The grand scheme was to catch the early matinee of Iron Man 3 at Stateline, NV, then score some apres movie afternoon turns at The Patches. Sadly, due to tourist traffic and CalTrans road construction, not to mention a concert and gold tournament, the movie didn't happen. Instead, my buddy Stev and I headed out to Red Lake and Forestdale Road early and proceeded to hit up the Forestdale Divide Patch for 10 runs; we skied it out to the point of actually starting a line of moguls. My turn count for the FDDP was 5/10/5/8/7/7/10/7/7/7. Then it was off to the main Patch (and its auxilliary slopes) for an additional 5 runs. While meager, to say the least, we mostly skied it because it was on the way out and it's probably not gonna be too skiable in another week. My turn count for The Patch and its tertiary slopes was 10/6/8/7/3 (this last run included a jump, leftover by the regular park rats who frequent The Patch on the weekends). Stev actually skied the middle Patch on our way out, but I passed on it as it had melted significantly since I'd been there on Friday (not to mention that I had already switched out of my boots so I could drive my Taco Mama with reasonable dexterity). On the whole the snow was soft, smearable, and pretty damn bueno for this time of year; the sun cups were in hiding, which was nice. Actual ski time was roughly 3 hours (3:15 - 6:15ish).
“The best place in the world to ski is where you’re skiing that day.” — Warren Miller
