Just wondering if anyone's skied upper fis since I groomed it? Just wondering how I did?

G, Thanks for the fine work you and all the Mt. Ops have done all year. Haven't been on fis lately, but I do have two questions. When you groom thos steep pitches is your cat tied off to a mooring or another cat or something? Secondly, when groomer rides are given do you take folks on those steep pitches.

Thans again Yard Sale

Skied it 3 runs yesterday. Beautiful with the fresh pow over your work. Thanks!

My question is........ has anyone skied Lower FIS recently? How is it? Better yet, how are any of the "ungroomed" Mt Ellen doing?

Yardsale- It kind of depends on the conditions and steepness of the trail. If cliffs isn't too soft, I will free-groom it without the winch. Something like FIS, or exterm will be winched. Cliffs and FIS I will hook the cable to another groomer. On Exterminator I hook to an anchor point at the top by the island of trees as you get off north ridge chair. Groomer rides probably won't go on ripcord/FIS/steins/etc. just because it usually takes a LONG time to groom steep stuff with a winchcat (FIS took me 3+ hours and it went fairly quickly.) But going up/down lower organgrinder is by no means boring!
I do extend an open invite to Win to come for a ride on upper FIS though!

Treehugger- Thank you for the props. Knowing that people really enjoy what I do is the real inspiration for what I do! (That and driving a groomer is better than any video game ever made!)

Shady- I haven't been on the hill on skiis for a bit so I can't really say what lower fis is like.

Groomer:
I second the comment earlier about what you and the rest of the Ops team has done this season. Everything has been excellent and I had a blast today up on the 'Rock working my way down the recently-groomed Castlerock Run and Cotillion. Plus, the grooming job a week or so ago on Semi-Tough was ex-CELLENT! And the groomed Lower FIS of a month or so ago was enough to get me to go down it, with fantastic results. Thanks!

And just so that there's no confusion, I have no problem with ungroomed terrain, though riding on trails that aren't usually groomed is like riding them again for the first time. I've never ripped down Semi-Tough as fast as I did the day after it was groomed. And now that I know what a recently-groomed Castlerock run is like, that better preps me for next time when its not groomed. I did Middle Earth earlier this month ungroomed and it was great with lots of pow. Thanks for not grooming everything and leaving us with a great selection of groomed and un-groomed terrain throughout the season.

shadyjay wrote:

My question is........ has anyone skied Lower FIS recently? How is it? Better yet, how are any of the "ungroomed" Mt Ellen doing?

On Monday ,the 10th , when the upper lifts were down things got a little busy at LP so I went over to ME and skied all that was available off the GMX and I uh...managed to find my way into Lower FIS , although not from the top. ; } It was sweet! I had also been there last week when most trails were firm but the sun had turned L.FIS into cream...mmmm! I guess I shouldn't be telling my secrets.

I was at MEllen today from 9:15 to 1:00p and did Cliffs, Cruiser, Northstar, SemiT, Brambles, NRExp, RR, Elbow, and L/G. A few inches of new powder though most was thicker than powder. Couldn't even tell some runs were groomed the night before, though Semi Tough, despite the warnings at the top, rode like a dream. Brambles was also just as good. In fact, everything in the I-Pod was open (around noon), guess the racers were all eating or something, though gates were still set up on looker's right of Inv.

Asked someone about Lower FIS I did and they said the traverse recently is even more challenging given the condition of the snow and that it'd be faster to walk it. I kept my distance from that run today, and did about 14 runs or so before calling it quits - my legs were feelin' the burn after yesterday. Also, there was a good amount of people there today, seemed like more than usual, even though you can still just walk up and get on the lifts.

Tomorrow: perhaps Lincoln Peak again.