EMSC
Well-known member
Chilly light pow day.
I was alone for this ski day (have had some Eldora days I haven't bothered to write up yet). A minor storm for central & Northern colo was in the offing (Much bigger snows in the southern Colo resorts). Official report was 1", but that was only the lowest 1000 verts. Upper mtn had 2-3 inches to start and probably another 1-2" through the course of the day. Most everything was definitely early season style, but mostly manageable, rocks wise (with one exception - see below).
I mostly followed my routine as to skiing which lines when. Being in the parking lot at 8:20a and on hill not too long after opening was good for soft laps. Hitting Spaulding bowl for 2 laps right away. The best chutes have yet to pen, but a couple of decent lines are open. I must have been maybe the 3rd person in that section and the first in the trees to skiers right at the bottom of the bowl. Second lap was nearly as good and still probably only 5th or so in the trees.
Then hitting Lilie G via the traverse to head to the newly opened Tucker lift. Lillie was good, but lower down you could tell there was a crust under the couple inches of new going down the blackjack terrain. They only had a couple of runs off Tucker opened and so were only letting up 20 people at a time then a pause, then 20 more, etc... Interesting way to limit traffic and it worked pretty well. With much experience hiking from the cat access I knew of a line down that would not be obvious to others and hit pay dirt, with only a few cross tracks. SO I hit Tucker and skied the same line 2 more times until my line was finally getting tracked out by a combination of accidental skiers and my own tracks.
Next was Union bowl which while thin in spots was also hardly tracked in sections if you made a hard u-turn upon entering the bowl. So I went back u and hit it a second time. By then having not had breakfast and with chilly 5-10F temps all day I dropped down to the base and then up to solitude station for some lunch and warmth.
After lunch I hit Spaulding bowl again and was surprised that no on was skiing my original line in there from the morning. A clear inch or so of new snow was partially covering my tracks. The groomer trail to the bottom was well scraped off though making for an unpleasant run-out. The upper part was good enough that I still hit it twice as in the morning.
I thought I might hit Tucker one last time before it closed, but when I got to the top of the t-Bar a patroller was just opening Enchanted Forest for the first time of the entire season. With a couple of people waiting for him. A further patroller was lower down and you had to check in with him part way down as part of the "directed skiing" opening. It was pretty fantastic having been untouched all season. So good that I lapped all the way to the base and back up as fast as I could to get a 2nd shot. Which was a partial mistake. All but one turn was just as fantastic. The one turn however was all rock and did quite a number on my bases and edges. No core shots, but lots of hits and grooves all over that I had to spend time with p-tex on. As well as a fresh sharpen.
One final lap up Sierra lift and I was pretty burnt out for the day (legs wise). I counted 23K vertical.
(pics later today)
I was alone for this ski day (have had some Eldora days I haven't bothered to write up yet). A minor storm for central & Northern colo was in the offing (Much bigger snows in the southern Colo resorts). Official report was 1", but that was only the lowest 1000 verts. Upper mtn had 2-3 inches to start and probably another 1-2" through the course of the day. Most everything was definitely early season style, but mostly manageable, rocks wise (with one exception - see below).
I mostly followed my routine as to skiing which lines when. Being in the parking lot at 8:20a and on hill not too long after opening was good for soft laps. Hitting Spaulding bowl for 2 laps right away. The best chutes have yet to pen, but a couple of decent lines are open. I must have been maybe the 3rd person in that section and the first in the trees to skiers right at the bottom of the bowl. Second lap was nearly as good and still probably only 5th or so in the trees.
Then hitting Lilie G via the traverse to head to the newly opened Tucker lift. Lillie was good, but lower down you could tell there was a crust under the couple inches of new going down the blackjack terrain. They only had a couple of runs off Tucker opened and so were only letting up 20 people at a time then a pause, then 20 more, etc... Interesting way to limit traffic and it worked pretty well. With much experience hiking from the cat access I knew of a line down that would not be obvious to others and hit pay dirt, with only a few cross tracks. SO I hit Tucker and skied the same line 2 more times until my line was finally getting tracked out by a combination of accidental skiers and my own tracks.
Next was Union bowl which while thin in spots was also hardly tracked in sections if you made a hard u-turn upon entering the bowl. So I went back u and hit it a second time. By then having not had breakfast and with chilly 5-10F temps all day I dropped down to the base and then up to solitude station for some lunch and warmth.
After lunch I hit Spaulding bowl again and was surprised that no on was skiing my original line in there from the morning. A clear inch or so of new snow was partially covering my tracks. The groomer trail to the bottom was well scraped off though making for an unpleasant run-out. The upper part was good enough that I still hit it twice as in the morning.
I thought I might hit Tucker one last time before it closed, but when I got to the top of the t-Bar a patroller was just opening Enchanted Forest for the first time of the entire season. With a couple of people waiting for him. A further patroller was lower down and you had to check in with him part way down as part of the "directed skiing" opening. It was pretty fantastic having been untouched all season. So good that I lapped all the way to the base and back up as fast as I could to get a 2nd shot. Which was a partial mistake. All but one turn was just as fantastic. The one turn however was all rock and did quite a number on my bases and edges. No core shots, but lots of hits and grooves all over that I had to spend time with p-tex on. As well as a fresh sharpen.
One final lap up Sierra lift and I was pretty burnt out for the day (legs wise). I counted 23K vertical.
(pics later today)
