Jay Silveira
New member
Lost Trail Powder Mountain, MT 02MAY04 <BR> <BR>Today we headed up to Lost Trail to get in some more slide time for Ty. On Saturday we received some addition ski teaching aids from “Kid-Ski”, watched the instructional video, and were excited to get out on the snow and see how things went. Although Lost Trail did receive 3-4 inches of snow during a midweek storm, the snow depth at the Saddle Mountain SNOTEL (elevation 7,900’) still dropped from 51 inches last weekend to 43.8 inches this weekend. I’ve also been keeping tabs on the snow depth on Mt. Mansfield in Vermont (stake elevation ~3,900?) through the daily SkiVT-L automated updates, and noticed that it’s around 40 inches. I’m intrigued at how similar the snow depths often are throughout the season in these two very distant locales (Mt. Mansfield was also at around 50 inches or so last weekend). My parents were up in the Stowe/Mt. Mansfield area today, and although they said it was beautiful, with temperatures around 70 or so, there was still a good deal of snow visible on the trails. <BR> <BR>Since Ty was asleep when we arrived at the pass, I hiked up to do a run first. E had a sore back, so she didn’t mind hanging out at the base. Unlike last weekend, there was actually another vehicle in the parking lot, and I could see a couple of Telemark skiers making turns on the main face. They reported that things were getting a bit soft up there, but the skiing was still good. Actually it turned out to be Eric, a guy I know that works for the Department of Energy down in Idaho Falls. He’s originally from the Bitterroot, and seems to drive up often to ski, hike, etc. The hike went quickly, since it was only 800 vertical feet, but there were some areas of soft snow that made for a bit of post holing. This occurred mostly on the steep pitch of the South Face headwall (~30 degrees of so), which was frustrating. Skinning up or wearing snowshoes might have helped, but for such a short hike, it seemed like more of a hassle to gear up. As suggested by Eric, I skied down via North Face, which was shaded a bit by trees, and offered the steepest pitch (~35 degrees). There were a few soft spots, but overall it was a great run and it was over before I knew what happened. <BR> <BR>After my run we had some slide time with Ty. As suggested, we used the tip lock for the skis along with the H-bar so he could ski along beside me. He’s been a little hesitant to put the bar between his legs, but once we got moving he seemed to forget about that and focused on the experience of sliding. He did tend to squat and sit down on the bar at times while we skied (instead of standing). Maybe he felt it gave him more stability to be lower. Anyway, it was another beautiful day, and another great day to be out on the hill. <BR> <BR>I posted a few of E’s pictures from the day at: <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.JandEproductions.com/2004/02MAY04.html" TARGET="_top">http://www.JandEproductions.com/2004/02MAY04.html</A> <BR> <BR>J.Spin
"> <BR> <BR>We have definitively less snow here, but it's still skiing.......