Day 40: Vertigo.
There's no other description for trying to navigate my way from the Little Cloud chair to the Mid-Cirque Traverse on Saturday. It had begun to snow in earnest and the entire upper mountain was socked in with cloud. With no trees or anything else to add definition, I made my first turn down Regulator Johnson and pulled up to an abrupt halt. I couldn't tell where the snow ended and the sky began, and I felt very unsure on my feet. I simply couldn't see the ground, and therefore couldn't tell if it was smooth or bumpy, or where the groomed ended and the ungroomed began. I put my tail between my legs and moved forward in a long sustained traverse/sideslip toward the gate in the ropeline where the traverse began.
I was skiing with Skidog, Bobby Danger, Tony Crocker and John, and old friend from Stowe, Vt. Tele Jon didn't make it -- he sent me a text message at 8 a.m. which read:
#-o
By the time we made our way over to the Mid-Cirque, however, there was just enough visibility to make out the surface, which skied very well as the snow was quickly accumulating.
I had started my day at Alta, where I picked up a pair of 2011 Salomon Sentinels that I was testing in a 184 length. Skidog was testing a pair as well. The dimensions on the 184 were 121/95/129, and I warmed up to them on a couple of Alta groomers. This will be Salomon's first ski with a vertical sidewall, and they have a very slightly rockered tip. I found them to be very stable in just about any condition we threw at them yesterday, and genuinely liked them -- they'll be a solid all-mountain ski for anyone who wants a quiver of one. The only problem I had, which was due to me and not the skis, is that I was mounted flat to the ski in an alpine binder with no riser. Keep in mind that I've skied only Fritschi and Silvretta AT bindings on my own gear for a number of years now, and I truly missed the leverage provided by a higher platform. That left me somewhat tentative all day. I also tested Salomon's new-for-2011 Pebax Pro alpine touring boot (they're coming out with an AT/randonnée line next season), but like the boot's Quest 12 stablemate I found the boot's stance too upright for my liking. The Quest line has only a two-position mode switch: walk, and ski, and the ski mode is far more upright than I prefer. Those who have a more upright position should enjoy the boot, as the flex was gradual and consistent, and unlike the Quest 12 my diminutive size and strength could actually flex the Pebax Pro, but if I let up the pressure for even a moment I was thrown back upright again. On cruisers a bump would throw me there momentarily and release my carve.
But enough yapping about gear. This report is about snow, not gear.
We went through the Taliban Checkpoint at Sugarloaf Pass and down into Mineral Basin, where things were crunchy underneath on the Baldy Express side, and in the poor visibility I occasionally found myself straying unintentionally from the groomer. We made telephone contact with both Tony and John to arrange a meeting point and headed down Primrose Path, where small bumps had formed along a temporary ropeline erected to keep the public off the course for the Junior Freeskiing Championships, which were in progress on Silver Fox. Funneling all Peruvian Gulch traffic down to the chokepoint on upper Chip's Run was a total crapshow, and we made a mental note to avoid this sector of the mountain for the rest of the day.
We ended up hooking up with the guys at Gadzoom, or rather I did as Matt and Bob went on ahead up to Little Cloud. We all regrouped for our first run together, which was the aforementioned vertigo-inducing whiteout en route to the Mid-Cirque, but we learned our lesson and headed instead to Gad 2 for a run down Tigertail, which still had lightly tracked on the upper stretches and soft, fluffy bumps on the last pitch.
At the end of the day the snow had accumulated well, around 4-5" at Snowbird and 6" at Alta with more in the forecast for overnight. We scored some untracked on Toad Hill en route back to Baldy Express -- so good that I understand that John and Tony skied it a second time as Bobby, Matt and I returned to our cars at Alta.
No pictures -- they all would've looked like this:
There's no other description for trying to navigate my way from the Little Cloud chair to the Mid-Cirque Traverse on Saturday. It had begun to snow in earnest and the entire upper mountain was socked in with cloud. With no trees or anything else to add definition, I made my first turn down Regulator Johnson and pulled up to an abrupt halt. I couldn't tell where the snow ended and the sky began, and I felt very unsure on my feet. I simply couldn't see the ground, and therefore couldn't tell if it was smooth or bumpy, or where the groomed ended and the ungroomed began. I put my tail between my legs and moved forward in a long sustained traverse/sideslip toward the gate in the ropeline where the traverse began.
I was skiing with Skidog, Bobby Danger, Tony Crocker and John, and old friend from Stowe, Vt. Tele Jon didn't make it -- he sent me a text message at 8 a.m. which read:
Tele Jon":1x78tz5q said:
#-o
By the time we made our way over to the Mid-Cirque, however, there was just enough visibility to make out the surface, which skied very well as the snow was quickly accumulating.
I had started my day at Alta, where I picked up a pair of 2011 Salomon Sentinels that I was testing in a 184 length. Skidog was testing a pair as well. The dimensions on the 184 were 121/95/129, and I warmed up to them on a couple of Alta groomers. This will be Salomon's first ski with a vertical sidewall, and they have a very slightly rockered tip. I found them to be very stable in just about any condition we threw at them yesterday, and genuinely liked them -- they'll be a solid all-mountain ski for anyone who wants a quiver of one. The only problem I had, which was due to me and not the skis, is that I was mounted flat to the ski in an alpine binder with no riser. Keep in mind that I've skied only Fritschi and Silvretta AT bindings on my own gear for a number of years now, and I truly missed the leverage provided by a higher platform. That left me somewhat tentative all day. I also tested Salomon's new-for-2011 Pebax Pro alpine touring boot (they're coming out with an AT/randonnée line next season), but like the boot's Quest 12 stablemate I found the boot's stance too upright for my liking. The Quest line has only a two-position mode switch: walk, and ski, and the ski mode is far more upright than I prefer. Those who have a more upright position should enjoy the boot, as the flex was gradual and consistent, and unlike the Quest 12 my diminutive size and strength could actually flex the Pebax Pro, but if I let up the pressure for even a moment I was thrown back upright again. On cruisers a bump would throw me there momentarily and release my carve.
But enough yapping about gear. This report is about snow, not gear.
We went through the Taliban Checkpoint at Sugarloaf Pass and down into Mineral Basin, where things were crunchy underneath on the Baldy Express side, and in the poor visibility I occasionally found myself straying unintentionally from the groomer. We made telephone contact with both Tony and John to arrange a meeting point and headed down Primrose Path, where small bumps had formed along a temporary ropeline erected to keep the public off the course for the Junior Freeskiing Championships, which were in progress on Silver Fox. Funneling all Peruvian Gulch traffic down to the chokepoint on upper Chip's Run was a total crapshow, and we made a mental note to avoid this sector of the mountain for the rest of the day.
We ended up hooking up with the guys at Gadzoom, or rather I did as Matt and Bob went on ahead up to Little Cloud. We all regrouped for our first run together, which was the aforementioned vertigo-inducing whiteout en route to the Mid-Cirque, but we learned our lesson and headed instead to Gad 2 for a run down Tigertail, which still had lightly tracked on the upper stretches and soft, fluffy bumps on the last pitch.
At the end of the day the snow had accumulated well, around 4-5" at Snowbird and 6" at Alta with more in the forecast for overnight. We scored some untracked on Toad Hill en route back to Baldy Express -- so good that I understand that John and Tony skied it a second time as Bobby, Matt and I returned to our cars at Alta.
No pictures -- they all would've looked like this:
