This was a demo day. Alpine reported 9 inches new, and it was classic Sierra Cement. Alpine had been the opening day of the Tahoe Gathering in 2012. That was a better quality powder day, but with a very low base I got a few core shots in my Head Jimis. This time coverage was better so I damaged neither the Jimis nor any of the demos though if you hit a subsurface it was quite icy.
For each demo I followed local Tom for one run on Roundhouse and one on Summit. The latter involved a short chute up top (windy and bad vis up there until you dropped in), traverse across avy debris in Wolverine Bowl to its less tracked skier’s left, then the Idiot’s Delight traverse toward Bernie’s Bowl. Lower section of Bernie’s Bowl:
This area was only gradually tracked out, but it’s SE facing so had a very icy subsurface.
The 45 minute circuit of the 2 chairs was a demanding test for the demo skis under these conditions. I tested powder skis, all 114-117 mm underfoot and 184-186cm long with lots of rocker. My first demo was Atomic Automatic 117. This seemed a good specialized powder ski as it rode over any thick chowder and usually stayed off the unpleasant subsurface. Next up was the Blizzard Gunsmoke, which I liked best. For a fat ski it could make very quick turns on demand, easy to “aim” at the biggest clumps of powder for an efficient run in these conditions. By the time we had our 3rd demo run (Volkl One in my case) there were not so many fresh lines left. Thus there was more bottoming out, but I felt fairly secure probably due to Volkl’s well known facility in dealing with hard snow, even on a powder oriented ski.
Lunch was at 12:30PM and I had arranged to meet Matt. His Adventure Project runs 2 week trips to Gulmarg in Kashmir, which is on our radar for a bucket list ski adventure sometime. Liz and I took one run with him out AlpIne Bowl and another in Wolverine. Liz called it a day, so Matt and I went through the Alpine chair upper station to the high traverse along the ridge between Alpine Bowl and closed Sherwood. Matt can charge some serious terrain as shown here.
Matt is from Australia and has lived in Telluride for awhile, then moved to Tahoe last November. He had not skied Alpine much, so I was actually leading, trying to remember our final powder run off that ridge 2 years ago. Matt saw some cliffy terrain he liked. I declined to ski it but took my glove off to try and take pics. The wind blew my glove off the cliff and Matt never found it. Fortunately I had a backup in my pack, then traversed around a point I remembered and skied into a nice bowl of powder. This was not Lower Saddle where I had skied in 2012 but the entry to Keyhole. Keyhole funneled to a rock and icy crux, where Matt was observing from below. He advised a turn around the rock and straightline exit. I sideslipped below the rock, then had an opening to turn in a soft windlip to get around the ice section.
Matt has led Gulmarg trips the past 2 seasons. Reports here:
http://www.epicski.com/t/120353/gulmarg ... rip-report
http://www.epicski.com/t/124972/gulmarg ... rip-report
Liz’ demos were Atomic Century (she liked best), Dynastar Cham 107 and Volkl Aura. But she was already getting new skis that night at Start Haus, the Truckee ski shop where Gathering organizers Phil and Trish work. These are the Blizzard Sambas, which Liz loved at Mammoth in December 2012 and which were available for $280 at the end of this difficult Tahoe season. We got them mounted with Look bindings and they were inaugurated 3 days later in fresh snow at Kirkwood.
Liz celebrating at Start Haus:
Contents of the shot ski:
For each demo I followed local Tom for one run on Roundhouse and one on Summit. The latter involved a short chute up top (windy and bad vis up there until you dropped in), traverse across avy debris in Wolverine Bowl to its less tracked skier’s left, then the Idiot’s Delight traverse toward Bernie’s Bowl. Lower section of Bernie’s Bowl:
This area was only gradually tracked out, but it’s SE facing so had a very icy subsurface.
The 45 minute circuit of the 2 chairs was a demanding test for the demo skis under these conditions. I tested powder skis, all 114-117 mm underfoot and 184-186cm long with lots of rocker. My first demo was Atomic Automatic 117. This seemed a good specialized powder ski as it rode over any thick chowder and usually stayed off the unpleasant subsurface. Next up was the Blizzard Gunsmoke, which I liked best. For a fat ski it could make very quick turns on demand, easy to “aim” at the biggest clumps of powder for an efficient run in these conditions. By the time we had our 3rd demo run (Volkl One in my case) there were not so many fresh lines left. Thus there was more bottoming out, but I felt fairly secure probably due to Volkl’s well known facility in dealing with hard snow, even on a powder oriented ski.
Lunch was at 12:30PM and I had arranged to meet Matt. His Adventure Project runs 2 week trips to Gulmarg in Kashmir, which is on our radar for a bucket list ski adventure sometime. Liz and I took one run with him out AlpIne Bowl and another in Wolverine. Liz called it a day, so Matt and I went through the Alpine chair upper station to the high traverse along the ridge between Alpine Bowl and closed Sherwood. Matt can charge some serious terrain as shown here.
Matt is from Australia and has lived in Telluride for awhile, then moved to Tahoe last November. He had not skied Alpine much, so I was actually leading, trying to remember our final powder run off that ridge 2 years ago. Matt saw some cliffy terrain he liked. I declined to ski it but took my glove off to try and take pics. The wind blew my glove off the cliff and Matt never found it. Fortunately I had a backup in my pack, then traversed around a point I remembered and skied into a nice bowl of powder. This was not Lower Saddle where I had skied in 2012 but the entry to Keyhole. Keyhole funneled to a rock and icy crux, where Matt was observing from below. He advised a turn around the rock and straightline exit. I sideslipped below the rock, then had an opening to turn in a soft windlip to get around the ice section.
Matt has led Gulmarg trips the past 2 seasons. Reports here:
http://www.epicski.com/t/120353/gulmarg ... rip-report
http://www.epicski.com/t/124972/gulmarg ... rip-report
Liz’ demos were Atomic Century (she liked best), Dynastar Cham 107 and Volkl Aura. But she was already getting new skis that night at Start Haus, the Truckee ski shop where Gathering organizers Phil and Trish work. These are the Blizzard Sambas, which Liz loved at Mammoth in December 2012 and which were available for $280 at the end of this difficult Tahoe season. We got them mounted with Look bindings and they were inaugurated 3 days later in fresh snow at Kirkwood.
Liz celebrating at Start Haus:
Contents of the shot ski:
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