Yep, it was pretty darned hard, and downright ugly off the groomed. At 5pm the day-time warming was still detectable. At 6pm I was carving as hard as I could on the corduroy and barely leaving a trace. Between edges I left no marks. As for the racers having fun, most of them looked a little scared and weren't skiing like the heroes they normally appear to be. Some still railed it, but conditions definitely separated the cream from the crop ...
It was still a lot of fun at West and legitimately hardpack, not ice (on the groomed -- upper Alpental must be a horror show). The High speed quad at Central died mid-evening, but it was pretty interesting over there. Skier traffic had cut a fairly thick layer of "shave-ice" off the top. In spots it was piled deep enough to make powder-esque turns. Lots of people were honing their skills on the very hard but intermitently shave-ice piled moguls on triple-sixty. This too separated the very good from the ones like me. The spectrum ran from nearly-silent descenders to "is a semi skipping down I-90 on its side?" scrapers. Occasionally a slide-out would lead to a slide down the hill. I saw one skier make it about halfway, albeit pretty much in slow motion.
It was actually pretty fun except for the constant spector of a cracked tail-bone looming behind a caught edge. But these are the days that make you good, right?
