J.Spin
New member
A few images can be seen through the link at the bottom of the message.
I?d made tentative plans to meet up with Andy at Lost Trail for some boarding, but chores kept me around the house for the morning. I was finally able to make it up to the hill around 12:30 P.M., and I hoped Andy was still around on the hill. I put out a call on the radio and got an immediate response: Andy was over on the Bunny Hill waiting until 12:45 to purchase an afternoon ticket. He?d gotten off to a late start, so my timing actually worked out perfectly.
All morning I?d been thinking about getting over to cruise the Saddle Mountain trees on my board, and Andy was thinking similar (although perhaps not quite as tree-related) thoughts. Just as the mountain had done on Friday, they were only running Chair 2 to service the main slopes, so first we had to ski down from the base lodge (7,000?) to the bottom of Chair 2 (6,600?) to catch a ride. After my annual ritual of figuring out exactly how to strap on my board, we were on our way down Drifter. The temperature at this elevation was probably around 40 F, so the snow had already begun to get mushy. My boarding skills came back right away and I was able to carve through the soft stuff. I even found much drier snow along the right edge of the trail near the trees. It brought back memories of many powder boarding days at Stowe. At the bottom of the run we had to pass through a flat area and I didn?t quite have the momentum to make it through. I have to remember to give my board a little wax sometime (or maybe even a tune) to get it in shape. Andy was just able to make it through without stopping, so his board seemed to be gliding slightly better on the soft surfaces.
Aware of the softening conditions, I was diligent about keeping my speed up on the flat areas of North Bowl and Candy Stick as we made our way to Chair 4. I was able to make the entire trip to the top of Side Street without coming to a stop, so I was feeling better about my board surface. Side Street had a lot of tracks in the middle, but I found plenty of untouched powder to the right. The snow there was partially sheltered from the sun, so there were areas of light powder intermixed with some mushy spots. On the board though, it was easy to plow through the various conditions and I was soon having so much fun that ?woo!? came out of my mouth a couple of times.
Once off Chair 4, we headed over through the trees to Lewis and Clark, which had a lot of untracked snow near the top. We then diverged to Odyssey, which hadn?t been groomed and was about half tracked up. As we dropped in elevation, the snow became heavier and a bit tougher to ride. But, by the time we reached Two Dot we were back on groomed terrain. The groomed stuff was a little sticky but manageable. For the next run, I got to unload at the Chair 4 mid-station for the first time. We headed through the trees for a while, which I found to be in really good shape with plenty of untracked, relatively light powder. Then, we bypassed the Odyssey option and rode the lower groomed parts of Lewis and Clark. The snow was a lot less sticky that what we?d seen on Two Dot, possibly due to the simple fact that the sun went behind some clouds for a while. That seemed to allow the snow to tighten up enough to make a noticeable difference in glide.
Andy then decided to call it a day, and I took a couple of runs on Chair 5 to finish up. I got a couple of nice untracked lines down Lynx and then rode right out to the car. The clouds had begun to thicken on my drive home, and by the time I got to Hamilton the peaks to the south had started to disappear. The weather service is talking about the possibility of a few inches tonight and then maybe a bit more tomorrow. The only concern will be the warm temperatures, so hopefully Lost Trail won?t get any rain.
A few pictures from the day can be seen at:
http://www.jandeproductions.com/2005/19MAR05.html
J.Spin
I?d made tentative plans to meet up with Andy at Lost Trail for some boarding, but chores kept me around the house for the morning. I was finally able to make it up to the hill around 12:30 P.M., and I hoped Andy was still around on the hill. I put out a call on the radio and got an immediate response: Andy was over on the Bunny Hill waiting until 12:45 to purchase an afternoon ticket. He?d gotten off to a late start, so my timing actually worked out perfectly.
All morning I?d been thinking about getting over to cruise the Saddle Mountain trees on my board, and Andy was thinking similar (although perhaps not quite as tree-related) thoughts. Just as the mountain had done on Friday, they were only running Chair 2 to service the main slopes, so first we had to ski down from the base lodge (7,000?) to the bottom of Chair 2 (6,600?) to catch a ride. After my annual ritual of figuring out exactly how to strap on my board, we were on our way down Drifter. The temperature at this elevation was probably around 40 F, so the snow had already begun to get mushy. My boarding skills came back right away and I was able to carve through the soft stuff. I even found much drier snow along the right edge of the trail near the trees. It brought back memories of many powder boarding days at Stowe. At the bottom of the run we had to pass through a flat area and I didn?t quite have the momentum to make it through. I have to remember to give my board a little wax sometime (or maybe even a tune) to get it in shape. Andy was just able to make it through without stopping, so his board seemed to be gliding slightly better on the soft surfaces.
Aware of the softening conditions, I was diligent about keeping my speed up on the flat areas of North Bowl and Candy Stick as we made our way to Chair 4. I was able to make the entire trip to the top of Side Street without coming to a stop, so I was feeling better about my board surface. Side Street had a lot of tracks in the middle, but I found plenty of untouched powder to the right. The snow there was partially sheltered from the sun, so there were areas of light powder intermixed with some mushy spots. On the board though, it was easy to plow through the various conditions and I was soon having so much fun that ?woo!? came out of my mouth a couple of times.
Once off Chair 4, we headed over through the trees to Lewis and Clark, which had a lot of untracked snow near the top. We then diverged to Odyssey, which hadn?t been groomed and was about half tracked up. As we dropped in elevation, the snow became heavier and a bit tougher to ride. But, by the time we reached Two Dot we were back on groomed terrain. The groomed stuff was a little sticky but manageable. For the next run, I got to unload at the Chair 4 mid-station for the first time. We headed through the trees for a while, which I found to be in really good shape with plenty of untracked, relatively light powder. Then, we bypassed the Odyssey option and rode the lower groomed parts of Lewis and Clark. The snow was a lot less sticky that what we?d seen on Two Dot, possibly due to the simple fact that the sun went behind some clouds for a while. That seemed to allow the snow to tighten up enough to make a noticeable difference in glide.
Andy then decided to call it a day, and I took a couple of runs on Chair 5 to finish up. I got a couple of nice untracked lines down Lynx and then rode right out to the car. The clouds had begun to thicken on my drive home, and by the time I got to Hamilton the peaks to the south had started to disappear. The weather service is talking about the possibility of a few inches tonight and then maybe a bit more tomorrow. The only concern will be the warm temperatures, so hopefully Lost Trail won?t get any rain.
A few pictures from the day can be seen at:
http://www.jandeproductions.com/2005/19MAR05.html
J.Spin