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18/19 Stevens
- laurichj
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TL;DR: An almost-rain, not terribly busy day day at the pass.
Rain never turned to snow overnight, making it an up at the crack of noon type day. Sky was rain soaked groomers with a side of mashers. The layers of traverses in headwall looked geological. 7th was bumps at the top, debris strewn heavy pow off skiers right. Typical stuff. Lower rock garden had lots of the right kind of rocks with good landings.
The upper Gemini traverse to the saddle is still being put in wrong, so no one did it before I did... at 1 or 2. Couple good turns down the wind ridge there. Southpark was full of good turns by the penultimate gully.
Then jupiter broke, and SC never ran while we were there so we went to tye. More good mashers and thick snow. More of the good kind of rocks.
Pretty much good vis all day, some patchy fog at times. No real crowds. Technically snowing, but just enough to test the DWR. I need to redo it.
2.5/3.
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- avajane
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- laurichj
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1/7/2018: The sky lift line had transitioned into the 7th line by 9:15. Barely a slowdown to get scanned after that. 7"+ light snow, no vis issues beyond the moderate refreshing, but the backside got hammered as usual. Frontside kept nice snow through noon, when we left optimistic that legs might be useful tomorrow morning. Some areas moderately wind affected, but nothing too bad that I saw (save one small boulder drop to ice). 80% icestache coverage.
I'll knock off .1 each for there being other people and it not being neck deep. 2.8/3
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- skibacks
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three afternoons, but a little stiffer near the bottom of Southern Cross.
Sure is fun - not sure if Silas was there or not today.....
missed him yesterday 😞. Oh, and the burger at the Bulls Tooth
is excellent as is the chili.
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- laurichj
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1/10/19: No crowds, sun came out, great vis, great snow in the shade. N aspects stayed light and cold while everything else warmed up to loud pow by noon. Around mid-shin to knee deep where it was good. April in Jan, minus ~40" of snowpack. 3/3 here, but cement modifiers vary.
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- laurichj
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1/22 i really like the days right as the storm comes in. more so when the storm is warm and wet. everything was soft and as flat as can be expected, but vis was terrible. Great turns on groomers, great tree runs, great day to poke about places you don't usually look at. soft surface, but hard underneath made for hard landings. 2.5/3, mostly vis. about .1/3 without a good shell.
1/23 No crowd. Great vis. 10" snow, 2.25" H2O. Yup, totally blower. Not quite loud pow, but thick and a bit of a crust in a few places. Another great day to have quality wet weather gear, but a bit dryer on the person than yesterday, so long as you never fell. Which.... isn't me on a soft day. 7th and backside closed due to avy, not a surprise. After a couple hours on skis we pulled out the boards, in 4k vertical my watched clocked in about 14k, which sounds about right if tomahawks count. I can almost make a turn in soft snow now.... almost. 3/3.
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- laurichj
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- laurichj
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Surprising crowd for a monday, but still parked right up front and didn't really see a lift line. Short wait for Hogs, but that was more the solitary badge gun. Nothing but blue skies. Backside was warming around noon-ish, and staying soft on the last pitch. The low angle bumps off at the bottom weren't entirely unpleasant, but nearly so.
2.5/3, groomer scale.
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- laurichj
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Glacier refused to take its hat off, but otherwise looked great.
Tye had a low of 42 last night, 23 at the base.
2.9/3 groomer day. Perfect vis, no one around, almost perfect groomers top to bottom, wall to wall.
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- laurichj
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2/12: even slower day, had to clear even more local road and it was twice as heavy. Started at 7, finished after 9. Tiny tractor needs chains. Even slower drive to the pass, 2h. Heavier snow, a single very long line on the backside. They opened then closed DD (the run) then reopened it.... not sure what that was about. Mostly no real waits. Vis was worse but fine, just easy to have worn too much.
I live here because the snow is supposed to stay where it belongs, in the mountains.
Other than that, a pair of spectacular 3/3 days.
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- laurichj
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2.8/3.
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- skibacks
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- laurichj
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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.
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- laurichj
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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:Â 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.
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- laurichj
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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.
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- laurichj
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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.
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- laurichj
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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!
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- laurichj
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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.
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