. Rose after a morning work session. Arrived a few moments before noon with nothing but thick, impenatrable grey cloud masses looming as far as the eye could see (with the ever-so-small exception of a miniscule window of blue that shown down a wavering ray of sun as I skinned out to the slope for a brief moment of calm-before-the-storm). Geared up fairly quick (I had pre-skinned my skis the night before) and headed out into the bleakness. I managed to tighten my previous 20-minute skin time down to 10 minutes. The snow was noticeably barer than when I had been here at the end of April, so despite having received some new snow in the past few days, the previous pack had melted considerably (rocks that had not been visible priorwere now poking majestically out of the snow). The snow was basically speed slurpee, comprised of compacted and soft ball-bearings of snow. On my first run I scraped down to dirt and rocks on a couple of turns. While setting the boot-pack for lap two, it began to snow lightly. I knocked out lap two and at the bottom was greeted with a clap of thunder. I opted to start heading back, not wishing to incur the wrath of the lightning gods. I set a new boot-pack to position myself for a ski-and-skate back to the parking lot in lieu of skinning. At the top I scanned for lightning and not seeing any, nor having heard any additional thunder, I slipped in a third and final run. Thunder boomed across the skyline just as I finished my run and seemed to follow me all the way back to the Taco Mama. I was de-geared and in the truck just before 1 and around 1:07 I witnessed my first flash of lightning. Uber short day with perfect timing in terms of missing the truly nasty weather.
Woke up to yet more new snow (roughly between 4" and 8"). Got on the hill shortly after 9 and hit up a run off of Lenawee lift with Neal from Canada. They popped "East Wall" so we traversed over there and caught up to Doug, Phil, and Kevin. We got fresh tracks (Doug shot video to prove it) and then went back for seconds. Took one more lap off the Lenawee lift, but this time hitting a nice tree slot for some more video (courtesy of Kevin). The lift line was starting to swell due to "East Wall" being open, so we headed down to the base and went over to the Palli lift and banged out a few laps on the "secret" trees before taking a lunch break. Then it was more skiing off of Palli (moguls were in fine form). At one point the group had swelled to include not only myself, but Phil, Trish, Adam, Kevin, Christy, Jonathan, Susan, Gary, Mary, Tball, Chris Geib, and some guy named Martine. Naturally, everybody got grouped up at one point, so I was holding back in the rear as "safety patrol". I hit a sweet line with everybody watching and heard a collective "OOOh!" Apparently I skied the sh!t outta the line (sure didn't feel like it) to the point that Kevin stated "That was some magazine shit right there buddy!" Skied by Peacemkers the entire day. Nice wrap to a pretty solid trip.
HOLY SH!T. People came out of the woodwork today and the resort was packed. Eva and I hit up the low-angle trees again and scored 3 laps in about 3 hours due to excessive lift lines (people were stacked up on HWY 6 coming over the pass, all the A-Basin parking lots were full, with folks parked along the HWY. Crazy. The three runs we got were sweet. Took a long break and then went out for 4 more runs in the afternoon with a crew of females: Kimmy, Tam, Rachel V., Monique, and their friend Robert. Just banged out some moguls and tight trees. Despite the crowds it was a good day. Started the day out on the Scott Sagebrush and ended the day on the Nordica Enforcer Proto.
Morning powder laps with Eva. Hit up those trees that Kevin and I had stumbled upon the day before. Started the day out on the Scott Sagebrush. Eva and I scored roughly 5 runs before she split to go to work. Trying to remember the middle and end of the day, but know that I skied pretty hard until 2. I believe I ended up back in the very same trees with Kevin.
Light powder day! Hit up a gully for fresh turns with Kevin Q first thing then just skied around. Saw an ermine (weasel) frolicking in the snow, which made my day. In the PM we discovered some low-angle trees that were still holding fresh lines. Overall sweet day. Once again I was on the Scott Sagebrush--really digging this ski.
Solid day with perhaps the best snow I've ridden in CO this trip. Light stayed pretty damn decent, too. Spent the full day on the Scott Sagebrush and am really loving the ski: it's stable, playful, and rips. Snow on the first run was a bit firm, but up top it was semi-soft-serve. Spent the pre-lunch hours basically skiing the uppper mountain with Rachel V. and Jimmy from W. VA. Took the skis through the ringer, hitting up groomers, off-piste, trees, and moguls; they pretty much slayed all the conditions. Banged out at least 4 laps in the Palisades area on some super bueno spring moguls with Adam from Conn. Good, solid day with great snow, good peoples, and some sweet sticks.
Snowed a wee bit overnight, but was raining in Frisco in the morning. Got a late start and only Phil and Trish rallied. We probably got on the hill around 10:30 or so. Viz was crap at the top and the snow was soft-serve slushee action. I skied the Scott Sagebrush in a 178. Pretty solid ski. We banged out 7 laps (Trish quit after 6) and called it a day.
Another day of weird weather at the Basin, not to mention fluctuating light. Started the day off on the Nordica Enforcer Proto and ended the day on the Fischer Motive 95. Both solid skis. Ran laps with Phil, Trish, Dean, Jonathan, Christy, Kevin, and Susan B.
Back to the Basin with a small crew: Phil, Trish, Dean, and Kevin Q. We got to A-B prolly around 11. Skied until 2. Snow was yet again variable, as was the light (I changed my goggles 3X). Got some good runs off the top, mostly focusing on skiing down to Palisades and then skiing the line to the left of the lift. I skied Head Instinct 83.
Back to Loveland for closing day. HUGE crew including Phil, Trish, Vernette, Bob Barnes, Rachel V. her buddy Kurt, Dean, and more I can't remember. Rode with the crew for the first two runs, but found myself having to pee...a lot, so I would often peel off and ski a line by myself. Skied a bit with Dean, a bit by myself, and apres lunch broke off with Rachel, Vernette, Kurt and skied Chair 8 for a few laps. Snow was variable, yet again, with weather fluctuating between sunny, flat and overcast. I think we even had a little snow. Skied the Head Monster 88.
Day 2 in CO. Got out on Phil's Nordica Enforcer Prototype for the day. Interesting ski, that's for sure. Snow was again a mixture of firm and all-over-the-place soft. Skied with Phil, Trish, Vernette, and Dean, plus tag-a-long friend of Phil's, Michael (p/t instructor @ Breck).
Made it out to CO for Betsy Keyes b-day ski celebration at Loveland. Skied with the crew until lunch. Weather was mixed, a bit of rain, a bit of snow, flat light, warm, cold, all over the map. Snow was a mixture of firm and soft and junk, but overall a good day with some old ski buddies from the days of yore (i.e. 10 years ago).
Decided to return to the two places I'd skied last week, since I didn't have my camera with me. Hit up Donner Summit first. The slope had refreshed due to Saturday's snow. Sadly, even with it having frozen overnight by the time I was skiing at 11 am, the snow was junky. I banged out 2 laps of 5 turns and called it. Then I headed back to Tahoe Meadows up near Mt. Rose. I arrived and was skinning shortly after 1:30. I pulled quite a fail within the first few minutes of the skin by following somebody else's track and subsequently found myself ankle deep in water. Since I didn't have extra socks, I manned up and completed the meager 20-minute skin with my feet sloshing around in my socks and boots: not fun. Even though there were several skin tracks and a few boot-packs out to the spot I'd skied the week before, when I finally reached the slope it was free of tracks. I skied a line, then dropped my pack, stashed a Saint Archer Pale Ale in the snow, and boot-packed back up for seconds. I cream-cheese 8'd my tracks and then booted up for thirds, this time starting a new line, which I eventually cream cheese 8'd. For my fifth, and final, lap, I skied a nice line through the trees. The snow which started out a bit heavier than it had been a week earlier, ended up being quasi-corn and worth the extra laps. I celebrated the afternoon with a beer, a sandwich, and a lazy snooze in the sun. My skin back to the truck took abotut 15-minutes and it was good to get the boots off and my wet and cold feet into some warm socks.
Gotta say, compared to the previous day's powder stashes on Rose, closing day at Squaw was rather anti-climactic. Only 2 lifts open. Since it had frozen the night before and was still in the mid-20s when I awoke, I chose to take my time getting there: bad move. By the time I was skiing (approx 11:30) the snow was thick, heavy, and sticky. I banged out 3 runs off of Gold Coast and was contemplating bailing when I connected with a NS buddy, Keith Goff. He was about to bail, as well, but we buoyed each other and did the "Reverse/Traverse" to "North Bowl" and got some scraper and glop for our troubles (coupled with moguls). We came out at the bottom of Gold Coast, so we went up there and skied some moguls. We hit up SiBo again and this time traversed lower and hit up "The Face". Pretty much the same conditions. We then rode SiBo one last time, skied over to Gold Coast and Keith hit the park whilst I logged another mogul run. Then we called it day. Meh conditions, but great company. Did a little apres tailgating in the lot with Phil and Trish and a motley crew.
Woke up around 6:30 to about 7" of fresh laden on the deck. Lolly-gagged around the house until about 9 and then headed out to Mt. Rose (the resort) to link up with my buddy Craig and his lady. Met up with them after they'd already hiked and skied one run. We hit the trail as a trio shortly after 10:30 and ended up skiing "Lower Ramsey's", which was about 90% tracked out: we took care of the remaining 10%. This was the best run I'd had all season next to the day Tim Donohue and I enjoyed list-served patch-skiing at the Star. Craig's lady had to bolt so he and I got all bromancey and hiked back up for some more turns, this time hitting "Six Gun", which was, surprisingly, untouched (yes, I scored fresh tracks).The skiing was so choice that we opted for yet another lap, this time with our eyes set on the prize of the up-until-this-point untouched "Aida's". Sadly, when we got back up to the drop-in spot a crew of snow skaters had obviously been eyeing the same line and had beat us to it. Not wishing to scoop up their leftovers we opted for a swatch between "Lower Ramsey's" and "Jetta" that, lo and behold at 2:30 pm, was untouched. We each got some fresh tracks and managed to traverse back over to "Six Gun" and add a couple more lines to our previous snow graffiti. Weather was alternately overcast and sunny with intermittent snow flurries and grauple and the conditions went from super soft boot-deep to thick, but silvery cream cheese. Great day.
Rose is officially closed, but we poached a bit. Hit up Mt. Rose with my buddy Craig. We convened in the main parking lot around 4 and loaded our gear into his truck and drove up to the summit. We skied into the resort on the maintenance road and then boot-packed up to "Northwest". There were some freshly made turns from some spectral skier unseen by us, but we skied around them. Snow was genuine Sierra Cement/Sludge. I perfected my death-wedge- christie-skip turn (in professional circles it's merely called an "Uphill Christie"). The runout back to the parking lot was super slick and fast: your skis basically got locked into your tracks and it felt like if I came out of the track I would wipeout fierce. Crazy. Scary. Of course we went back for seconds (I tried to puss out, but my buddy politely suggest that I man up; he did concede a bit to my wimpishness and we opted for a lower line, though). Second run we hit up "Ramsey's" and it was pure creme brule (aka breakable crust). More death-wedge-christie-skipping and the death luge straightline back to the truck. On the bright side it was fresh snow (at least 4"). Woot.
Was lazy and didn't get motivated until around 2 pm. Given that a thunderstorm was on the horizon, I decided to scope a line I'd been lookikng at from w/b 80 up on Donner Summit. Parked at the e/b Donner Summit Safety Roadside Rest Area in the very last, eastern most parking spot, geared up, and headed out on what I assume is the PCT (there was a definite trail and metal markers, but no signs. Started at 2:55 and got to skiable snow by 3:15. The line, which had looked pretty solid from afar turned out to be pock-marked with big boulders and not terribly skiable. I found a second line that afforded 5 turns before shelving out into a sharp rollover and a bottom half that was littererd with boulders. I opted to play it safe and banged out 3 laps of 5 turns each on the upper portion. I was afforded some semi-rotten corn for my efforts along with an intermittant post-hole bootpack. Was back at the Taco Mama by 3:57. Beat the storm and didn't get arrested (there are several prominant "No Snowplay" signs threatening prosecution of violators posted throughout the rest area, but I figured it didn't mention skiing, plus I was outside the rest area on USFS land). Again, no pix as I'm still awaiting delivery of my memory card via the USPS.
Started skinning around 1:36 and was back at the Tacomama by 3:16 with three laps on some sweet corn logged. Made 15 turns the first lap, then "powder 8'd" myself with a 13-turn second lap, and finished off with a different line for a 12-turn finale. Nice, moderately pitched east-facing knoll.
Rose closing day shenanigans. Hooked-up with Craig N. and Mary. Also somehow managed to park right next to Mark F. and his son Drew. Only the frontside was open and it was a bit crusty early on (we sat around and didn't really start skiing until 10:30/11). Skied relatively hard and fast most of the day, but with lots of libation and snack breaks. Coached Mary a bit early on, but other than that, just skied. Tree runs were fun, moguls weren't half bad, and even found some semi-corn obstacle courses lurking about. Traditional hoo-haa in the parking lot apres, which is always cool. Last of the Independents in Tahoe!
Spent the previous night at Stev's and we carpooled to the Heav. Met up with his buddy Tom and the three of us skied pretty hard for about 3.5 hours, mostly milking a minor tree run off of "Meteor". Also hit up the mogul run just to see if we could bust some bumps.
The pass was opened at noon. I met up with my buddy Stev Fargan around 3:30 and we were poaching somebody's skin track from earlier in the day by 6:30. Got one run of 29 turns total in breakable crust and sludge. I was making death stem christy skip turns (not quite hop turns). First skin of the season!
Showed up for work only to find out that I'd been called off. Since it was early (8 a.m.) I didn't feel like heading back home to sulk around, so I reached out to my buddy Craig N. and headed over to Mt. Rose. Was a bit disappointed that Rose didn't offer any discounts for season pass holders from other mountains or PSIA, but luckily Craig hooked me up with a $49 buddy pass. Skied with him and his lady Mary on the Slide side much of the morning, mashing soft bumps and some technical tree skiing. Hooked up with his buddy Dan as well as Matt and skied/rode some more after a snack and some cerveza. Ended the day with a slightly larger crew consisting of Janet-from-South Africa and her man and a few others. At one point I aided a young kid who was doing the Texas tuck down a black diamond and falling on his ass (dad was encouraging him to keep his poles tucked under his arms and lean back; I picked him up and encouraged him to keep his poles out in front of him and lean forward). Snow got a little pond-skimmy slushy near the bottom of Slide at the end of the day, but otherwise a solid day of spring skiing with some cool folks.
Avail for privates all morning. Managed to sneak in one speed run down "West Ridge"/"Luggi's"/"Lumberjack"/"Main Street". Speed slush at the top, sticky-icky at the bottom. Woot.
Back in KSBS for a final ski of the season with my man Noah. This time we also had spunky Sophie in the class. She named our "team" the Green Bob Goblins. We shredded all day, more or less. Skied several warm-up runs off Arrow chair, then a Vista lap. Hit up "East Ridge" as well as "Dutchman". Worked on "Around the World Turns". At the end of the lesson while waiting for me to put my equipment in a rack the kids were sword fighting with their poles. I asked 'em to knock it off or they'd end up like Sandy Duncan (with a glass eye). Come to find out, after all these years, Sandy doesn't even have a glass eye! (it's just an urban legend). Go figure. Told the cookie joke to Sophie (with lots of excited aid from Noah). Good day of giggles and schussing.
