I wish that we had known you were there! That way you wouldn't have had to ski:
jojo_obrien":3qtx58q7 said:
machine groomed hardpack all day long.
Silly boy! ](*,) We actually went out of our way to
avoid north-facing terrain all day today, even late into the afternoon. That was indeed scratchy all day, but that wasn't what today was all about. Today was about the south-facing. Bobby Danger coined a new term today for my 59th day on skis this season: "cornfection". Does this look like "machine groomed hardpack" to you?
We spent the day abiding by the letter of the law, if not always by the spirit of the law. Never once did we cross a ropeline, but there were times that we found, oh...shall we say, "weaknesses in PCMR ski patrol's rope placements"? That gave us run after run of untracked corn, perhaps the most perfect corn snow that I've ever experienced. Two inches deep, supportable and smooth beneath. I just don't think that they expected anyone to adopt Alta-style traverse tactics. I've learned well from my ten years in Little Cottonwood Canyon. :wink:
We started off low on the mountain on Vista. While the top was roped off to prevent access to the Eagle race course, we followed the rope line to its end and simply cut through the woods.
We eventually worked our way higher up. Spying an absolutely perfect and untracked line beneath the Summit House restaurant, we were able to pass through the open gate into Blueslip Bowl and then traverse behind the rope to access the goods. We got there completely legally but I still didn't want to spend a lot of time standing around just off the Summit House sundeck to have to answer questions as to how we got there. It was much too high profile a location. And I sure as hell wasn't going to stop to shoot photos.
Our mid-morning runs were spent hiking Pioneer Ridge repeatedly and dropping onto the south side in the warm sun toward McConkey's.
Before lunch, we headed to the lower slopes of south-facing Pinecone Ridge. When Pinecone is closed there are a series of ropes designed to force skiers further and further down the hill. We were able to pass by the lowest closure ropes at the bottom of Scotty's Bowl and traverse out...and out...and out -- probably a good mile and a half -- to ski the finest goods on the final pitches of Half Moon and Quarter Moon.
Lunch was at High West Distillery in town, the world's only ski-in/ski-out gastrodistillery. AmyZ and I each had the $16 "Skier's Special" that consisted of a sampler of the roasted tomato soup, a small salad and home-cooked pulled pork (and lacking the dripping BBQ sauce that masks the wonderful flavor of the meat), served atop a bed of purple cabbage slaw on a wonderful roll. Of course I had to nearly double my tab by washing it down with a Rendezvous Rye whiskey smash. Bobby had the homemade chicken pot pie that was obscenely loaded with meat. And we finished it off with a cinnamon-grilled Krispy Kreme donut topped with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with Rendezvous Rye and caramel. Exceptional!
Returning to the top of the Town Lift, we bumped into TRam who was on patrol duty today and just returning from an accident call. That's how I first learned of the rider falling from King Con. TRam was able to stick with us for two lift rides, although he was unable to travel further as he was assigned to the summit trail pod.
On the lift we regaled him with tales of our day's exploits as we headed back for another helping of creamed corn.
Skiing back down PayDay at 4 p.m., my cell phone rang. It was TRam. Apparently there was some chatter in the patrol room about a fresh set of tracks on Pinecone Ridge. [-X I laughed hard, first thinking that they had spotted our tracks above the Thaynes lift, but in the end came to realize that he was referring to a fresh set of tracks from the top of the ridge. No, that wasn't us, but it's definitely the first time that I've gotten a phone call from ski patrol to see if I've been poaching. :-#
:lol:
Like Bobby said, "cornfection." It's funny how two people can have two such radically different experiences at the same place on the same day.
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