tseeb
Well-known member
Early Wed. morning, Northstar said 13 inches, Homewood 16, Alpine 18 and Sugar Bowl 20-24 new. It had started snowing warm, above freezing, but the last few inches were very dry. Even though my friend started blowing his 700 foot driveway about 6 am, we did not get out of the house until about 11. He spent at least three hours snow-blowing and close to an hour figuring out what was wrong, then replacing a shear pin that broke. His wife was not very happy as she was trying to leave at 9 am for Drs. Appt. and area she needed to back into to turn around and the berm at the street were not cleared so she had to cancel.
Since Squaw had upper mountain on wind-hold and I had picked up some free Sun-Fri Northstar tickets courtesy of MetroPCS, that is where we went. The 10-mile drive was long, due to blowing snow totally blocking visibility twice on the way and some 4WDs not making it up Northstar’s access road. We had to squeeze in between two other vehicles as parking lot was blocked due to Lexus Landcrusier and bus accident. After a sand truck went through and we had started the long walk to base, shuttles started running again so we took one which still leaves you with a long walk through Northstar’s village to the gondola.
It was after noon before we got to the top of Zephyr lift. From there we took long poma to Lookout Mountain where we had 6 mostly powder runs. First run was Sugar Pine Glades, then we stayed skiers right of the lift to the bottom and had a lot of untracked. The next three runs we went right at the top of the lift and first skied nearly untracked powder on skier’s right side of Prosser. The next two runs I hiked out towards the picnic table past the top of Prosser. The first time I found untracked 100-200 feet off the run. The next time I went as far as the boundary rope and found a top of low to moderate angle untracked. Even the groomer near the bottom of the lift was skiing great with 3-8 inches of dry snow since it had been groomed.
We left Lookout, where there was almost no wind, and skied Backdoor, then found a lot of powder on Iron Horse to the Backside lift. It stopped for about 5 minutes just before we got on and my feet started getting cold. We heard it had been stopping a lot all day and it had a couple of short stops while we were on it. We followed a snowboarder who rode the lift with us towards Monument Glades. The wind had picked up and it had gotten a lot colder, and tracks had been filled in so it was like skiing a foot and a half of untracked. We went into the top lodge to try to warm up, but I couldn’t take my helmet or hardly my gloves off as lodge was cold. After making sure all my vents were closed, we did one more run on Monument Glades and skied down and quit before 4 with 8 very good powder runs. The Ski Tracks application on my new Verizon iPhone counted 17.5K with a top speed of almost 47 mph.
My friend had to blow his driveway for an hour when we got home as about four inches had fallen during the day. The he got out again about 6 am Thursday morning to clear the foot that fell overnight. We are probably going back to Northstar, as even though winds are lower, Squaw may still have trouble opening much of the mountain. We heard Squaw was good Wednesday, but got crowded as KT was only running part of the day which leaves lower speed and angle Red Dog, Exhibition and Squaw Creek.
Northstar claims 32” more in the last 24 hours at 5 am Thursday and temps are much colder. I hope my friend is ready to go earlier as I don’t think my Corolla is moving until I need to leave the mountains tomorrow.
Since Squaw had upper mountain on wind-hold and I had picked up some free Sun-Fri Northstar tickets courtesy of MetroPCS, that is where we went. The 10-mile drive was long, due to blowing snow totally blocking visibility twice on the way and some 4WDs not making it up Northstar’s access road. We had to squeeze in between two other vehicles as parking lot was blocked due to Lexus Landcrusier and bus accident. After a sand truck went through and we had started the long walk to base, shuttles started running again so we took one which still leaves you with a long walk through Northstar’s village to the gondola.
It was after noon before we got to the top of Zephyr lift. From there we took long poma to Lookout Mountain where we had 6 mostly powder runs. First run was Sugar Pine Glades, then we stayed skiers right of the lift to the bottom and had a lot of untracked. The next three runs we went right at the top of the lift and first skied nearly untracked powder on skier’s right side of Prosser. The next two runs I hiked out towards the picnic table past the top of Prosser. The first time I found untracked 100-200 feet off the run. The next time I went as far as the boundary rope and found a top of low to moderate angle untracked. Even the groomer near the bottom of the lift was skiing great with 3-8 inches of dry snow since it had been groomed.
We left Lookout, where there was almost no wind, and skied Backdoor, then found a lot of powder on Iron Horse to the Backside lift. It stopped for about 5 minutes just before we got on and my feet started getting cold. We heard it had been stopping a lot all day and it had a couple of short stops while we were on it. We followed a snowboarder who rode the lift with us towards Monument Glades. The wind had picked up and it had gotten a lot colder, and tracks had been filled in so it was like skiing a foot and a half of untracked. We went into the top lodge to try to warm up, but I couldn’t take my helmet or hardly my gloves off as lodge was cold. After making sure all my vents were closed, we did one more run on Monument Glades and skied down and quit before 4 with 8 very good powder runs. The Ski Tracks application on my new Verizon iPhone counted 17.5K with a top speed of almost 47 mph.
My friend had to blow his driveway for an hour when we got home as about four inches had fallen during the day. The he got out again about 6 am Thursday morning to clear the foot that fell overnight. We are probably going back to Northstar, as even though winds are lower, Squaw may still have trouble opening much of the mountain. We heard Squaw was good Wednesday, but got crowded as KT was only running part of the day which leaves lower speed and angle Red Dog, Exhibition and Squaw Creek.
Northstar claims 32” more in the last 24 hours at 5 am Thursday and temps are much colder. I hope my friend is ready to go earlier as I don’t think my Corolla is moving until I need to leave the mountains tomorrow.
