Ski day 39: Peace & quiet

Vert: 10,000 m (not a typo);   YTD cum vert: 328,025 m
Runs: 19;   YTD cum runs: 617


From the crowds of yesterday to the peace and quiet of today. It was a bit of a mixed bag all day, with just enough sun to make the viz OK coupled with the odd sunny break, but also some fog, overcast, and on and off flurries. There was enough AM sun to see how much fun everyone had yesterday.

Goat's Eye Chair from the top of Freefall

There was about 8-15 cm overnight, depending on where you were, but there were also obviously strong winds. Hence you had the problematic conditions of moguls from yesterday's traffic, made firm with a sun crust from yesterday's sun, with powder blown into the mogul troughs.

Skier's right of Gold Scapegoat

This made every bit of texture in the above photo crusty & hard, and all the smooth bits powder of varying depths. Most of the hill that I was on was in a similar state, including Divide North, OS Pitch, the Pockets, South 205, and Bye Bye Bowl, with the only difference being the crusty firmness of the underpinnings.

Skier's right side of Bye Bye Bowl

Most of this stuff was nicely skiable. However, I ventured over to the South Side chutes to see how well used they were yesterday. First, every single square inch of skiable real estate had some kind of tracks on it, both down low...

Folks leaving the Think Again chute

...and up high.

The starting rockbands of Renegade and Think Again, fully tracked

But the chutes were not fun. The sun got them quite severely yesterday, and the snow under the fresh powder was hard and unforgiving indeed, and also full of ruts, making them the least fun snow on the mountain.


The real fun today was in the lee of any snow fence you could find, and I found several lovely, soft powder drifts 4'-6' tall on upper Goat's Eye and beside Ecstasy which were a real treat to float though.


I really screwed up today. Coming too fast into the somewhat icy corrals for the Divide chair, I caught an edge, then whacked my ski into a metal pole, lost control, and plowed into the back of two very nice people. I felt very bad about it, and in the miniscule chance that they read this, I once again apologize profusely for my mistake.