Was up today. Howling winds and long lines. Stuck to Gunbarrel all day. Top half was actually pretty nice. Hard as rock, but with a velvet covering that made it grippy and easy to ski. Even found some pretty decent lines. Bottom half was tragic. Solid ice boulders of moguls. So, I skied the top half, bailed out to Roundabout and shot back to the chair. Somewhat tedious, but I racked up some vertical. Scored primo parking, too.
I remembered about half-way up that I forgot to reserve the day, but was able to do it at guest services. No smart phone for me.
From the report: Anyone going into or near the mountains today should avoid being near or under any steep slope - this includes skiing, snowshoeing, running, sledding, dog walking, etc.
Here in the northeast we’ve got bulletproof crust now. Blech.
A friend of mine is going to Colorado next week and was talking about some backcountry skiing (first time). The warnings there are as dire. My friend will probably be skiing within resort ropes.
Yeah this is not the time for backcountry or side country skiing first time or not, hope he stays safe.
Park city and the Wasatch range has had 7 feet in the last week. I expect to see some people die burried off of Square Top this week happens everytime.
Bridger Bowl has gotten +/- 110" in 2 weeks. Maybe the biggest storm cycle I’ve lived through. Skied the last 3 days, and am trying to get a ticket today, but no luck so far. The avalanche danger is awful–you need a beacon (required) for a lot of Bridger terrain, but I’ve been turning it on everywhere. Had a inbounds death (tree well) Tuesday and a backcountry avy death last weekend. Bridger seems to be a bit of a unicorn in that when they report 5" more often than not it’s 10".
I finally had a day with a) adequate snow cover and b) > 10F
My third time XC skiing this season. I went out Dec 31 (thin snow but ski-able) and a few weeks ago (pretty decent). We have had a Arctic blast the past few weeks <0 F.
About 7.5 miles, rolling terrain.
Got out for a XC ski at a local area on Sunday. Beautiful bluebird day, snow was a bit warm but fortunately silver wax does its thing well. Great to be out in the woods. It was my wife’s first day on snow since her knee surgery in Dec, everything went well.
Now, rain and temps are supposed to hit 50 tomorrow.
Spent the last couple days on some Authier Vampires (the later, limited edition reproductions).
Outstanding! The most stable, confidence inspiring skis, and Holy Shit fast. Hammered them thru the moguls for 2 days and loved every run. The flat transistions back and forth from Nevada to California, I’ve never done faster. Passed people like they were standing still. I did do a real good wax job, but still… Exceptional! Got these on loan from a friend, and don’t want to give them back!
So you have a link to them, my google skills are failing me, are they reproduction of old skis with modern bindings and construction? Long straight planks?
Nope. I can find nothing on them. I’m just going on what the guy who owns them told me. Yes, they are ‘new’ (circa mid '80’s, maybe '90’s I imagine) with a Look Nevada binding made especially for them, with matching Vampire logos. These are 203’s, side-cut unknown, if any at all. Maybe a few MM. The top design looks just like these: authier vampire ski - Bing images
That pair does not have the ‘correct’ Look bindings.
Guy was an ex-racer (I don’t remember if he was World Cup or NASTAR, probably the latter) who went on to rep for ski companies. He told me these Vampires were limited and not available to the public, and given to “Heads of State and Ski Industry Big-Wigs”.
For what its worth, the guy seems to be painfully honest. I have no reason to doubt his word. And he’s given me lots of very cool shit over the years. We met on the chair when I was skiing old K2 KVC’s. He looks down and says, “Hey? You like those skis?”
He hooks me up with a pair of K2 KPS, which he tells me are the factory prototype for the KVC. He got them while still racing. I have NEVER seen another pair of them in 30 years of skiing. Another phenominal ski. 8.3 sidecut, wood core, metal skins, stiffer and harder than I could ever hope to be. I’ve done Millions of verticle on them. Blew out an edge a couple years ago and they sit, looking at me to get them back on the snow.
I was gearing up in the parking lot and a couple of young dudes walk by and one says, “Dude! You are Old-School.”
I did my best Steven Wright impression and replied, “Dude. I’m the Superentendidt of Old School”
It didn’t hurt that I was driving a '71 BMW with Barrcraffter racks and putting on SX-91’s. Still use those boots till this day.
Wish I still had my SX-91s. Getting sick of the contortions and pain necessary to get in and out of an overlap boot, especially when it’s cold. Plus just pop one buckle for relief on the lift!
So I’ve now skied 24 days this season. Currently at Attitash in New Hampshire. I have plenty of vacation days (since so many planned vacations were canceled over the last year), so I took the week off to ski in New Hampshire with my ski club
Ski conditions and weather have been all over the place this week, varying from warm and slushy Sunday and Monday to crazy windy yesterday (to the point that all the ski resorts in area shut down) to cold and icy today.
(Yesterday, I was feeling so antsy at not being able to ski that I strapped microspikes to my hiking boots and hiked to the summit.)
Anyway, so far this season I just passed 450,000 vertical feet. Along with the five days of ski lessons back in January, I’ve really improved this season. One of the old-timers in my ski club this afternoon proclaimed me most-improved skier. He said he’d been skiing 45 years and never seen someone make so much progress in a year. A year ago he said he would wait a long time for me to catch up to the group as I picked my way down the mountain, whereas today he said he had trouble keeping up with me (and I was now one of those waiting for others to catch up).
Even made progress on bumps. Found a relatively flat gladed trail at
Bretton Woods last Sunday that was all bumped up, and not only did I make it through, but had fun doing it. Did the same trail three times.
Had two more good days this week in New Hampshire, at Attitash and Mount Sunapee. Skied >30K vertical feet at both places in 4-1/2 hours each. With midweek skiing, the mountains were empty, so I was just doing laps.
According to my ski tracker app, my average skiing speed has increased from 12mph at the beginning of the season to >20 mph. I routinely cruise in the low 30s. More importantly, I’m in complete control, and it just feels great. However, I am starting to feel like I’m outgrowing some of the mountains: a good example is Sunapee, which bills itself as a family mountain. The blacks just weren’t that challenging, even down the fall line, and the blues felt so flat I was skating the whole time. I went looking for some glades, but they were all closed. Bumps are still a challenge.
All in all, though, it was a great week. Now well past 500K vertical feet for the season.
How are you keeping track? Vail had the thing where you could go to the website and track it from the RF reading from your pass, but they disabled it this season for ‘reasons’ related to Covid (makes no sense to me, but whatever). I don’t do no smart watch or phone, so I got no idea. I don’t remember what my daily average is.
