We met EMSC to ski at Loveland today. I had given him the rundown on Winter Park conditions and he suspected Loveland would still have a substantial amount of winter snow. This proved to be correct. The extra upper altitude is only 700 feet, but Loveland had been refreshed by 1-2 inches per day most of the week and in retrospect Winter Park probably didn’t get much of that. At Loveland there were numerous areas of the upper bowls where we were putting the first tracks into those 1-2 inches from last night, but there was no such evidence yesterday at Winter Park even though it was far from busy.
We warmed up on a couple of chair 1 packed powder groomers, then moved over to the far east boundary line run Over The Rainbow.
Beyond this area the chronic wind strips the snow, but this line was very soft, 100% winter snow without even a hint of firm subsurface.
It was mostly sunny while skiing chair 1, but EMSC noticed the clouds building in the west and thought we had better get over to chair 9 before visibility deteriorated. It takes a while to get up to the top of the ridge as both chairs 2 and 9 are long and slow. From the top we have views of the Summit ski areas. Top of A-Basin:
Here's Breckenridge:
Chair 9 faces due east, so skier’s right has the best snow with a slight north tilt. Most of the runs in that direction require a short step-up and traverse that cut down the already modest skier traffic. Jellyroll had lightly tracked snow.
Castle Rock has some softer blown-in snow near the edges of the run.
We also skied Primer and Patrol Bowls near the lift.
One of the virtues of EMSC’s local guidance is that he had us start the day by signing waivers to use the snowcat. After you sign they give you a card to show the cat driver if you decide to use it later in the day. The free snowcat runs from Rookie Road up to the ridgeline above chairs 4 and 8. That ridge serves some steep terrain with the caveat that it faces south. Nonetheless we saw the cat in steady use while skiing chair 9 and decided to give it a shot before it closed at 2:30. We got over there at 2:10, and it turns out that was the last cat because the weather started to deteriorate. We still had decent views when we unloaded at 12,880 feet. This view is to the western side of the Eisenhower Tunnel.
This view is back along the ridge toward chair 9.
Liz is at right by the patrol sled preparing to ski Field of Dreams.
EMSC and I walked a couple of minutes to the top of Marmot Chutes. We skied it just as the snow squall was starting.
The sun had baked the snow all morning, but it was still supportable and skied very well, though it would have been in its prime a couple of hours earlier.
We met Liz near the top of chair 8 and skied Plunge and In The Mood as it snowed quite intensely over the smooth surface of winter/spring snow. I had to change to goggles and warmer gloves for the slow and windy ride up chair 8. In the snow it was fortunate that EMSC was leading us back the long Zippity Split traverse to get back to chair 4. The exit run below chair 8 I had skied in 2011 had lost its snow and thus the direct route to the base was closed.
By the time we reached chair 4 the squall had ended so we took our 2 last runs there. The new snow added a soft layer for us make a few tracks.
Chair 1 runs are in the background. The final pitch to chair 4 is bumpy but was easy to ski in these conditions.
We skied 16,000 vertical today. Quantity was lower than yesterday but quality was much better.
We warmed up on a couple of chair 1 packed powder groomers, then moved over to the far east boundary line run Over The Rainbow.
Beyond this area the chronic wind strips the snow, but this line was very soft, 100% winter snow without even a hint of firm subsurface.
It was mostly sunny while skiing chair 1, but EMSC noticed the clouds building in the west and thought we had better get over to chair 9 before visibility deteriorated. It takes a while to get up to the top of the ridge as both chairs 2 and 9 are long and slow. From the top we have views of the Summit ski areas. Top of A-Basin:
Here's Breckenridge:
Chair 9 faces due east, so skier’s right has the best snow with a slight north tilt. Most of the runs in that direction require a short step-up and traverse that cut down the already modest skier traffic. Jellyroll had lightly tracked snow.
Castle Rock has some softer blown-in snow near the edges of the run.
We also skied Primer and Patrol Bowls near the lift.
One of the virtues of EMSC’s local guidance is that he had us start the day by signing waivers to use the snowcat. After you sign they give you a card to show the cat driver if you decide to use it later in the day. The free snowcat runs from Rookie Road up to the ridgeline above chairs 4 and 8. That ridge serves some steep terrain with the caveat that it faces south. Nonetheless we saw the cat in steady use while skiing chair 9 and decided to give it a shot before it closed at 2:30. We got over there at 2:10, and it turns out that was the last cat because the weather started to deteriorate. We still had decent views when we unloaded at 12,880 feet. This view is to the western side of the Eisenhower Tunnel.
This view is back along the ridge toward chair 9.
Liz is at right by the patrol sled preparing to ski Field of Dreams.
EMSC and I walked a couple of minutes to the top of Marmot Chutes. We skied it just as the snow squall was starting.
The sun had baked the snow all morning, but it was still supportable and skied very well, though it would have been in its prime a couple of hours earlier.
We met Liz near the top of chair 8 and skied Plunge and In The Mood as it snowed quite intensely over the smooth surface of winter/spring snow. I had to change to goggles and warmer gloves for the slow and windy ride up chair 8. In the snow it was fortunate that EMSC was leading us back the long Zippity Split traverse to get back to chair 4. The exit run below chair 8 I had skied in 2011 had lost its snow and thus the direct route to the base was closed.
By the time we reached chair 4 the squall had ended so we took our 2 last runs there. The new snow added a soft layer for us make a few tracks.
Chair 1 runs are in the background. The final pitch to chair 4 is bumpy but was easy to ski in these conditions.
We skied 16,000 vertical today. Quantity was lower than yesterday but quality was much better.
