tseeb
Well-known member
Can corn form in a day? Can hurt ribs get better in less than 5 weeks? The answer to both seems to be yes although I could still feel ribs when poling. Squaw reported 3" new on Wednesday, but more than one person I rode lifts with said it was 5-10" in places and on Thursday it already seemed like some smooth corn had formed. I left San Jose before 5 and got through Sacramento before 7 without much slowing and arrived Squaw about 8:30, even with a couple of minute delay for one-way traffic on CA-89 where Caltrans was using a large crane to remove some trees.
I went up Funitel, then rode and skied Siberia five times.
There was really only one good route down due to roped-off mogul course would have required a hike to get around to ungroomed below Palisades. Snow on groomed Siberia Face was good, but when I tested the ungroomed at the top it seemed too firm. Guy I was riding lift with and I used Big Blue to move to still firm Shirley Lake.
I skied Granite Chief at least eight times, finding a lot of good snow on and off the groomers. Guy I had shared a lot of lifts with bailed and when loading Granite I caught up with near_nyquist/Tom from defunct EpicSki (and who lives near me in South SF Bay Area). He encouraged a lot of people to move to PugSki, but AFAIK has not moved there himself, and is at Squaw most weekdays. We moved to Shirley Lake to see if salted Race Course had been opened to public, but since it was not, we returned to Granite Chief for another lap or two, skiing Hidden Bowl once and the Arete once. Snow got soft partway down the Arete, but by moving further left to more N and somewhat treed exposure, good snow was found almost to base.
We skied Shirley Lake a few times and found great smooth corn in Rainbow Bowl past (not running) Solitude. I got too low once and had to hike across sticky flats to get back to lift, but on at least two other laps I cut across higher and found a good steep last pitch that got me to salted bottom of race course. Race course was also good from the top and for our last Shirley run we went past avy bomb delivery system that appeared to run on compressed and I found a smooth line at edge of Bowl next to rope line that was keeping skiers from getting hit by lift riders.
We skied a couple of laps on both Siberia and Headwall. On Headwall, we skied the Face where 50' tall rock that defines the right side is nearly buried. We also took a lap down smooth left side of North Bowl, then Tom shared a couple of more steep shots that held good snow. We skied off Siberia Ridge once and next time up I hiked over the top of Bump Course, then we stopped and watched people skiing some great lines in the Palisades. We also saw a guy fall on his first turn into National chute (that I skied last year for first time in about 40 years) and a snowboarder butt-slide it.
Tom went to download Funitel. I did one more Headwall lap, skiing right side of North Bowl where snow was still good. I was able to cut high enough above Siberia to almost get to Headwall Face and avoid soft Mountain Run as long as possible. The Mountain Run past base of Headwall was not too bad and I stayed on road that got me past KT base. I went up KT and skied ridge between Olympic Lady chair and Ladies Downhill which was still very good, then went down Exhibition (now called Julia's Gold) to the bottom well after 3. My watch counted 30 runs and 30.7K.
I skied Granite Chief at least eight times, finding a lot of good snow on and off the groomers. Guy I had shared a lot of lifts with bailed and when loading Granite I caught up with near_nyquist/Tom from defunct EpicSki (and who lives near me in South SF Bay Area). He encouraged a lot of people to move to PugSki, but AFAIK has not moved there himself, and is at Squaw most weekdays. We moved to Shirley Lake to see if salted Race Course had been opened to public, but since it was not, we returned to Granite Chief for another lap or two, skiing Hidden Bowl once and the Arete once. Snow got soft partway down the Arete, but by moving further left to more N and somewhat treed exposure, good snow was found almost to base.
We skied Shirley Lake a few times and found great smooth corn in Rainbow Bowl past (not running) Solitude. I got too low once and had to hike across sticky flats to get back to lift, but on at least two other laps I cut across higher and found a good steep last pitch that got me to salted bottom of race course. Race course was also good from the top and for our last Shirley run we went past avy bomb delivery system that appeared to run on compressed and I found a smooth line at edge of Bowl next to rope line that was keeping skiers from getting hit by lift riders.
Tom went to download Funitel. I did one more Headwall lap, skiing right side of North Bowl where snow was still good. I was able to cut high enough above Siberia to almost get to Headwall Face and avoid soft Mountain Run as long as possible. The Mountain Run past base of Headwall was not too bad and I stayed on road that got me past KT base. I went up KT and skied ridge between Olympic Lady chair and Ladies Downhill which was still very good, then went down Exhibition (now called Julia's Gold) to the bottom well after 3. My watch counted 30 runs and 30.7K.
