Pats Peak - 3/21/2007

[Skier75]

Date(s) Skied: 3/21/07 1st day of Spring!

Resort or Ski Area: Pats Peak

Conditions: Sunny blue bird skies, early am frozen granular - mid morning soft snow

Trip Report:

Let me first start by thanking AZ for the discounted ticket! I have been just dying to try out Pats Peak for the last few weeks, even though it's not a very big mountain, it's just enough to give you the fix you need for skiing. What a perfect day for it, the first day of spring, midweek, hardly anyone on the slopes, blue sunny skies, what more could you ask for? I have to say that for this size mountain, not bad.

Got to the lodge by about 8:30, booted up checked out the trail map to figure what I wanted to start with, since I was skiing alone today(hubby didn't take the day off to go with me), I figured I'd better start out slow to see how the conditions were. Chatted with an older gentleman about the mountain, he told me just enough to get me started. All the while looking at the map, I so wanted to start out from the very top, but opted not to.

There were only two lifts running, the Valley Double Chair that took you to some very easy trails, mostly greens and a blue, and theHurricane Triple Chair, that took you to the top to the more difficult trails(if that's what you wanna call them). I figured this would be a good day to work on my form, which I did.

I started on the Valley Double and did the Puff trail first, then Whisper, both greens, and they were greens, pretty mellow. But I promised hubby I wouldn't do anything I couldn't handle alone. Even though they were only greens it was a good warm up and to check out the conditions. That early the snow was a little crusty, but you could tell that when it warmed up, it was going to be really nice soft, creamy, snow. BTW, this lift was pretty slow too, later on I wanted to see how slow it really was and timed it. It ended up being about a 5 min ride up.

On the next ride up this lift, I started to get ansy and decided to head on over to the other side to the Hurricane Triple. As I'm riding up this lift I'm checking out some of the other trails I can see from there, this lift goes right up over a double black called Toranado. Now this trial is full of deep moguls with shiney, icey looking crust on the mounds with deep troughs. All the while looking at them thinking, maybe when it warms up they may become soft enough to do....but promising hubby I wouldn't do anything stupid without him.

My next run I hit a long windy green trail, Breeze, Zephyr, and Blast which was a little more challenging than the first greens, but not too much more as at the bottom they were pretty flat. The snow started to soften up a little by then, but also decided to take a short break for a snack and drink. Went right back to the Hurricane chair so I could hit the rest of the trails on that side. I figured I'd at least try out every trail I could. After doing the easy stuff I decided to go take a look at the blacks and just went for it. Most of the trails on this mountain are pretty wide open, which must be really good when it gets crowded on weekends.

I think the trails they call blacks on some of the smaller mountains are like blues on larger mountains. I have to say the middle of the week is the best time to ski, the trails stay corduroy almost all day, at least here they did. My favorite trails today were Cylone, Toranado, Twister, and the F.I.S. Race Trail. Yes they are all blacks or double blacks, but they were all skiable, had a lot of corduroy, and were more challenging than the other trials. Probably if it were a weekend they'd get skied off pretty fast and then I wouldn't like them much. I had the trials pretty much to myself which was really sweet, I was just carving it right up all over the place, having a great time.

This was a good day to take off work and ski. I almost stayed the whole day, left about 3:00, guess I started to get a little bored, plus I figured I should get home about the same time as hubby.... Now he's making me pay for skiing without him...I gotta go to the store, cook supper, and do the dishes. Oh well, someone's got to do it.

[bobbutts]

Nice report, glad you had a good time at Pat's
One correction to make, the Hurricane chair goes up over the Hurricane trail Tornado is one trail over.
The trail ratings at any resort are compared to other runs at the same resort, so the ratings there do make sense plus Hurricane is (sadly) arguably the gnarliest bump run in SNH
I was out there Saturday night and with every trail bumped up they were pretty close to being in line with the ratings at other places..

[hammer]

Nice report...what, no run down Hurricane?

Actually, when I was there on Sunday, there were a lot of people but with the recent snowfall the groomed areas just became a bit bumpy. Plus, people get scared off of the groomed double blacks for some reason so they don't get quite as much traffic IMO.

I'm sure that it was too slow to open another lift to the summit, but it's a shame that the Vortex double wasn't running...when I went night skiing there this season, I just did laps on that lift. If you aren't far from Pats Peak, you may want to head there for night skiing next year...with the AZ discount it was only $18 for a lift ticket.

Did they still have the shallow mogul field on FIS? I tried that one out on Sunday and it was great for a bump newbie. Hopefully they'll bring it back next season.

[tcharron]

How was the snow as far as texture? I was really concerned it was going to last less then a week, curiouse if it's lost any.

And what hammer said. Almost EVERYTHING on Sat/Sun was some form of a bump run. They still there?

[thetrailboss]

Sad to hear that they are closing so early....

[Skier75]

Nah, Hammer, I kept looking at Hurricane though, every time I went up the lift...thinking it could be fun.....but I decided against it...maybe next time hubby is with me, then I won't feel so bad if'n I take a fall...

Tcharron, the conditions early in the morning for a few hours, the snow was well groomed and kinda crunchy until the sun warmed it into a nice soft, edgeable snow. Because of the few people during the weekday, it didn't get all skied off. I bet on a weekend, it wouldn't take long though. Every run there was still cordoruy and just about had the trial to myself, couldn't have asked for a better day. It was too bad, hubby couldn't be there, but he paid me back when I got home.....he made me make supper and do the dishes. I figured well okay, since I slacked off big time.

It was nice relaxing on the lift up with the sun beating down on my face. I took my googles off each time on the way up and just closed my eyes enjoying every minute of it. I tried to get my Ipod to work, but for some reason I couldn't get it to work early on in the day. I think my Ipod doesn't like the cold. Got it to work just before lunch though. I like to listen to music if I'm skiing by myself, it helps me to focus on skiing better. Seems that way anyway. I don't use it when I'm with hubby though.