big sky 1/16/06

[hamdog]

bluebird powder day! temps in the lower 20's.

it dumped over a foot in the higher elevations on sunday. i also heard the tram was closed on sunday, so monday was a free-for-all. we ended up getting 3rd tram. we hit the gullies. my buddy hit the first and said it was pretty deep. this is always the first to get tracked though. i decided to go for the 3rd gully. it's all filled in and no rocks are showing at all. B line. it was deep in the 3rd gully and in the runout, but up high kind of varied due to wind. sometimes it was 6" and sometimes it was almost 2'.

one tram lap only. the bowl got tracked out pretty quick, but we did a lap in thier too. then we saw Challenger running. FINALLY! we got over thier and passed some folks with some large camera's (16mm) set up shooting a flim. some huckster's hucking some rock about 50'. anyways, Challenger had to have another bullwheel replaced on the lift, so we opted to go over to Andesite. soft and good all over the mtn and soft chop in the woods and under the ropes. rock pocket was untouched all day. the park was ok. a number of rails and jibs. one jump! the pipe was cut and they hit dirt on the walls, so they have to blow more snow and tighten it up. it will litterally be a U shaped ditch with virtually no flat between transitions. it will be another couple of weeks at best before it'll be ready. back over to Challenger.

yep, lift was fixed and looked pretty tracked up. oh well. let's go see what we can find. i headed straight to BRT. sketchy approach scooting over some scree and onto boiler plate ice and into the chute. wow. haha. it looked better than what we had found off the tram (almost). steep and deep. soft and very manueverable. 2nd lap we hit BRT again, but a different chute. good stuff. sunny all day! i thought i got some awesome shots, but my batteries wore out in my camera. :x

we're expecting close to another foot this week!

Moonlight looked fairly tracked when i glanced over their from Challenger, but it's still pretty good i bet. certain pockets.

SUNDAY I HEADED OUT FOR SOME BC IN MIDDLE BASIN. HERE'S A FEW PICS.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I infer from the "one tram lap only" comment that its line was excessive. How bad was it? From your report it sounds like the powder potential was significantly reduced by that and the mechanical problem with Challenger.

Were the North Snowfields open? If so, might it be a good strategy on a powder day to use the one tram lap for that and then stay in Moonlight for less competition?

It is somewhat ironic that on one of the least crowded big mountains in North America access to the best terrain is so limited by lines. I looked up my reports from 2001 and on 3 days of very good spring skiing I had a total of 8 tram runs. I speculated at the time that there might be a big problem on powder days.

For the vacationing skier who has already spent big $ to get there, I think it is a wise strategy on powder days to buy the combined ticket to maximize flexibility. You could get a lot of great runs in between Challenger and Headwaters.

Local comments are appreciated since I'll be there in a week!

 

[hamdog]

I infer from the "one tram lap only" comment that its line was excessive. How bad was it?

not excessive, but too long for me. probably a 6 car wait, or more. about 45 minutes, give or take. the pow would've been fairly tracked if i decided to wait. some spots may have been holding, but it wasn't terrain worth waiting that long for. spinning challenger laps is more worth it than waiting in the tram line. IMO.

If so, might it be a good strategy on a powder day to use the one tram lap for that and then stay in Moonlight for less competition?

if you have the legs. less competitiion for sure, but all is fair on a powder day. :wink: the day after a powder day is almost just as good. i probably would've gone over to MLB myself after the tram lap if i had a pass. i didn't notice if the N snowfield was open.