After a great day at Waterman yesterday, I figured Baldy might be more of an opportunity to (try to) teach some beginner friends how to ski. Upon arriving at the hill, I was somewhat in shock at how little coverage there was at the base. There was barely any snow to put on my skis before loading Chair 1, and Sugarpine looked really ugly and rocky. I don't know the area well, but I decided right away that I wouldn't be skiing Holcumac, since there probably wasn't any snow-covered way out.
Thankfully, the snowpack on the upper mountain is holding up pretty well. When the rest of my group was busy getting rentals, I did a warm-up run on Spring Ridge, and despite it being much colder than I expected at 8am, it was surprisingly soft on very carveable on the Praxis. I skied a few runs on Chair 4 with the group before realizing that there was pretty much perfect corn and that I better ski it while it lasts. I pretty much covered the entire Chair 4 area, and everywhere was really soft and fun. There were a few hard spots in the shaded trees, but for the most part, everything off the main trails was perfectly smooth.
After I got bored with Chair 4's flatness, I headed over the Chair 3. I could see from the lift that everything ungroomed was really hard and somewhat icy, so I stuck to the groomers. Robin's Run and Skyline were still hardpack, and in the spots that were a bit scraped, I definitely noticed that 120mm underfoot just doesn't act like a GS ski. I didn't quite feel up to the challenge of the hardpack, so I returned to Chair 4 for more corn. Around 11:30, the groomed slopes became considerable softer and were more like slush than corn. I therefore stayed in the woods for a while, but eventually, everything turned a bit slushier.
I decided to try Spring Ridge again despite is slushiness, and to my surprise, it felt almost exactly the same as it did during the prime corn harvesting period. I think I'll attribute this to the Praxis. Never in my life have I had so much fun in the slush. While everyone else was getting slowed down, as soon as I got some speed up, I was able to ski the slush almost like powder. I could carve when I wanted to, but at any moment, I could also engage the skis into a "slarvey" slide. I did laps on Chair 4 until about 2:30, when the snow got a bit crystalized and I figured Chair 3 had soften up.
I think I timed it about right, since the runs on Thunder were definitely softer. I started in the small liftline bumps, which were still fairly hard at the top. The Praxis didn't like this, and I realized that these are not the skis for hard bumps. On the next run, I searched for more South-facing terrain off the Fire Road. I'm not sure where I dropped in, but it was phenomenal corn. Absolutely no one was skiing this area (probably because of the bony entrances), but it was the best snow of the day. I haven't skied true corn much before, but I'm guessing this is about as good as it gets. I skied variations of the same run for the rest of the day, before downloading on Chair 1. From the chair, I realized I could have skied down without running into many rocks, but I wasn't really sure how to best accomplish that, so I took the safe option.
For what its worth, I heard from some people on the lift that South Bowl was also good. I guess this makes sense, since I suppose it faces South.
I know this was a really long report, but I basically treat this forum like a diary and I'm really bored with everyone else already gone for Spring Break.
Thankfully, the snowpack on the upper mountain is holding up pretty well. When the rest of my group was busy getting rentals, I did a warm-up run on Spring Ridge, and despite it being much colder than I expected at 8am, it was surprisingly soft on very carveable on the Praxis. I skied a few runs on Chair 4 with the group before realizing that there was pretty much perfect corn and that I better ski it while it lasts. I pretty much covered the entire Chair 4 area, and everywhere was really soft and fun. There were a few hard spots in the shaded trees, but for the most part, everything off the main trails was perfectly smooth.
After I got bored with Chair 4's flatness, I headed over the Chair 3. I could see from the lift that everything ungroomed was really hard and somewhat icy, so I stuck to the groomers. Robin's Run and Skyline were still hardpack, and in the spots that were a bit scraped, I definitely noticed that 120mm underfoot just doesn't act like a GS ski. I didn't quite feel up to the challenge of the hardpack, so I returned to Chair 4 for more corn. Around 11:30, the groomed slopes became considerable softer and were more like slush than corn. I therefore stayed in the woods for a while, but eventually, everything turned a bit slushier.
I decided to try Spring Ridge again despite is slushiness, and to my surprise, it felt almost exactly the same as it did during the prime corn harvesting period. I think I'll attribute this to the Praxis. Never in my life have I had so much fun in the slush. While everyone else was getting slowed down, as soon as I got some speed up, I was able to ski the slush almost like powder. I could carve when I wanted to, but at any moment, I could also engage the skis into a "slarvey" slide. I did laps on Chair 4 until about 2:30, when the snow got a bit crystalized and I figured Chair 3 had soften up.
I think I timed it about right, since the runs on Thunder were definitely softer. I started in the small liftline bumps, which were still fairly hard at the top. The Praxis didn't like this, and I realized that these are not the skis for hard bumps. On the next run, I searched for more South-facing terrain off the Fire Road. I'm not sure where I dropped in, but it was phenomenal corn. Absolutely no one was skiing this area (probably because of the bony entrances), but it was the best snow of the day. I haven't skied true corn much before, but I'm guessing this is about as good as it gets. I skied variations of the same run for the rest of the day, before downloading on Chair 1. From the chair, I realized I could have skied down without running into many rocks, but I wasn't really sure how to best accomplish that, so I took the safe option.
For what its worth, I heard from some people on the lift that South Bowl was also good. I guess this makes sense, since I suppose it faces South.
I know this was a really long report, but I basically treat this forum like a diary and I'm really bored with everyone else already gone for Spring Break.
