Ski Report - Twas not another SPRING day...snow got soft, some early sun, but the fog rolled in and the vis went wrong and the crowd continued to show up, Valley had some good grooming in places - out SnortElk way (Huckelberry early) and the main lines off of GVex and probably Pro Course, but you had to do that from the top off the Bucket to really enjoy it...or painfully hike....or wastefully traverse the entire GV Bowl....But the skiing was fun. Got a lot of laps in plus some nice runs with the Ferkinator! Coverage is great in the Valley and from my Bucket ride down it is still possible to ski to the base with only a short walk in the Disco meadow - saw more than one person breaking the rules and skiing to the base.... more about that later. Fun morning would have been funner if the fog had not rolled in...oh well...still skiing at the end of May with lift help.
Other - Due to the increasing foggy conditions and growing crowd (crowd not really all that bad this early morning) and limited mental options...I decided to hike up to the top to take a break and see if the fog would burn off - it didn't...but I got a table up top and had some very nice steak sliders (3) and they were way better than the tacos at the base for the same price? Huh? When I got done stuffing myself it was still pretty fuzzy vis, so I bailed to a pleasant solo ride down the bucket (with a 10 minute pause at the top of MIFB???) On my ride down it was good enough vis lower mountain to be able to see a few folks skiing to the base via LS side and other than a short walk in the Disco flats it looked very skiable....Heard from someone who skied till closing yesterday that at 2:45 the LS gate opened and folks were allowed to ski down....hhhhhmmmmm...
Other - A lot had a large special folks parking area when I arrived and when I left there was no special folks parking (signs down and most of the cars didnt have permits?)...A lot was full of very nasty weird rows - some wide, some very narrow, some? Few cars parked down towards C lot and lots of cars doing laps of A lot looking for a space. Drive up ultra early was ultra happy and quiet...only noticed a few Elk by the Fire Station area...but I heard other folks had near misses and someone got unlucky and got a direct hit. Drive down I was getting tailgated down the Blvd at 50mph and the drive to Fed Forest was pleasant enough till I pulled into the back end of 30+ cars following somebody at 45 max speeds till the Mud Mountain straights - ouch! Drive home only got more painful after that...ouch! But it was a fun morning mostly skiing early on the last lift served day of May!
