I've skied A-Basin in late April twice, so I was not surprised to see all winter conditions. The wind was still around, but in the morning it was just near the top of chairs and not a big deal to me. Most of us had been worked by the powder day at Breck, so it was a mellower pace. We took 3 runs on the Zuma chair, which I had never skied before.
For 2 of these we traversed a bit off trail to Long Chute.
The snow was mostly soft windpack, but note from the first pic that it's not entirely smooth. Our leader caught an edge and fell hard, wrenching his back and taking a facial bruise too. He's still skiing, but he led Richard's intermediate group at Vail today.
Next we moved to bumps on Standard as a warmup for Pallavicini. The East Wall was closed for avy control. Patrol was blasting much of the morning.
We took one Pali run before going into lunch at the mid-mountain Black Mountain Lodge. This is a nice new building with excellent food. Anyone skiing A-Basin should be sure to have lunch here and not down below at the old base lodge.
During lunch the wind picked up and closed all upper lifts. So lunch was extended to discuss/vote for next year's trip. Having been to Jackson and Utah the past 2 years, they voted for Tahoe next year. By this time Pali reopened, though Lenawee and Zuma remained closed. So I took 2 more Pali runs. The upper Pali Face had lots of blow-in windsift.
Lisa spent this season as an instructor at Castle Mt. and must feel right at home with this terrain and snow.
Only the lower part of Pali Face was bumpy.
My last Pali run was on Turbo, which drops off under the lift here.
I knew Richard had gone to the car after the meeting and so I called it a day at 3PM with 14,000 vertical as I have 5 more ski days after this one. FYI A-Basin has Baldy-like cell reception, only at the top of upper lifts. None whatsoever in the base area or parking lot. By contrast Vail has cell reception even in Blue Sky Basin.
For 2 of these we traversed a bit off trail to Long Chute.
The snow was mostly soft windpack, but note from the first pic that it's not entirely smooth. Our leader caught an edge and fell hard, wrenching his back and taking a facial bruise too. He's still skiing, but he led Richard's intermediate group at Vail today.
Next we moved to bumps on Standard as a warmup for Pallavicini. The East Wall was closed for avy control. Patrol was blasting much of the morning.
We took one Pali run before going into lunch at the mid-mountain Black Mountain Lodge. This is a nice new building with excellent food. Anyone skiing A-Basin should be sure to have lunch here and not down below at the old base lodge.
During lunch the wind picked up and closed all upper lifts. So lunch was extended to discuss/vote for next year's trip. Having been to Jackson and Utah the past 2 years, they voted for Tahoe next year. By this time Pali reopened, though Lenawee and Zuma remained closed. So I took 2 more Pali runs. The upper Pali Face had lots of blow-in windsift.
Lisa spent this season as an instructor at Castle Mt. and must feel right at home with this terrain and snow.
Only the lower part of Pali Face was bumpy.
My last Pali run was on Turbo, which drops off under the lift here.
I knew Richard had gone to the car after the meeting and so I called it a day at 3PM with 14,000 vertical as I have 5 more ski days after this one. FYI A-Basin has Baldy-like cell reception, only at the top of upper lifts. None whatsoever in the base area or parking lot. By contrast Vail has cell reception even in Blue Sky Basin.