There was a storm total of 8 inches since Tuesday night. It had moved out sometime Wednesday night, so winds were light and the top opened by 10AM. I expected more difficult skiing than Monday/Tuesday as the winds during the storm were extreme, closing the Main Lodge and mid-mountain lifts on Wednesday. In fact it turned out to be mostly similar windsifted snow, just more of it. Where there was dense powder it skied very well with the soft subsurface below. Here's someone enjoying first tracks on Climax.
After a second gondola run on Cornice I took 4 runs on chair 23, Wipe Out, Drop Out, the Hump and Paranoid 1. These skiers are are below Wipe Out 2 and the Hump.
But the run of the day was Dave's. I took 4 runs there.
The windsifted skier's left was nearly perfect from top to bottom. On the last run several hotshots were launching the lip at the top and skiing the partially powder right side at high speed. So my last run I dropped in and skied that side at what I thought was a brisk pace. I was overtaken by one of the hotshots and received a huge Sierra Cement faceshot thrown up by a tail-rockered ski moving at warp speed. Garry may have captured this on GoPro.
I skied the face of 5 a couple of times coming off the top in some of the deepest effortless windsift I've ever seen. The oft-annoying traverse tracks from skiers trying to get back to the chair were completely buried.
I skied 20,300 vertical before leaving at 2:30 to drive home. I used my Black Diamond Verdict skis with Marker Barons and demoed the Garmont Radium boots. I was impressed by boot performance but the toebox was somewhat tight and the boot had too much forward lean for my taste. It forced a tensed quad position even when skiing groomers, and in past seasons I might have fatigued early from that. As it was day 40 (or 41?) this season I skied fine, but I noticed that my knees were a bit tender when I got home.
After a second gondola run on Cornice I took 4 runs on chair 23, Wipe Out, Drop Out, the Hump and Paranoid 1. These skiers are are below Wipe Out 2 and the Hump.
But the run of the day was Dave's. I took 4 runs there.
The windsifted skier's left was nearly perfect from top to bottom. On the last run several hotshots were launching the lip at the top and skiing the partially powder right side at high speed. So my last run I dropped in and skied that side at what I thought was a brisk pace. I was overtaken by one of the hotshots and received a huge Sierra Cement faceshot thrown up by a tail-rockered ski moving at warp speed. Garry may have captured this on GoPro.
I skied the face of 5 a couple of times coming off the top in some of the deepest effortless windsift I've ever seen. The oft-annoying traverse tracks from skiers trying to get back to the chair were completely buried.
I skied 20,300 vertical before leaving at 2:30 to drive home. I used my Black Diamond Verdict skis with Marker Barons and demoed the Garmont Radium boots. I was impressed by boot performance but the toebox was somewhat tight and the boot had too much forward lean for my taste. It forced a tensed quad position even when skiing groomers, and in past seasons I might have fatigued early from that. As it was day 40 (or 41?) this season I skied fine, but I noticed that my knees were a bit tender when I got home.
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