**edit to add pics and videos**
What a weekend, snow was falling when we got up to Main Lodge at 4am on Thursday and never quit, I think the snow total for Main Lodge was about 52 inches in 3 days.
Friday was good, 7 inches new and snow falling all day. Coverage was pretty low in a lot of areas still and my skis took a bunch of shots on the rocks, nothing serious though. Friday, we rode chairs 1 and 3 pretty much exclusively. West bowl was pretty good, face was just okay. The trees to the skiers left of ch 3 were pretty great and untracked. Probably the best skiing off chair 1 was fascination and far west, both were groomed and had good coverage and a even base for the new snow (which was falling all day). Also good was Wall, trees weren't completely covered yet, but the snow was soft and fresh by the end of the day.
Friday Pics:
Quick Video of me coming down Gravy Chute: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...?authkey=Gv1sRgCMPW47fX1e7gIQ&feat=directlink
Saturday was pretty amazing. Unfortunately it was "early ups" for pass holders (which I'm not) so when we got up pretty much all the obvious stuff was tracked by 9ish. Lucky for us snowfall rates picked up to 3inches an hour and everyone seemed to quit early so afternoon skiing was great. Off Chair 3 we found untracked over in Christmas bowl and china bowls as well as the rope line to the skiers left of West bowl. They were running chair 10 too, so we headed up and traversed over to lower Sanctuary which was about 2ft deep and untracked. A few laps there and we finished up the day playing around on the Gravy Chutes which had filled in nicely except for a few rocks at the top.
Some pics from Saturday:
On Saturday after around 5pm the wind really started to blow, easily 50mph gusts at Main lodge. We took a ride to the Village in a taxi and it was a complete whiteout, I don't know how the driver actually got us there. Power lines in town blew down and there were lightning strikes which I was told took down a few more power lines. Sunday we woke up to another 20 inches of snow, but the wind was still howling, but somewhat less than the night before. Chair 1 was delayed while they did some repairs so we headed up Ch 6 and over to Ch 2. We took a run down 2 but the snow was so deep that the pitch just wasn't enough to ski anything ungroomed. On the 2nd run patrol told us we were welcome to make the short traverse to the top of ch 1. Jackpot, we were the first over there and got to make waist deep first tracks all the way down Gravy Chute. By the time we got another long lap in ch 1 was running. I traversed over to the 2nd or 3rd chute over from Gravy and found more deep untracked and poked around in the trees for some more great turns.
Overall an excellent weekend, obviously there's way more terrain open today with 3 running and 5 as well, but after all that wind I think skiing in the storm was the way to go. Top will be wind buffed pretty good by the time they get it opened, which could be another day or so. I got to get 3 days on my new big boards (Volkl Kuro's, 132 waist and rockered). I have to say, those are some amazing skis.
Some pics but mostly video from Sunday:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/x8P5jVHxRWVKdRfAoscUFg?feat=directlink
A lot of snow down at Main Lodge
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/XH_jq1-6mT2Nwky4LsO6gg?feat=directlink
Nice Ride Home
Mt. Whitney back there, I think
What a weekend, snow was falling when we got up to Main Lodge at 4am on Thursday and never quit, I think the snow total for Main Lodge was about 52 inches in 3 days.
Friday was good, 7 inches new and snow falling all day. Coverage was pretty low in a lot of areas still and my skis took a bunch of shots on the rocks, nothing serious though. Friday, we rode chairs 1 and 3 pretty much exclusively. West bowl was pretty good, face was just okay. The trees to the skiers left of ch 3 were pretty great and untracked. Probably the best skiing off chair 1 was fascination and far west, both were groomed and had good coverage and a even base for the new snow (which was falling all day). Also good was Wall, trees weren't completely covered yet, but the snow was soft and fresh by the end of the day.
Friday Pics:
Quick Video of me coming down Gravy Chute: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...?authkey=Gv1sRgCMPW47fX1e7gIQ&feat=directlink
Saturday was pretty amazing. Unfortunately it was "early ups" for pass holders (which I'm not) so when we got up pretty much all the obvious stuff was tracked by 9ish. Lucky for us snowfall rates picked up to 3inches an hour and everyone seemed to quit early so afternoon skiing was great. Off Chair 3 we found untracked over in Christmas bowl and china bowls as well as the rope line to the skiers left of West bowl. They were running chair 10 too, so we headed up and traversed over to lower Sanctuary which was about 2ft deep and untracked. A few laps there and we finished up the day playing around on the Gravy Chutes which had filled in nicely except for a few rocks at the top.
Some pics from Saturday:
On Saturday after around 5pm the wind really started to blow, easily 50mph gusts at Main lodge. We took a ride to the Village in a taxi and it was a complete whiteout, I don't know how the driver actually got us there. Power lines in town blew down and there were lightning strikes which I was told took down a few more power lines. Sunday we woke up to another 20 inches of snow, but the wind was still howling, but somewhat less than the night before. Chair 1 was delayed while they did some repairs so we headed up Ch 6 and over to Ch 2. We took a run down 2 but the snow was so deep that the pitch just wasn't enough to ski anything ungroomed. On the 2nd run patrol told us we were welcome to make the short traverse to the top of ch 1. Jackpot, we were the first over there and got to make waist deep first tracks all the way down Gravy Chute. By the time we got another long lap in ch 1 was running. I traversed over to the 2nd or 3rd chute over from Gravy and found more deep untracked and poked around in the trees for some more great turns.
Overall an excellent weekend, obviously there's way more terrain open today with 3 running and 5 as well, but after all that wind I think skiing in the storm was the way to go. Top will be wind buffed pretty good by the time they get it opened, which could be another day or so. I got to get 3 days on my new big boards (Volkl Kuro's, 132 waist and rockered). I have to say, those are some amazing skis.
Some pics but mostly video from Sunday:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/x8P5jVHxRWVKdRfAoscUFg?feat=directlink
A lot of snow down at Main Lodge
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/XH_jq1-6mT2Nwky4LsO6gg?feat=directlink
Nice Ride Home
Mt. Whitney back there, I think
