Day one done at Canyons ( aka park city)
A good first day , some fresh snow and pretty empty. I just did laps off Sun Peak to get back in the swing of things. I forgot to start the epic app for gps tracking but I guess about 15k that my legs are going to feel.
It wasn’t a goood day for ski apparel, my goggles disintegrated , so quick stop to buy new ones ( ski resort shop never the ideal place to buy stuff!)
Then the glue on the seam for one of the under arm vents on my arcteryxx Sabre jacket decided it had had enough of that whole being glue thing so I have a permanent open vent. Looking at the rest of the seams they are all close to death. It was a 2012 purchase but has been in a cupboard for the last 5 years so not too bad. Arcteryxx used to do good warranties and discount vouchers for stuff that had lived a good life so I will see.
So a new jacket needed as well. Between those and signing papers to make an offer on a house ( via docusign on the phone from the ski lodge) it was an expensive day up the hill.
Friday was opening day at Bridger Bowl. Gotta love it–all of 18" of snow at the top of the mountain (6" at the bottom) and they opened the whole thing! It actually skied quite well if you were mindful of what slopes looked like in the summer. All the kids were going nuts–backflips everywhere. My quad tendon I tore 14 months ago is more tender than I like/expected, but c’est la vie.
Had a couple of great days last week. Enough new snow to open up some mogul runs, and they didn’t groom Comet, so that moguled up pretty nice, with a lot less rock and tree poking up.
Got shut down today from wind. Monday looks like the next opportunity.
On day 4 here at PC ( and posting from Sun Lodge after a a bowl of chilli from my thermos). Just grinding out pisted runs, working on technique and treating it like Leg day at the gym .
Not much open and it’s warm. Rumors of snow for Xmas day and maybe more in a weeks time . Time to do the snow dance.
Picked up some new skins and all cut to size , and probably Tuesday my bud and I will skin up PC for dawn patrol. I expect to be barfing, but it’s all for the good right…… right?
A Bust today at Heavenly. Don’t have details, but some kind of horrible chair malfunction on Comet (the one I normally ski most) leading to people having to be airlifted off the mountain by Heli. It’s closed now, for how long I got no idea.
Of course that just makes Dipper more crowded. I was over on the Cali side but I never made it to the top. Too many folks, snow was pretty crappy. I’m not used to standing in lines. I bailed quick.
Got a couple of inches overnight so some fluff on corduroy for snowday in PC.
Looks like snow through Monday for some desperately needed base building . My flock of sacrificial chickens are clucking and eyeing the sky nervously , given the number of forecasts busts , they should be nervous.
The fun continues, a big storm weekend but the canyons side of PC is closed due to an ongoing strike by the Ski Patrol union and all the tourists are crammed into a few runs on the PC side which is all they can safely get open and patrol. I would not be happy if I had paid for a skiing Christmas vacation at PC. It seems like they ( Vail resorts and the Ski patrol union) have restarted mediation but it’s a shit show.
The last few years, Tahoe has been plagued by Shit weather and high winds from Day After Christmas to New year. I’m blacked out, but I check the website, and they been more or less shut down for many days over this period.
I almost feel sorry for the tourists. Now they can go home.
Bridger had a legit 20" yesterday (and holiday crowds). Great skiing. Hooked up with a buddy and his son and they pushed me out of my routine into some more challenging terrain, which I need. 2 weeks until Canada!
Official total from the avalanche center: 34.75" That’s a real storm. They note that that amount of snow over the area of a football field weighs 600,000#.
Yeah here in the Wasatch one person died yesterday in an avalanche, they went split boarding on their own to a high angle slope, with a heavy snow dump on a sketchy base. The predictable happened.
It’s actually amazing how few people die in avalanches every year, given behavior. In Bruce Tremper’s excellent Surviving in Avalanche Terrain he says that a given primed avalanche slope will only slide 5% of the time, so crazy false positive reinforcement. Then we have geniuses like the father/son duo in Cooke City last year who bought avy airbags but not beacons. So when they didn’t deploy their airbags the other members of the party couldn’t find them. Snow and water (and gravity) are unforgiving and out of your control.
Had it all today. Rain, light snow, freezing fog and a couple hours of Glorius Sunshine. Got enough fresh to just cover the myriad of rocks on the bump runs.
Now able to ski all the way to the base. The snow on Roundabout was life-threatingly FAST! Had to check up a few times out of fear of impending death.
Pretty good day at HV today. Was worried the winds would cause a big shut down, but no dice. Hammered Comet till my legs shut down. Went back to Cali, took a ride up Powderbowl, spotted a Virgin beer, swooped down on it.
Sunshine, moguls, a free beer. Can I complain? I think not.
Dogs are pissed. No Jeep ride for them tonight!
