Day 53: Welcome to spring!
With warm sun Saturday afternoon and below freezing temps Saturday night, there was no point to meeting before 10 am, so that's precisely what we did on Sunday. After a rendezvous with Bob Dangerous, Tony Crocker and his friend Richard we bumped into Junior Bounous, snapped a quick photo with the living ski legend, and headed for Peruvian.
Why Peruvian? The Tram line wasn't long, but more of Tony's posse was due to roll out of bed in time for a 10:30 meeting and we wanted to see what was up over at the US Freeskiing Nationals super-finals venue on North Baldy. A large stadium seating area was carved from the snow below Eye of the Needle on the Chip's Flats, and we caught the last final left over from Saturday's weather delay (Aurelien Ducroz of France) and the women's Super Final before Tony's friends Al and Stefan arrived.
We had about 30 minutes to kill before the men's Super Finals would get underway, so we high-tailed it back down to the Peruvian Express, through the tunnel and into the southeast-facing angles in Mineral Basin, already softening in the warm morning sunshine. Absolute hero snow as I chased Bob and in the process lost the rest of the group. We regrouped at the bottom of MBE, although Tony's group's teeth were chattering after Al's ill-advised foray into southwest-facing terrain that wasn't quite ready. The rest had followed.
We headed back to the contest venue via Silver Fox, finding dry, chalky snow on its north-facing angles. The men had just gotten underway, and we stayed to watch the remainder of the super finals, watching some really sick lines in the process. One of the more creative lines, making ample use of tight trees, had to be by a Vermonter. Sure enough, it was John Witherspoon from Jay Peak.
Once the comp was over no one else was interested in eating despite the fact that it was now nearly 1pm and I had only eaten half a chocolate bar all day (and that would turn out to be all I'd eat until dinner #-o ). I tried to head to Rope-a-Dope, but ironically there was a ropeline all across the access from Carbonate with no open gate established. We instead rattled our teeth down a solidly frozen Carbonate to return to Gadzoom via Bassackwards.
After that horrific error in judgment we were even more desperately in need of soft, dry, chalky snow, and we found it in spades in the Knucklehead Chutes. Atop Little Cloud Al reached his son Ben by phone boarding the Tram, so he, Tony and Stefan waited by the Upper Cirque gate off Regulator Johnson for Ben and the others to arrive as I scouted out lines in the Upper Cirque. The primary entrance to Great Scott was definitely out as far as I was concerned. There was a hairball traverse established across a no-fall zone from Jaws, but I didn't care much for that, either, preferring Jaws proper despite the fact that it choked down to 150 cm at the crux. Tony considered it, but chose to instead head further down the Cirque.
We had by now waited 30 minutes or so with no sign of Ben or his crew, so after jerking around for half an hour for nothing we finally pushed on.
The next line was 10b. I actually liked the looks of this one despite some barely covered rock visible in the first few turns. I managed to coax agreement from Tony and Stefan (Al had long since departed in favor of the gentler Mid-Cirque lines). The other two, however, continued to stand there so I dropped in, nicking a few invisible rocks in the process but nonetheless enjoying the line immensely. Once through the crux I turned around to look up hill to watch the others, but...no sign of Tony or Stefan! Nothing but blue sky on the ridgeline, either. Those bums let me be the guinea pig! :evil:
They instead had eased over to shot 9, and I readied the camera to shoot photos before traversing across the apron to the north-facing angles below Great Scott in search of drier snow.
We angled across Anderson's Hill to Anderson's Trees and Dalton's, finding Ben and the rest of the gang where it intersects Rothman Way. Although it was by now 3 pm and I had planned to retire to the Tram Plaza for a burger and a beer, I had a renewed sense of energy skiing the trees between lower Mach Schnell and Harper's Ferry East. That meant a few more runs to capitalize on good afternoon spring snow. We found dry stuff in Silver Fox still, but things got wetter as we worked across The House and down into the trees, ending on Waterfall. One last run at 3:35, I opted to lead the entire group out the Baldy Traverse from the top of Peruvian, skiing a hundred verts on West Baldy before dropping into the lower traverse line that took us out to the Blonde Cliffs on North Baldy, part of the Freeskiing Comp terrain from earlier in the day. Another young'un, Ed, had been intrigued by the Eye of the Needle chute while riding the Peruvian Chair, so we worked our way across the snow fields above the Amphitheater and into the Eye. Everyone exited that chute with broad smiles, and after some final turns together down Middle Men's Downhill I split for my truck parked on the Bypass Road while the others returned to the Iron Blosam, 17120 verts after starting the day.
A passholder parked next to me declared the day "Top 10." Bob showed up at his car parked behind me moments later with a big grin from the Keyhole return from Alta. Being out in the hot sun all day made my lips feel like someone had lathered them with habanero sauce. With tunes cranking and hot sun blazing (it was in the upper 40s at the lot), the only thing missing from the de-booting process was an ice cold beer.
So that's precisely what I grabbed when I showed up at Tony's Iron Blosam unit. We all headed out to the outdoor pool, where I was thankfully able to resist the "initiation" ritual of making a snow angel in the snowbank next to the pool. Wine bottles were opened as alpenglow bathed the peaks above and an ermine scampered across the snow right in front of my feet. Much more wine flowed throughout a fabulous dinner for 30 before I reluctantly bid my farewells at 11 and headed down the Canyon to home.
With warm sun Saturday afternoon and below freezing temps Saturday night, there was no point to meeting before 10 am, so that's precisely what we did on Sunday. After a rendezvous with Bob Dangerous, Tony Crocker and his friend Richard we bumped into Junior Bounous, snapped a quick photo with the living ski legend, and headed for Peruvian.
Why Peruvian? The Tram line wasn't long, but more of Tony's posse was due to roll out of bed in time for a 10:30 meeting and we wanted to see what was up over at the US Freeskiing Nationals super-finals venue on North Baldy. A large stadium seating area was carved from the snow below Eye of the Needle on the Chip's Flats, and we caught the last final left over from Saturday's weather delay (Aurelien Ducroz of France) and the women's Super Final before Tony's friends Al and Stefan arrived.
We had about 30 minutes to kill before the men's Super Finals would get underway, so we high-tailed it back down to the Peruvian Express, through the tunnel and into the southeast-facing angles in Mineral Basin, already softening in the warm morning sunshine. Absolute hero snow as I chased Bob and in the process lost the rest of the group. We regrouped at the bottom of MBE, although Tony's group's teeth were chattering after Al's ill-advised foray into southwest-facing terrain that wasn't quite ready. The rest had followed.
We headed back to the contest venue via Silver Fox, finding dry, chalky snow on its north-facing angles. The men had just gotten underway, and we stayed to watch the remainder of the super finals, watching some really sick lines in the process. One of the more creative lines, making ample use of tight trees, had to be by a Vermonter. Sure enough, it was John Witherspoon from Jay Peak.
Once the comp was over no one else was interested in eating despite the fact that it was now nearly 1pm and I had only eaten half a chocolate bar all day (and that would turn out to be all I'd eat until dinner #-o ). I tried to head to Rope-a-Dope, but ironically there was a ropeline all across the access from Carbonate with no open gate established. We instead rattled our teeth down a solidly frozen Carbonate to return to Gadzoom via Bassackwards.
After that horrific error in judgment we were even more desperately in need of soft, dry, chalky snow, and we found it in spades in the Knucklehead Chutes. Atop Little Cloud Al reached his son Ben by phone boarding the Tram, so he, Tony and Stefan waited by the Upper Cirque gate off Regulator Johnson for Ben and the others to arrive as I scouted out lines in the Upper Cirque. The primary entrance to Great Scott was definitely out as far as I was concerned. There was a hairball traverse established across a no-fall zone from Jaws, but I didn't care much for that, either, preferring Jaws proper despite the fact that it choked down to 150 cm at the crux. Tony considered it, but chose to instead head further down the Cirque.
We had by now waited 30 minutes or so with no sign of Ben or his crew, so after jerking around for half an hour for nothing we finally pushed on.
The next line was 10b. I actually liked the looks of this one despite some barely covered rock visible in the first few turns. I managed to coax agreement from Tony and Stefan (Al had long since departed in favor of the gentler Mid-Cirque lines). The other two, however, continued to stand there so I dropped in, nicking a few invisible rocks in the process but nonetheless enjoying the line immensely. Once through the crux I turned around to look up hill to watch the others, but...no sign of Tony or Stefan! Nothing but blue sky on the ridgeline, either. Those bums let me be the guinea pig! :evil:
They instead had eased over to shot 9, and I readied the camera to shoot photos before traversing across the apron to the north-facing angles below Great Scott in search of drier snow.
We angled across Anderson's Hill to Anderson's Trees and Dalton's, finding Ben and the rest of the gang where it intersects Rothman Way. Although it was by now 3 pm and I had planned to retire to the Tram Plaza for a burger and a beer, I had a renewed sense of energy skiing the trees between lower Mach Schnell and Harper's Ferry East. That meant a few more runs to capitalize on good afternoon spring snow. We found dry stuff in Silver Fox still, but things got wetter as we worked across The House and down into the trees, ending on Waterfall. One last run at 3:35, I opted to lead the entire group out the Baldy Traverse from the top of Peruvian, skiing a hundred verts on West Baldy before dropping into the lower traverse line that took us out to the Blonde Cliffs on North Baldy, part of the Freeskiing Comp terrain from earlier in the day. Another young'un, Ed, had been intrigued by the Eye of the Needle chute while riding the Peruvian Chair, so we worked our way across the snow fields above the Amphitheater and into the Eye. Everyone exited that chute with broad smiles, and after some final turns together down Middle Men's Downhill I split for my truck parked on the Bypass Road while the others returned to the Iron Blosam, 17120 verts after starting the day.
A passholder parked next to me declared the day "Top 10." Bob showed up at his car parked behind me moments later with a big grin from the Keyhole return from Alta. Being out in the hot sun all day made my lips feel like someone had lathered them with habanero sauce. With tunes cranking and hot sun blazing (it was in the upper 40s at the lot), the only thing missing from the de-booting process was an ice cold beer.
So that's precisely what I grabbed when I showed up at Tony's Iron Blosam unit. We all headed out to the outdoor pool, where I was thankfully able to resist the "initiation" ritual of making a snow angel in the snowbank next to the pool. Wine bottles were opened as alpenglow bathed the peaks above and an ermine scampered across the snow right in front of my feet. Much more wine flowed throughout a fabulous dinner for 30 before I reluctantly bid my farewells at 11 and headed down the Canyon to home.
