Loon Mountain - 3/7/2006

[Greg]

Date(s) Skied: Tuesday, 3/7/2006 - 9:00 am - 12:10 pm

Resort or Ski Area: Loon Mountain, Lincoln, New Hampshire

Conditions: Groomed LGR, very few scratchies. Sunny early, a few clouds late. Temps 25-30. NO wind. NO crowds.

Trip Report: Wasn't expecting to have the chance to ski with riverc0il this season so today was a pleasant surprise. We made arrangements last night to meet by the gondola at 8:50 am. I was a bit late but Steve grabbed lift tickets while I got my skis from the tuning center and we were off.

Started on the Seven Brothers Triple shortly after 9 am and then made our way over to the North Peak Quad. The quad would prove to be out primary lift today. We ripped our first run down Walking Boss. Then we made our way over to Flume and then down Angel Street. Later in the morning we rode the gondola and were able to ski the top section of Angel Street. We would ride the gondola one other time and hit the Angel Street headwall again. The wait for the gondola both times was negligible. The North Peak Quad was ski-on give take 2 or 3 chairs.

We basically concentrated on the three main expert runs today - Walking Boss, Flume and Angel Street. All three were in great shape with substantial LGR to play in on the trail sides. Angel Street, in particular was in great shape with a lot of deep LGR on the sides. Steve and I had a great time working on short-radius snappy turns. Steve is notably proficient at this skiing style so it was great to spend the morning skiing with him. The arm seems to have healed well, but I could see a bit of favoring with his pole plants. Obviously expected, and Steve seemed to be ramping up right back into it. The smile on his face all day was evidence of that. I think I even heard a "whoot!" or two! I wrapped it up shortly after noon. Not sure if Steve continued after lunch.

Great to get the chance to ski with Steve and despite only limited expert terrain being open today, we still had a great time and really got in a lot of skiing in a short period of time due to the lack of liftlines and high speed lifts. The great company on the lifts made the day. Good to get to spend a few hours and get to know you better, Steve! I also feel lucky to be able to spend one of your first days back after the injury. Thanks for heading over.

[thetrailboss]

Sounds like a good day. And you got Riv to ski at "the darkside"

[riverc0il]

greg, was a pleasure making turns with you today. glad we got the chance to rip it up this morning. i decided to leave after grabbing lunch, my arm and body were pretty tired from two hard half days almost back to back and i didn't want to push it too hard. hopefully i can work on getting some stamina built back up this coming weekend.

i don't have much to add to greg's report except that loon has done an excellent job covering the trails and maintaining them considering the lack of natural snow this year and lack of good snow making temps for much of jan and feb. skier's left on walking boss, under the quad on flume, and skier's left on upper angel street/skier's right on lower angel street were all loose gran money and great for working short rhythmic turns on an angle. bumps on lower flume were rock hard with long scraped troughs, not my cup of tea. greg has a good eye noticing how i favor one turn and arm over the other. it is a subtle difference, but my turns aren't quite even yet while i compensate and protect my vulnerable side.

fantastic day with bright blue skies, lots of sun, good trails, and great company. i hope you and charlie have a great finish to your stay at loon tomorrow greg!

on another note, after more hours than i think i can stomach, i think i have identified a death cab for cutie song that i can no longer stand. my rule of thumb for making videos: never choose one of your favorite tunes that you don't want to end up hating! greg and i had discussed my filming an AZ gathering and putting it to a video. i guess this was a mini AZ gathering of two, so here it is! please select save as and save it to your computer instead of opening it directly to prevent multiple d/l's, thanks and i appreciate it! greg, you never pulled that daffy for the cam...


loon video 03/07/06

i have some pics as well. will post them tomorrow, i am fried tonight.

[Bob R]

Nice to see you guys got together. Take it easy on the arm Steve. Did you make it over to Upper Rum Runner? That was rough on Sat, ok on sunday.

[bvibert]

Sweet video Steve! It came out really good.

[ALLSKIING]

Very nice vid Steve...Love the short turns!!!

[Greg]

Originally Posted by riverc0il

greg, you never pulled that daffy for the cam...

I know! The only time you were set up to take shots at the Angel/Basin Street merge, I kind of hit it conservatively. You should have been with me today. There was an awesome hit at one of the towers on Flume where I pulled what felt like a pretty good daf as well as a totally legit back scratcher. Ha! What a clown...

The video came out great! Can't wait to see the high res version as well as the pics! Thanks again for the great company yesterday!

[riverc0il]

Thanks!

finally sorted out the pics and have them posted here.

i really dig the action shot i got of greg. i think it is the best of the bunch:

[Greg]

Originally Posted by riverc0il

Thanks!

finally sorted out the pics and have them posted here.

i really dig the action shot i got of greg. i think it is the best of the bunch:

That is a cool shot! Happened to catch me on one of the more angulated (a word?) turns. Gotta love rapid fire shutters! That pic also does the steepness of Angel Street a bit more justice than did the video. Great job on all the documentation of one fine day. I really enjoyed your account of the day on www.thesnowway.com too. Thanks again Steve.

[riverc0il]

glad you enjoyed. you missed a w in that URL, it's a double-double-yah if yah would.