Got back from BC Saturday late. Still pretty pooped. 6 days of skiing 9 am to 5:15 pm, bluebird skies. 156,000’ vertical! It got very fast the last few days–tough to keep under control. Imgur: The magic of the Internet
We’ve been getting slammed so hard by the storms out here in CA the resorts near Tahoe did not open last Saturday. Weekends are usually the primary money-making zones for the resorts, so multiple resorts closing due to conditions is a rarity. Of course, the roads were also closed for most/all of that day, too. I am hoping to get up there this Friday, but another atmospheric river is expected to hit tomorrow - hopefully the resorts and the roads will have some time to clean-up before the next weekend.
Bluebird warm weekend at Jay. The trees were in decent shape, nothing like last year’s powder but soft enough.
Well, after the rain/snow mix stopped, I’ve been killing Hevenly for the last few days. Had a weird shut-down on the Nevada side Thursday, but I’ve just been lapping The Face, so I don’t give a fuck. They only open it up after about 1pm due to the “You Will Die!” icy conditions, but this is the shit I live for.
Was lapping the Face today, and saw an orphaned Mitten under the chair. Didn’t see it on the last trip up…
Picked it up, and took it down, skied into the lift line, and there was this snowboard girl, pleading with the lifty, with one mitten.
I chucked it to her, and all was well. I hope I get a Karma point for that.
You do! Next time you head up there a parking spot right under the tram will miraculously open-up as you approach.
Bridger Bowl reported 7" this morning. That means I’m 1’2" tall because it was up to my waist at the top. The snow and the lift lines were insane. Supposed to snow through Monday.
We did a day last weekend at Crotched Mountain in southern NH. Extremely firm to start but warmed up to corn by mid-day. We were supposed to ski tomorrow at Berkshire East but the weather is not cooperating.
A friend is at Alta and is dealing with Interlodge shutdowns (no one allowed outside of the safety of the buildings) and temps in the single digits. Lots of snow, no way to access it.
After taking a decade or so off skiing the Vail/Epic resorts I’ve reacquainted myself with them.
- Keystone all runs end in a road
- Breckenridge another flat spot
- Beaver Creek I just come for the cookies
- Vail the bowls!
Got another six inches at Lake level. This is getting embarrassing.
Tahoe sitting at 225-288% of average snowpack. We’re at a measly 118%.
And this was a La Niña year (dryer southwest), too.
Mt High has an excellent snow base. I expect it’ll be open well into April.
I hit a rock today!
Nah, just kidding. I went down Milkyway Bowl, and skied over where I know there is a rock than sticks up about 4 feet normally. Conditions beyond sublime…
Blue sky day on top of Blue Sky Basin.
Had a pretty amazing week in Deer Valley. Well over 500", and I heard Alta is over 800"! If it keeps snowing, maybe they’ll be open all year! 
Good April skiing at Breckenridge yesterday. Bright and sunny, but still cool enough that there wasn’t spring slush.
We also got buzzed by four F-16s just as we were crossing the base of the T-bar.
Up three times this week. Wednesday was about the best day… maybe ever? Today was, uh, not so good. Quantity of snow doesn’t correlate to quality of snow. This stuff was like semi-hard concrete. Every run got a little bit harder, and wore you out. It was beautiful/brutal.
Bridger Bowl closed yesterday–quite the scene. Bikinis, costumes, LOTS of alcohol, general mayhem. Going to be a lot of hung-over sunburned folks this morning!
So I stopped participating in this thread for reasons that will become obvious. My ski season came to an abrupt end on February 18 when I suffered a fairly severe ski injury.
This was after a pretty good start to my ski season, including four days at Sugarloaf, two days at Sunday River, and a really fun trip to Whiteface in upstate New York. Plus day trips to Mount Snow and Okemo.
Then a completely out-of-the-blue, fluke ski accident. I wasn’t doing anything out of my comfort zone, and nothing seemed amiss up until the point that my skis hung up and stopped dead while I kept going. This was on a trail that I have skied many times before: a groomed, black diamond trail at Pats Peak in New Hampshire of all places.
It was analogous to a mountain biker stopping dead and going over the handlebars, because I flew through the air and landed very hard on my left shoulder and head. Thankfully, I was wearing a helmet (like I always do), and the helmet did its job, but I was disoriented enough that I got a sled ride down the hill and into a waiting ambulance.
At the hospital, they took head CTs and those looked good, but my shoulder was a mess: complete shoulder separation (grade 5 out of 6) with numerous torn ligaments. I had surgery to repair it 2-1/2 weeks later and am still recovering.
And yes, I plan to be back on the slopes next season. 