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View Full Version : Wordy day report 1-20... South



Lostone
01-20-2007, 10:09 PM
Understand that my trip report is really something I wrote up for my own log. If it is too long, feel free to skip the parts that don't interest you. :wink:



1-20 I skied it out, yesterday. Figured the forecast was for bitterly cold, today. I wasn’t sure I was going to ski, today. Awoke around 5:00, and saw about 8” on the rail. Knew I had 3 hours before the lifts would load, so I could get more sleep, but my body said it was awake! 8)

Got to the lift around 7:30. Ski patrol and 3 other people. Took a little while for patrol to start loading. With them gone, I found I was in the position for the second chair. Minutes after 8:00, they started loading, to great cheers.

First run was Domino to Lower Organgrinder. That was a mistake. It had been groomed. There were large patches of knee deep powder and other areas there were the spots from which that powder had blown. Still, that was good groom, not ice. Still, I was looking for powder, and so was the rest of the gaggle that made the same mistake.

Coming to Gondolier, I noticed Coffee Run was open with only a snowmobile track down the center. I took that way back to the lift, instead of Gondolier. It was hard to maintain any speed with that much powder and so little slope, but I kept jumping out to the snowmobile track and back into the powder. The waterbars were pretty huge, but it was pretty easy to see where they were, so I used them to get out of the powder to begin the next segment of powder skiing. Last time I was on that trail, I was hiking up. Much faster this way! :lol:

Second time up, I heard over the ambassador channel, that all the trails were open. Looking to the left, I saw a couple people coming down Stein’s. At the top, I headed across the traverse, heading there. But when I got to the Valley House, lift, my skis headed down the Mall.

There was a lot of powder and some crud. It was about this time that my body started reminding me that I’d run yesterday out, in case I decided not to ski, today. There were a lot of people blasting past me that didn’t seem to care about the crud, but my body wasn’t reacting as fast as I wished, so I pulled it in a bit. Still, there was a lot of fresh, all the way down.

Back to the lift, and back across the traverse. This time, I went with Snowball. At the Spring Fling junction, I looked over Ravena’s Way. 1 set of ski patrol tracks. I added my set, in thigh high, soft powder. Lower Snowball was more tracked but no trouble finding lots of untracked. Hung on the right, until one of the other sets of tracks moved over on my side, at which time, I just hopped the tracks and had another fully untracked area, to the bend.

A little after the bend, the texture of the snow changed greatly. I had to stay much further back to allow my skis to not dig in. A couple times they just buried, and stopped me dead. It was a lot more work to maintain motion. Also, the waterbars were harder to spot. It was still quite good.

It was good enough that I repeated the whole journey, leaving a second set of tracks on Ravena’s Way, right next to the first. The rest of Lower Snowball was a bit more tracked than the first time, but I was still mostly in untracked for the first part, tho I had to shop a lot more. At the bend… almost the same, although there were more tracks going thru, so I could use them to gain momentum, at times.

Next time, on the lift, I checked time and found it to be a touch after 9:00. As I got off the lift, I looked up and couldn’t see if Heaven’s Gate was running, as I couldn’t see it. Took the chance and headed over there. As I got to Organgrinder, I could see people coming down it. That answered that question. :D

Was a bit surprised that Downspout was… Downspout. Still, there was a small powder section on the left side. Moved a touch slower than some, but stayed in the powder, all the way.

Off the lift, I decided to head down Ripcord. There were a few places, especially at the top, where the powder had been scraped or blown off, but most of it… that was sweet skiing! I have had better runs down there… but I’ve had a lot of runs down there. And that was probably in the top 10, and maybe 5.

Met some friends on it, and we did another. Then we got the word that Castlerock was open. At the Heaven’s Gate lift, they were deciding which way they were going to go; back up Heaven’s Gate, down to Castlerock, or maybe somewhere else. They had a vote for Jester when I said that I wasn’t voting, but was heading for Castlerock. The group split, with some heading back up Heaven’s Gate and others toward Castlerock.

The line was long. It was pretty much doubled back. Many people were coming down the entrance, then heading across the bridge and to Castlerock Runout. Heard some guys saying that it was a pain the line was so long and slow. Told them this wasn’t the lift riding area. It was the skiing area. And they would find that when they were skiing, the line just disappeared, in their mind.

Off the lift, we headed for Middle Earth. The first time was a track down the center, with crust on either side. Then the crust became powder, but too deep for the slope… and then the slope increased. And then there was some of the best skiing available in the east. Still a bit of untracked on the top, but mostly it was tracked but soft and sweet, with only natural snow beneath.

Stopped for a while to help someone find his missing ski, then back onto it. We were there for about 5 minutes, searching beneath the snow, for the ski and there was one person who passed us and another who arrived just as we had found the ski and were about to get underway

Next, it was back to Super Bravo, across the traverse and a Moonshine run. Snowball was a totally different trail than this morning. Seems like people had gotten out and ate up all the powder. Moonshine was almost as much crud as powder, now, but still quite good. Shoulda stayed on Castlerock!

Then we did a Domino run. And the folks I was skiing with headed over to Gatehouse. I went into the Gatehouse lodge to answer a nature call, and complain to Win about the lack of grooming on Castlerock.

I was pretty much done, but popped a few off Gatehouse, on my way out. Sleeper still had a bit of untracked and I found a few places where I had knee deep untracked. I was shocked to find that it was after 2:00, when I got in! What a great day!

skiladi
01-21-2007, 09:44 AM
The line was long. It was pretty much doubled back. Many people were coming down the entrance, then heading across the bridge and to Castlerock Runout. Heard some guys saying that it was a pain the line was so long and slow. Told them this wasn’t the lift riding area. It was the skiing area. And they would find that when they were skiing, the line just disappeared, in their mind.


I love this part. ; } Great report! To think a powder leash would have been useful in Vermont!