18/19 Stevens

2/20 A few inches of cold (~5%) snow with mediocre bonding to the base. I stuck to the front side since I've been stuck in a 45m+ line dealing with stopped backside lifts too many times this season, didn't feel like trying my luck. No lines, fresh turns all day. Low angle and steeps were fun, anything that gets bumped up wasn't terribly friendly. Spent a few laps learning more of the little slots between 7th and sky. Kinda amazing how few people that go to that area actually ski it, every lap had a single track going into a full pitch side slip. From the lift I saw a few full on butt slides down, pretty amusing to watch.

Found an awesome high traverse into the top of tye bowl from above the typical "danger cliff" signs the other day. Went looking for it again today but went too high and.... yeah. Brown pants. Hopefully no one was dumb enough to follow my tracks. The chute at the end of it was great. I _think_ I know how to get into that chute from the top now.... I'll bring a fresh pair of pants and try again next time. Maybe with 30' of cord....

Vis was variable, mostly good but sometimes 20-30'.

2.8/3.

2/22 Poor planing, should have done chores first. Hogs was broken in the morning sending the hordes to sky, which started lovely and got scraped, bumped and crowded about 3-4h earlier than normal. First couple runs enjoyed the great grooming. Abandoned that pretty fast, did a couple laps on Kehr's then to the back, with absolutely no one there. Off piste was eh but getting better as the day went on, and looks like it got a lot better at the end of the day.

Looking forward to brooks being a high speed. Vis was variable but pretty good.

Drive home had a crash on the bridge by index, snow on rain turned the road super slick. Helped a couple people dig their (AWD) cars out of the ditches before bailing from the shooting gallery for the backroads. Blizzaks rock, but even they were struggling to brake from all of 35.


Shameless plug, if you've got a kid send them here:  proformanceracingschool.com/half-day-teen-program/ or do the full day (adds a few laps on the track). They'll think you're sending them to a race program (you are) but you're actually sending them to learn how to stop. Doesn't matter what you drive. This kept me out of a ditch today, and many many others.

2/27 Styro snow, clearish skies, no lines, tiny crowd, slightly cool, good vis. 2.5/3

The hamster wheel of choice was jupiter today. Quick groomer laps with no ice sheet at the bottom of the backside! Off groomers was good, but not really that good. What wasn't tracked out was still soft, but that's not much without silly traverses; which I only did a couple times. Didn't find a good bump line anywhere, but didn't look very hard.

Telemetry doesn't show it but it was very windy, seems like way more than the ~20-28mph gusts NWAC has. Windswept snow, branches everywhere. Heard the backside was foggy in the morning, but it cleared up by 11(?)ish when we went back. Watched a couple people walking up the rooster over the course of 4-5 laps.

Good grooming, wall to wall but still no Orion. Can't recall when that gets pounded into submission but it should be soon...

Noticed the "vail sucks" graffiti on the tye cave is gone.

Fixed the canting on the better half's boots, yay for non-numb feet.

Fast drive home, except for the white Merc that passed a half dozen people on a blind corner right before Zeke's (you know, next to the giant passing zone...). Just to get off at Zeke's.

March: got lazy, didn't post. Summary: groomers, icy bumps, groomers, almost icy bumps, more groomers, groomers, sun, sun, sun, soft bumps! Sticky snow, rinse repeat. Maybe 2" in there somewhere.... Nothing interesting. I did ski the top chutes into tye bowl for the first time, that's fun.

4/7: First weekend skied in a long time, ~5". Nothing stuck anywhere approaching steep. Slow to open most the terrain but the low angle stuff was smooth. Weekday pow first line, no lines after that.

4/11: My birthday pow came a few days early, 10-12". You're welcome. A dozen people at sky in the morning. Better bonding than Sunday, but steeper stuff started sloughing towards the afternoon.

Started right around 9am. Kehr's took a bit, something about a boulder in the main path from the lift. Took a few laps on the frontside before heading to the back, which was warm and thick pretty early. Took shim's to the front. They should thin those trees. Chief bowl was still good for a couple laps, but the chute behind Dudley's (Pro chute?) had slid. Never seems like much of a point to do that. Grabbed some crappy fries, renewed the select passes and finished at sky/7th to increasing mist like precip.

3/3. Zero crowd. Great snow for April. Viz was off/on but never an issue.

4/14 Odd day today. New snow but nothing slid. Kicked a block down a chute. nothing. Didn't know what to do.

A few inches down low, upwards of a foot at the top of 7th. I didn't actually leave 7th/sky today. Big winds last night put some crustiness in places, heavy un-reactive snow elsewhere. Not so bad it'd grab too much, but some ice goblins where hiding and hunting for edges.

Saw people launching the 7th lift run. Epic. Finished my todo list with a weekend to spare! Epic-ness debatable.

4 out of 3 (+1 birthday pow modifier). Crowds somewhere, but no where I was other than a 50 ft chunk on cloud 9. I wouldn't shoot a major film, but viz was fine.

Great day!

4/19 Slush, boarding goodness. Bit of rain, no one there. It was the perfect day to be bad on a board and have a fun day. Showed up noon, 2nd car in lot 3. Rolled, slid, bounced, tomahawked and scorpioned down hogs, but several inches of rainy spring slush saved me from myself.


4/21 Parked further back than I have this year, but more grills than people skiing. Slow line at 10am but nothing much after that. Sunny laps "looking" for the golden egg. I'm too literal with the hints, maybe I'll be luckier next year. Bit sticky on some ungroomed snow, but not bad at all. Lots of festivities at the bottom. Great end to another great year.