We got a late start. My attempts to instill a "first tracks" ethic in my kids have not stuck. Hit ME with son #1 at about 11:30. GMX -> Summit -> Rim Run. It was snowing hard and our legs were not used to the soft bumps. After one run, my son declared it was time for lunch. After lunch and Ellen House we hit Rim Run, Elbow (which is rapidly turning in to one of my favorites), and then two more times on Rim Run. The top was icy and wind blown, but there were great soft bumps after that.

Son #1 recovered from his ugly mood from a couple of days ago, and was smiling the whole time. Nothing like skiing with a smiling kid. I even felt good on the bumps. Not bad for an old man, but I have my eyes on FIS once I get my legs in shape.

After our experience a couple of days ago, I was dreading our decent down cruiser. Yes it was crowded, but nowhere near as bad as Thursday. Fun soft predicatble bumps the whole way down.

Yahoo! I'm so glad winter finally decided to show up.

I've decided to wait until the Sunshine Double opens up to bring son #2. He needs some tune up runs before we hit harder trails.

thanks for the trip report. people! skiers! boarders! teles! feel free to share your experiences

Okay - best day so far of the season, for me.

I got to the mtn around 930am or so, headed up the GMX, and started doing laps on the Summit. Basically Rim Run, then Lookin Good, then Elbow, then repeat, until I discovered that my legs just couldn't turn anymore and that I had 2600' of vert to get through to get to my L/C, including the cluster known as Mainstream. Anyway, Rim Run from the Summit Quad overpass down to Lower FIS couldn't have been better. I stayed rider's right and danced in the powder the whole way down. Lookin' Good was the same way - no fears today about riding below an open lift. And my fears of a mobscene were put to rest - the Summit liftline never got beyond the coral, and most of the time, it stayed within the limits of the metal seperators, rather than the extended ropes. A few runs, the q was less than 1/4 to capacity. Nice!

So I did seven runs, then hit Elbow down to Cruiser and so on and so forth. I stopped a few times on Cruiser out of the way to wait for some of the heavy traffic to go by. Once down to S/S, it couldn't have been better. And at some point near the Polecat, I got some pretty good air (for me). I was smiling and quit while I was ahead.

Only other problem of the day was the falling snow. I had a real hard time seeing since my goggles were fogged up and my glasses were too. If I got going too fast, I had to squint, or close one eye (if the other wasn't frozen yet). But today, there wasn't really any need to go fast - just sail through the powder. I looked down and barely saw the board attached to my feet during many runs. Yahooo!

And to think, all of this snow, without me having to shave my head again
(it snowed and got real cold last time i did that)

-Jay