J.Spin
New member
Additional pictures and video from the day are available through the link at the bottom of the report.
Back in March, E and her colleague Echo Allison were finally able to coordinate a day for Ty and Echo?s son Raymond to ski together at Lost Trail. Ty and Raymond know each other well through daycare and other activities, and while both our families are up at Lost Trail almost every weekend of the ski season, our ski day schedules are often out of synch so the boys usually see each other only in the base lodge. We were heading to Missoula to run errands that Saturday, so Sunday was the day we planned to get together and ski. When Ty and Raymond found out about the plan, they were both very excited to finally get the chance to ski together. I was also excited for the event. Ty had never had a chance to ski with anyone his own age (or at least near his own age), and I was hoping it would give him both some perspective on his own skiing and insight into new things he might try. Raymond is actually about two years older than Ty. Raymond turned five in January, but he didn?t start skiing until about the age of four. However, at five years of age, Raymond was able to progress in his skiing much more quickly than Ty. Raymond had been skiing green slopes on his own since the beginning of the season, and blue slopes since about December. Ty had just started skiing green and blue slopes on his own in the previous few weeks, but we were hoping that the two boys would still be able to have fun together. Compared to Ty, we knew that Raymond typically skied at a much faster pace, but he was also still using a tip lock to control his skis. Ty had stopped using the tip lock back when he got his new skis in November, as he just seemed to be able to control them in a wedge without it, and he was making parallel turns at times. It may have been simpler for Ty to go without the tip lock because it was easier to control his shorter skis. Then again, the difference in tip lock usage is probably just due to the way different children find their own ways of advancing their ski technique.
Lost Trail had reported three inches of new snow overnight, but it certainly felt like a lot more, especially since it ended up snowing moderately to heavy at times throughout much of the ski day. It was definitely prime ski season in the Bitterroot Range; Lost Trail was reporting a base depth of 135 inches at the main summit (7,800?), and 125 inches at the main base (7,000?). The Saddle Mountain SNOTEL (7,940?) was only reporting a base depth of 84.3 inches, close to the peak of 89.7 that it would reach on April 7th. I?m not sure if the base depth discrepancy was simply due to the different locations used for the measurements, or inaccuracies in Lost Trail?s data. Either way, there was plenty of snow, and anything one wanted to ski was well covered. I think I may have seen higher base depths for Lost Trail at some point in the five seasons we?ve been out here in western Montana, but if I did, they weren?t much higher than the numbers for this past season.
We met up with Raymond, Echo, and Raymond?s dad David in the base lodge. Our family took a bit longer to get ready than the Allisons, since we also had to prep Dylan for skiing. Dylan would be riding with me in the pack while I skied, which had worked really well in the past. Even though it was snowing fairly heavily at the mountain, the temperature was moderate (20s F) and we knew Dylan would be fine in the pack with the hood in place and the storm flaps down. The area under the hood of the pack actually looked like a really cozy place. I?ve seen people totally enclose their child carriers for skiing on really cold and stormy days, but we didn?t need to worry about that under the conditions. Dylan was in a shelled snowsuit, and if it was cold enough that we really had to totally enclose Dylan and his pack in coverings, we probably wouldn?t have been taking him out on the slopes anyway.
We all began with a run on the classic combination of Meadow Run/Far Out/Southern Comfort, and the Allisons reminded us of a nice short cut below Chair 2 that avoided the need to skate around in front of the lift. It?s still amazing that after five seasons at a small place like Lost Trail, we?re still learning or having to remember little tricks about getting around. Once we reached Meadow Run, Raymond took off quickly in his normal style of skiing. If it weren?t for a couple of group stops at the trail junctions, I don?t think there would have been much chance for Ty and Raymond to interact. On the next run, we repeated the same route, and Echo and David convinced Raymond that he and Ty could take turns being the leader. This slowed the pace down a bit and let them ski together. Somehow, although I didn?t quite get it, being the leader was important for the boys. We varied the route up on the third run and headed over to North Bowl. The boys seemed to enjoy this run, and I think the adults did as well; the snow conditions were fantastic all around.
While we were regrouping at the top of the Boomer slope, Ty got impatient and headed down Boomer on his own, eventually getting stuck in some powder by the tow line. Unfortunately, Raymond didn?t want to go that way. It seems that Raymond has a couple of routes that he?s used to, and he doesn?t like to head to other places yet. Because of this, the families split up at that point, although we would get together for lunch later. E headed down to get Ty out of the powder, and then we all continued down to Gunsmoke where we played on the terrain park jumps. From the bottom of Chair 3, we made our way to the top of Chair 5 and took the Raven Trail with plans to get back to the lodge and meet the Allisons for lunch. On the rope tow below Femur Ridge, Ty reached another milestone by loading and riding the tow under his own power. I was surprised that he was able to do it alone; I figured that accomplishment would be much further down the road.
Back at the lodge, the boys enjoyed a hearty lunch, sampling from all the food that both families had brought. After the boys were done eating, Dylan kept them entertained as they played under the table and the adults finished up their own lunches. After lunch, we all did one more run on North Bowl as a group before the Allisons had to leave. Ty and Raymond played around on the snowbanks near the lodge for a while, and the boys parted with a very cute hug.
Ty still wanted to do some more skiing, so I decided to give him a little adventure by taking him into the snowfield below Femur Ridge. There are plenty of pitches in that area that Ty can handle, and even though it wouldn?t be groomed, I expected he would enjoy the powder. In fact, the more difficult part of skiing the terrain below Femur Ridge with Ty was finding a way to get him in there. He definitely wasn?t going to jump off the ridge itself like most people do. The easiest route looked to be the usual traverse below the steep chutes like Outlaw and Slides, followed by cutting in below Femur Ridge from the skier?s left. None of terrain would be too steep, but the route can be very contoured with numerous traverse tracks, bumps, jumps, holes, and other obstacles. Combined with all the fresh powder to hide some of these obstacles, we knew it might be a very exciting ride for Ty.
The traverse turned out to be a lot of fun, and while Ty did have some stops and tumbles, it was really great to see him navigate the difficult traverse through the powder. I didn?t quite know the route that would get us below Femur Ridge after the traverse, and it turned out to be the section that gave me the most concern for Ty. Just before entering the snowfield, we had to go down a moderately-pitched chute with a few trees, and then cut to the right through a tiny slot lined with trees. The path through the slot was very narrow, with a drop off to the left and little room for any speed control. I was most concerned with Ty coming down the chute too fast and not being able to make the right turn to avoid the steep drop off, but we guarded him closely and he did great. I?m pretty sure I was far more worried about him than he was. Finally, we made it into the snowfield below the rocks of Femur Ridge, and Ty was able to have a great time in the powder. He actually had a couple of good tumbles (one of which I caught on video) and he seemed to enjoy the whole experience. Based on the combination of the traverse below the 40-degree steeps of Outlaw and Slides, the challenging slot to get into the snowfield, and the powder-filled snowfield itself, the route became known as ?The Crazy Trail?. It was certainly the craziest combination of terrain that Ty had ever skied. After running the route of ?The Crazy Trail? once, we weren?t sure how tired Ty was, so we asked if he wanted to ski again on something else. There didn?t seem to be much debate in his head, and he requested ?The Crazy Trail? again. The second time around was filled with as much fun as the first, and Ty gained more great experience in irregular terrain. At one point E was helping Ty up from one of his crashes in the bowl, and she got stuck herself. I got a great photograph of Ty looking over her as she lay there stuck in the snow (it?s available on the web page with the rest of the pictures and video from the day). After that run, we finally called it quits because we knew Ty would soon be getting tired. All around it had been fun to get together with the Allisons on a great powder day, and everyone seemed to have a blast in the fresh snow.
Although our day out with the Allisons featured moderate to heavy snowfall (some of my favorite ski conditions), I still took a lot of pictures because of the special occasion of Ty and Raymond skiing together. Interestingly, despite the sometimes heavy snowfall, there was plenty of daylight. This may have been due to the fact that it was late March and the sun was getting much higher than it had been for the earlier part of the season, but whatever the case, I was really happy with light for photography. Sometimes I?m tempted to take fewer pictures and video on storm days because of the hassle with moisture, and the fact that the light is not always good. But, the day with the Allisons convinced me that you can get some really good shots on storm days. So, don?t let even heavy snowfall ever be an excuse for not attempting pictures and video while skiing. It?s possible to get some fantastic shots that really convey the unique feeling of skiing on a stormy powder day, a feeling that is (in my opinion at least) underrepresented in ski photography and videography.
Some stormy video and additional pictures from our day with Allisons can be seen at:
http://JandEproductions.com/2006/19MAR06.html
J.Spin
Back in March, E and her colleague Echo Allison were finally able to coordinate a day for Ty and Echo?s son Raymond to ski together at Lost Trail. Ty and Raymond know each other well through daycare and other activities, and while both our families are up at Lost Trail almost every weekend of the ski season, our ski day schedules are often out of synch so the boys usually see each other only in the base lodge. We were heading to Missoula to run errands that Saturday, so Sunday was the day we planned to get together and ski. When Ty and Raymond found out about the plan, they were both very excited to finally get the chance to ski together. I was also excited for the event. Ty had never had a chance to ski with anyone his own age (or at least near his own age), and I was hoping it would give him both some perspective on his own skiing and insight into new things he might try. Raymond is actually about two years older than Ty. Raymond turned five in January, but he didn?t start skiing until about the age of four. However, at five years of age, Raymond was able to progress in his skiing much more quickly than Ty. Raymond had been skiing green slopes on his own since the beginning of the season, and blue slopes since about December. Ty had just started skiing green and blue slopes on his own in the previous few weeks, but we were hoping that the two boys would still be able to have fun together. Compared to Ty, we knew that Raymond typically skied at a much faster pace, but he was also still using a tip lock to control his skis. Ty had stopped using the tip lock back when he got his new skis in November, as he just seemed to be able to control them in a wedge without it, and he was making parallel turns at times. It may have been simpler for Ty to go without the tip lock because it was easier to control his shorter skis. Then again, the difference in tip lock usage is probably just due to the way different children find their own ways of advancing their ski technique.
Lost Trail had reported three inches of new snow overnight, but it certainly felt like a lot more, especially since it ended up snowing moderately to heavy at times throughout much of the ski day. It was definitely prime ski season in the Bitterroot Range; Lost Trail was reporting a base depth of 135 inches at the main summit (7,800?), and 125 inches at the main base (7,000?). The Saddle Mountain SNOTEL (7,940?) was only reporting a base depth of 84.3 inches, close to the peak of 89.7 that it would reach on April 7th. I?m not sure if the base depth discrepancy was simply due to the different locations used for the measurements, or inaccuracies in Lost Trail?s data. Either way, there was plenty of snow, and anything one wanted to ski was well covered. I think I may have seen higher base depths for Lost Trail at some point in the five seasons we?ve been out here in western Montana, but if I did, they weren?t much higher than the numbers for this past season.
We met up with Raymond, Echo, and Raymond?s dad David in the base lodge. Our family took a bit longer to get ready than the Allisons, since we also had to prep Dylan for skiing. Dylan would be riding with me in the pack while I skied, which had worked really well in the past. Even though it was snowing fairly heavily at the mountain, the temperature was moderate (20s F) and we knew Dylan would be fine in the pack with the hood in place and the storm flaps down. The area under the hood of the pack actually looked like a really cozy place. I?ve seen people totally enclose their child carriers for skiing on really cold and stormy days, but we didn?t need to worry about that under the conditions. Dylan was in a shelled snowsuit, and if it was cold enough that we really had to totally enclose Dylan and his pack in coverings, we probably wouldn?t have been taking him out on the slopes anyway.
We all began with a run on the classic combination of Meadow Run/Far Out/Southern Comfort, and the Allisons reminded us of a nice short cut below Chair 2 that avoided the need to skate around in front of the lift. It?s still amazing that after five seasons at a small place like Lost Trail, we?re still learning or having to remember little tricks about getting around. Once we reached Meadow Run, Raymond took off quickly in his normal style of skiing. If it weren?t for a couple of group stops at the trail junctions, I don?t think there would have been much chance for Ty and Raymond to interact. On the next run, we repeated the same route, and Echo and David convinced Raymond that he and Ty could take turns being the leader. This slowed the pace down a bit and let them ski together. Somehow, although I didn?t quite get it, being the leader was important for the boys. We varied the route up on the third run and headed over to North Bowl. The boys seemed to enjoy this run, and I think the adults did as well; the snow conditions were fantastic all around.
While we were regrouping at the top of the Boomer slope, Ty got impatient and headed down Boomer on his own, eventually getting stuck in some powder by the tow line. Unfortunately, Raymond didn?t want to go that way. It seems that Raymond has a couple of routes that he?s used to, and he doesn?t like to head to other places yet. Because of this, the families split up at that point, although we would get together for lunch later. E headed down to get Ty out of the powder, and then we all continued down to Gunsmoke where we played on the terrain park jumps. From the bottom of Chair 3, we made our way to the top of Chair 5 and took the Raven Trail with plans to get back to the lodge and meet the Allisons for lunch. On the rope tow below Femur Ridge, Ty reached another milestone by loading and riding the tow under his own power. I was surprised that he was able to do it alone; I figured that accomplishment would be much further down the road.
Back at the lodge, the boys enjoyed a hearty lunch, sampling from all the food that both families had brought. After the boys were done eating, Dylan kept them entertained as they played under the table and the adults finished up their own lunches. After lunch, we all did one more run on North Bowl as a group before the Allisons had to leave. Ty and Raymond played around on the snowbanks near the lodge for a while, and the boys parted with a very cute hug.
Ty still wanted to do some more skiing, so I decided to give him a little adventure by taking him into the snowfield below Femur Ridge. There are plenty of pitches in that area that Ty can handle, and even though it wouldn?t be groomed, I expected he would enjoy the powder. In fact, the more difficult part of skiing the terrain below Femur Ridge with Ty was finding a way to get him in there. He definitely wasn?t going to jump off the ridge itself like most people do. The easiest route looked to be the usual traverse below the steep chutes like Outlaw and Slides, followed by cutting in below Femur Ridge from the skier?s left. None of terrain would be too steep, but the route can be very contoured with numerous traverse tracks, bumps, jumps, holes, and other obstacles. Combined with all the fresh powder to hide some of these obstacles, we knew it might be a very exciting ride for Ty.
The traverse turned out to be a lot of fun, and while Ty did have some stops and tumbles, it was really great to see him navigate the difficult traverse through the powder. I didn?t quite know the route that would get us below Femur Ridge after the traverse, and it turned out to be the section that gave me the most concern for Ty. Just before entering the snowfield, we had to go down a moderately-pitched chute with a few trees, and then cut to the right through a tiny slot lined with trees. The path through the slot was very narrow, with a drop off to the left and little room for any speed control. I was most concerned with Ty coming down the chute too fast and not being able to make the right turn to avoid the steep drop off, but we guarded him closely and he did great. I?m pretty sure I was far more worried about him than he was. Finally, we made it into the snowfield below the rocks of Femur Ridge, and Ty was able to have a great time in the powder. He actually had a couple of good tumbles (one of which I caught on video) and he seemed to enjoy the whole experience. Based on the combination of the traverse below the 40-degree steeps of Outlaw and Slides, the challenging slot to get into the snowfield, and the powder-filled snowfield itself, the route became known as ?The Crazy Trail?. It was certainly the craziest combination of terrain that Ty had ever skied. After running the route of ?The Crazy Trail? once, we weren?t sure how tired Ty was, so we asked if he wanted to ski again on something else. There didn?t seem to be much debate in his head, and he requested ?The Crazy Trail? again. The second time around was filled with as much fun as the first, and Ty gained more great experience in irregular terrain. At one point E was helping Ty up from one of his crashes in the bowl, and she got stuck herself. I got a great photograph of Ty looking over her as she lay there stuck in the snow (it?s available on the web page with the rest of the pictures and video from the day). After that run, we finally called it quits because we knew Ty would soon be getting tired. All around it had been fun to get together with the Allisons on a great powder day, and everyone seemed to have a blast in the fresh snow.
Although our day out with the Allisons featured moderate to heavy snowfall (some of my favorite ski conditions), I still took a lot of pictures because of the special occasion of Ty and Raymond skiing together. Interestingly, despite the sometimes heavy snowfall, there was plenty of daylight. This may have been due to the fact that it was late March and the sun was getting much higher than it had been for the earlier part of the season, but whatever the case, I was really happy with light for photography. Sometimes I?m tempted to take fewer pictures and video on storm days because of the hassle with moisture, and the fact that the light is not always good. But, the day with the Allisons convinced me that you can get some really good shots on storm days. So, don?t let even heavy snowfall ever be an excuse for not attempting pictures and video while skiing. It?s possible to get some fantastic shots that really convey the unique feeling of skiing on a stormy powder day, a feeling that is (in my opinion at least) underrepresented in ski photography and videography.
Some stormy video and additional pictures from our day with Allisons can be seen at:
http://JandEproductions.com/2006/19MAR06.html
J.Spin
