Ok! Half of you will love this and half of you will hate it, but we are grooming Stein's tonight. It is going to be sweet first thing for those that love it when it is groomed and it will quickly bump up into nice soft moguls for those that love that, and it will remain great for the next week. If you are bummed by that, head up to Ripcord, Organgrinder. Lift Line or Middle Earth. Or, stay low on The Mall and Twist. A lot of great choices tomorrow and Billy Caldwell is in the plaza in the afternoon with some good BBQ going.

Bring the sunscreen and use it!

Count me in the group that loves it.

And for those that are frustrated by it... it is your (and my) job to get out there and make some new ones. There is no doubt it will re-bump quickly, with these temps.

What happened to half-grooming?!?!?!?!

Of course, it's too late. I'm sure John's already having a blast with the 300W. Hope he doesn't auger in too much. The weather does not look remotely favorable for winching. Could be buttery fun in the morning, or could be an absolute mess. I wish you luck! I'm willing to admit at this point that it will probably see more skier density if it's groomed, but I'm a mogul addict, so I have to stand up for my bumps!!! I want a full (honest) report tomorrow from someone.

BTW, I hope it bumps back up. Often times, this late in the season with faceted snow, all the tiller does is make sugar on top of an icy, hard base. I wouldn't cross my fingers for any reasonable bumps on Stein's for the remainder of the season. Hopefully I'm wrong, and it will surprise me.

Why do I even care?!?! I'm in Colorado still! Oh well... the Bush will always be home to me.

Awesome. Will be there....

I skied Stein's twice today at the end of the day. I guess I'm in the "hate it" half because I can't see how it could ski any better than it did this afternoon.

Endless perfectly soft bumps shaped with care by thousands of skiers and boarders.

Last Tracks wrote:

I skied Stein's twice today at the end of the day. I guess I'm in the "hate it" half because I can't see how it could ski any better than it did this afternoon. Endless perfectly soft bumps shaped with care by thousands of skiers and boarders.

I'm looking out at it right now. I'm in the hate it crowd also because the bumps will never form the same way. They become elongated and larger and not as tightly spaced. Here's what it looks like.



Anyway don't fret there is lots of other runs with sweet bumbs. I think Ripcord will do nicely.
At 7:40 am it's 61 degrees and dead calm.

Hawk wrote:

Last Tracks wrote: I skied Stein's twice today at the end of the day. I guess I'm in the "hate it" half because I can't see how it could ski any better than it did this afternoon. Endless perfectly soft bumps shaped with care by thousands of skiers and boarders. I'm looking out at it right now. I'm in the hate it crowd also because the bumps will never form the same way. They become elongated and larger and not as tightly spaced. Here's what it looks like.

I'm in the anti-groom category generally, but I thought the bumps on Steins were already on the large and too-spaced out side (skied it last Saturday). Mall was far better last week.

Hawk wrote:

Last Tracks wrote: I skied Stein's twice today at the end of the day. I guess I'm in the "hate it" half because I can't see how it could ski any better than it did this afternoon. Endless perfectly soft bumps shaped with care by thousands of skiers and boarders. I'm looking out at it right now. I'm in the hate it crowd also because the bumps will never form the same way. They become elongated and larger and not as tightly spaced. Here's what it looks like. Anyway don't fret there is lots of other runs with sweet bumbs. I think Ripcord will do nicely. At 7:40 am it's 61 degrees and dead calm.

Who gives a crap about Stein's when the neighbors Mall and Twist look like that! I hope they hold on through the upcoming week...

As well as Moonshine, Domino, Paradise, Ripcord... There was no shortage of bumps. I didn't visit them today,but Mall and Twist skied very well, yesterday.

I think it was good that Stein's had more people able to ski it today, than have been on it all week. It has already started to re-bump. Needs work, but has a bunch of happy volunteers.

As for what will hold up... Who knows?

Forecast I see say it will cool down a little. That is good, as it has been great, but I don't want it to end too quickly.

I avoided Stein's all weekend because it was groomed. Not a fan of that decision, but oh well. Ripcord and Spillsville were sweet and I spent most of my time up there this weekend. The Mall was good, but there will be some walking involved at the bottom now. The snow around the bridge is toast.
As for Castlerock, I think it was kinda crazy that it was even open this weekend and it looked like it involved walking 20 foot stretches. Seems like that and some others (e.g. Lower Birdland) were just open to boost the trail count.

Overall, a sick weekend and I'm hoping that they hang on until next weekend. The snow down low worries me, as it is getting pretty thin and may not hold up with another week of 70 degree temps. Not to be "that guy", but MEllen would be able to hold out because of the uploading and downloading situation.

Quote:

I avoided Stein's all weekend because it was groomed. Not a fan of that decision, but oh well.

Did you look at it today?

There weren't nothing groomed about it! And it was very evident from Bravo. I thought it skied very well both yesterday and today. If those bumps were too small for you, like you said, there were plenty of other venues.

As for Castlerock, I spoke with a number of people who agreed with you, that it wasn't worth it. I also spoke with a number that were happy it was still going. That is what choice is.

Stein's was the ROTD today...it was sweet. Yesterday was nice as well. No complaints here...spread that snow out and keep celebrating that we are still skiing!!!!

And when they winched it, what did they use for an anchor? I assume they parked another groomer at the very top or something?

summitchallenger wrote:

And when they winched it, what did they use for an anchor? I assume they parked another groomer at the very top or something?

That's one option. Typically they'll just use trees as pick points. There are also a handful of runs on the hill with set concrete pick points, but I don't think Stein's is one of them.

A winch is just an assist (at least modern winches). They're usually rated at about 6,000lbs. A decent sized tree can handle that with no problem. I think the last full-pull winch in production was the LMC Anchorman, which was--I believe--a 15,000lb winch, capable of pulling the full weight of the machine. But that system required two cats. The new capstan winches just require a tree or a chunk of concrete, or (don't tell lift maintenance ) a lift tower.

Lostone wrote:

Quote: I avoided Stein's all weekend because it was groomed. Not a fan of that decision, but oh well. Did you look at it today? There weren't nothing groomed about it! And it was very evident from Bravo. I thought it skied very well both yesterday and today. If those bumps were too small for you, like you said, there were plenty of other venues. As for Castlerock, I spoke with a number of people who agreed with you, that it wasn't worth it. I also spoke with a number that were happy it was still going. That is what choice is.

The bumps still looked kind of spread out and small. Not my cup of tea, but more power to you if you enjoyed it. The bumps on Ripcord were rocking and it was hard to pull me away from there. That was definitely my run of the weekend, as I hit it at least 10-15 times between the 2 days. Let's just say that my legs are burning today...