Mark Renson
New member
On Friday, we assembled at the shack to prepare the mountain for a Saturday opening. It's amazing how many little things must be done and it all adds up to a lotta' work. Gather radios and 'boo,assemble sleds, etc. <BR> But we were rewarded with a trip up The Double. I had to mark off water bars on Quacky. The headwall was looking great and skied well. Untracked knee deep. <BR> I ran outta' 'boo and waited on Broadway for further direction. Roy on the radio reported that he had a bundle of 'boo under the Double. "Oh, we should certainly do retrieve some of that 'boo and get to work". Of course, the fact that we had to descend via upper Chipmunk in all of that untracked knee deep had something to do with that decision. <BR> After performing chores, we went up The Double again and carried some more bamboo down Fox/Vixen with its few inches of fluff over groomed and then down Canyon. Canyon was fantastic! I had never seen it ski so well! <BR> We then took a ride up The Single. We roped off J-Bowl and as I waded through snow off of Antelope, I was astounded at the depth of it. Upper Antelope was great and then we had to set up the Midstation. <BR> We had to then carry shovels downhill. Again, Canyon was fantastic all the way down through S-Turn under the somber sublime skies. <BR> That night, I coulda' sworn I heard some raindrops. <BR>The next morning was a bit damp, but no rain and the upper mountain was still heavily frosted. It was Opening Day!! I took Student Patroller Aaron down with me with a load of 'boo for potential water bars but we could not find out a whole heckuva' lot to mark off - the coverage is fantastic. We finally found ways to relieve our burden of 'boo. This enabled us to enjoy the knee <BR>deep powder on Chipmunk! <BR> For the second run, I took the closed Fall <BR>Line to prep it for the public. COOL!! This meant tasting the untracked knee deep. At the top of Creamery, the radio crackled and word went out that Beaver was about to open. Skiing was great, albeit a bit heavy at the bottom. I had heard that the rain/snow line had crept up to within 200 vertical feet of the basebox - we dodged a bullet! <BR> Cat Bowl had outstanding cover and much of the day became a great white blur. <BR> On the ride up The Single, word on the radio was that Paradise was to open. Yup, you heard right. I paused at the headwall and watched <BR>Mike nail it the right way at the 7 O'Clock setting without skipping a beat. I dropped in at the 4 O'Clock postion and found a soft landing that even an Air Whose like me could handle easily. <BR> The rest of the run was indeed paradise as I enjoyed my best run ever down that classic in knee deep chowder. <BR> When we assembled for sweep at the top, Jamey the GM radioed in and thanked us for our efforts. Pretty classy gesture, I thought. <BR> Some snow fell that night ....... <BR> The next day ...... OH MY!!!! As we took on assigments, I deftly got ahead of others milling a bit and I plucked Gazelle. Unreal! <BR> It woulda' been good for mid Winter in the Rockies. Incredible knee deep untracked that was light and easy to ski. This turned into erotic thigh deep after I dropped in over the super steep <BR>exposed headwall. Turns were fast, easy and dramatic. Next run was down Slalom Hill. Super conditions at top, but a bit wind blasted at the bottom. Birdland had lotsa' treats and of course, the reliable Quacky did, too. We opened Gazelle Woods to kick off tree skiing for the season. P-Bowl ..... Chipmunk .... lower Beaver braids .... stuff everywhere .... pow-pow-pow-pow. It <BR>didn't matter where you went as it was all good. We did consider opening The Single, but winds were howling entirely too much at the summit. <BR> <BR>I caught up with Stop-The-BRUTAL GROOMING-Dave <BR>and he actually behaved somewhat by refraining from going into the woods. One didn't have to, anyway. This was actually one of my better ski days, ever. I even found some nice untracked in the late afternoon on Quacky III which illicited a joyous whoop from me. <BR> Sweep was down Canyon which stayed in great shape throughout the entire weekend. <BR> Just a few more weeks of this, and I just might have to declare it a "These Are The Best of Times" Winter.