EMSC
Well-known member
Fun but tiring.
Long story, but I was skiing alone and just trying to finish off a cold after 10 days. I arrived late (10:15 by the time I was on a lift), but skied 'non-stop' for more than 5 hours before quitting around 3:30p. Weather was mixed with warm and sun to start, but then clouds and flurries in the afternoon. Basically everything is open - well except the new 6 pack American Flyer lift which has yet to run this season. I hope someone was smart enough to put contractual commitments on the manufacturer... Otherwise what a disaster for the Copper team to still have a major lift down all season so far.
Anyway conditions were mostly rather good. A bit of the typical hardpack with fluff on most of the groomers where I spent all of about 1 1/2 runs all day. A bit of firm areas on the lower portion of Copper Bowl as well, but not fully melt/refrozen. More like combo wind/chalk/hardpack. much of the upper was softer.
Coverage was excellent for this time of year. Definitely are some 'bones' around to be found, but also not a super ton of them either. It's clear that at least some of the storms this year have come from unusual directions as some areas have less fill then you'd expect (very middle of Union bowl), but many other areas are as well covered as I've ever seen them.
As to my day I went up Super B to the Tbar and down Spaulding bowl/trees to Resolution. TBar lines were fairly long so I opted to take Lillie G traverse into Copper bowl instead of any more Spaulding laps.
Tucker cat was running (has to be one of the earliest years for Tucker Cat), so I jumped in line and got lucky. Two people in front of me decided with only one cat running (usually have 2) that the wait was too long and left. About 3 minutes later the cat came giving me a good count on if I would make the next cat... The smaller cat was running and I looked to be number 10 out of 10: Cha-Ching. Given that I had packed a lunch in my jacket, I proceeded to eat lunch during the 20 minute round trip wait and was just finishing when the cat came back. So last on-first off service, albeit with a 30 minute hike up Tucker. For the first time in a couple years I took the early line of "the Taco" which is the chute style run that you get to first on Tucker. Very nice but dense wind-sift into fresh. I sank in probably 4-6" of super softness. Defintely a quality over quantity decision.
I then did a couple laps in Copper bowl along the west ridge before the clouds started coming in and making the light very flat. At which point I proceeded to hit several laps in Union bowl which despite the same alpine environment the light was less flat and easier to see - not sure how that managed to be, but it worked for me. Eventually heading back to the base as the upper mtn shut down at 3:30p.
Long story, but I was skiing alone and just trying to finish off a cold after 10 days. I arrived late (10:15 by the time I was on a lift), but skied 'non-stop' for more than 5 hours before quitting around 3:30p. Weather was mixed with warm and sun to start, but then clouds and flurries in the afternoon. Basically everything is open - well except the new 6 pack American Flyer lift which has yet to run this season. I hope someone was smart enough to put contractual commitments on the manufacturer... Otherwise what a disaster for the Copper team to still have a major lift down all season so far.
Anyway conditions were mostly rather good. A bit of the typical hardpack with fluff on most of the groomers where I spent all of about 1 1/2 runs all day. A bit of firm areas on the lower portion of Copper Bowl as well, but not fully melt/refrozen. More like combo wind/chalk/hardpack. much of the upper was softer.
Coverage was excellent for this time of year. Definitely are some 'bones' around to be found, but also not a super ton of them either. It's clear that at least some of the storms this year have come from unusual directions as some areas have less fill then you'd expect (very middle of Union bowl), but many other areas are as well covered as I've ever seen them.
As to my day I went up Super B to the Tbar and down Spaulding bowl/trees to Resolution. TBar lines were fairly long so I opted to take Lillie G traverse into Copper bowl instead of any more Spaulding laps.
Tucker cat was running (has to be one of the earliest years for Tucker Cat), so I jumped in line and got lucky. Two people in front of me decided with only one cat running (usually have 2) that the wait was too long and left. About 3 minutes later the cat came giving me a good count on if I would make the next cat... The smaller cat was running and I looked to be number 10 out of 10: Cha-Ching. Given that I had packed a lunch in my jacket, I proceeded to eat lunch during the 20 minute round trip wait and was just finishing when the cat came back. So last on-first off service, albeit with a 30 minute hike up Tucker. For the first time in a couple years I took the early line of "the Taco" which is the chute style run that you get to first on Tucker. Very nice but dense wind-sift into fresh. I sank in probably 4-6" of super softness. Defintely a quality over quantity decision.
I then did a couple laps in Copper bowl along the west ridge before the clouds started coming in and making the light very flat. At which point I proceeded to hit several laps in Union bowl which despite the same alpine environment the light was less flat and easier to see - not sure how that managed to be, but it worked for me. Eventually heading back to the base as the upper mtn shut down at 3:30p.
