Day 8:
And I now officially call:
Effin' amazing today! The official storm total since Saturday morning is now at 38". It never stopped dumping until the very end of the day. Dale and Pat rode up with me today. First Dale forgot his boots, so we turned around and went back. We then realized that Pat didn't have her jacket, so we turned around and went back. :roll: As a result we didn't get to Wildcat until 9:15, which is when the lift usually starts loading...but the gang called to tell us to take our time, for nothing would be loading until 10:15 while patrol bombed like crazy. That was actually a welcome delay, for it meant that we had time to grab breakfast and relax.
GMD was a zoo as everyone sat inside waiting.
Well, not everybody. Some people -- including our young buck contingent containing salida, Perry, jtran and a cook from the Snowpine -- opted to join a line that probably started forming around 8 a.m. for both Collins and Wildcat. Of course, with folks joining the line and no one boarding the chair it grew...and grew...and grew...
The wait grew, too. The 10:15 estimate was revised to 10:45. Then Wildcat first started loading by 11. The minute that Collins started loading at 11:30 we high-tailed it out there and even then, we only waited 10 minutes. By the second run it was down to about 5 minutes for each lift, which is really quite respectable considering the amount of pent-up demand for the first legitimate powder day of the season.
On first run we were surprised to see the gate to Fred's and Race Hill closed, but we found an alternate entrance that got us the bottom half of Fred's Trees...without a single track. Divine -- dense, consistent, and completely adequate to cover absolutely everything. We headed out the Saddle Traverse to find the gate at Lower Sunspot closed, too, so it was time to get more creative.
Riding Wildcat, everything west of the lift was closed but we scored untracked on Restaurant Hill...twice. We also found a creative way to access the lower portion of Wildcat Face.
It positively puked snow all day.
This snow was precisely what we needed, in terms of both quantity and consistency. As it got deeper and deeper the wind whipped it into a creamy delight. This stuff is dense. Our base is now over 5 feet and covers just about everything. Once the snowpack stabilizes and/or bombing runs are complete, we should be near full operation.
By 1:30 empty chairs were going up Collins and every other filled chair was only a double or so. Folks split. We got tired and hungry ourselves, and Bobby Danger, Skidog and I decided to celebrate our 180-degree ski season shift with a sit-down gourmet lunch upstairs at Collins Grill. I popped off my ski boots and donned fuzzy slippers and relaxed for a bit.
The lunch, however, did us in. I took one more run, and Bobby and Skidog took two.
I'll be back for more tomorrow. Hopefully some more of those gates will open.
A mere two days ago Tony Crocker":31otb11s said:
And I now officially call:
Effin' amazing today! The official storm total since Saturday morning is now at 38". It never stopped dumping until the very end of the day. Dale and Pat rode up with me today. First Dale forgot his boots, so we turned around and went back. We then realized that Pat didn't have her jacket, so we turned around and went back. :roll: As a result we didn't get to Wildcat until 9:15, which is when the lift usually starts loading...but the gang called to tell us to take our time, for nothing would be loading until 10:15 while patrol bombed like crazy. That was actually a welcome delay, for it meant that we had time to grab breakfast and relax.
GMD was a zoo as everyone sat inside waiting.
Well, not everybody. Some people -- including our young buck contingent containing salida, Perry, jtran and a cook from the Snowpine -- opted to join a line that probably started forming around 8 a.m. for both Collins and Wildcat. Of course, with folks joining the line and no one boarding the chair it grew...and grew...and grew...
The wait grew, too. The 10:15 estimate was revised to 10:45. Then Wildcat first started loading by 11. The minute that Collins started loading at 11:30 we high-tailed it out there and even then, we only waited 10 minutes. By the second run it was down to about 5 minutes for each lift, which is really quite respectable considering the amount of pent-up demand for the first legitimate powder day of the season.
On first run we were surprised to see the gate to Fred's and Race Hill closed, but we found an alternate entrance that got us the bottom half of Fred's Trees...without a single track. Divine -- dense, consistent, and completely adequate to cover absolutely everything. We headed out the Saddle Traverse to find the gate at Lower Sunspot closed, too, so it was time to get more creative.
Riding Wildcat, everything west of the lift was closed but we scored untracked on Restaurant Hill...twice. We also found a creative way to access the lower portion of Wildcat Face.
It positively puked snow all day.
This snow was precisely what we needed, in terms of both quantity and consistency. As it got deeper and deeper the wind whipped it into a creamy delight. This stuff is dense. Our base is now over 5 feet and covers just about everything. Once the snowpack stabilizes and/or bombing runs are complete, we should be near full operation.
By 1:30 empty chairs were going up Collins and every other filled chair was only a double or so. Folks split. We got tired and hungry ourselves, and Bobby Danger, Skidog and I decided to celebrate our 180-degree ski season shift with a sit-down gourmet lunch upstairs at Collins Grill. I popped off my ski boots and donned fuzzy slippers and relaxed for a bit.
The lunch, however, did us in. I took one more run, and Bobby and Skidog took two.
I'll be back for more tomorrow. Hopefully some more of those gates will open.
/ 
