Wildcat Saturday was...interesting. They'd gotten 4" on Thursday. A good bit of it was still around on Saturday, but since I was there for the EICSL race, the only interesting turns I made until noon-thirty or so were around red and blue trees on Bobcat, on my bright red slalom-y skis.
I did a few runs on Polecat, which is mostly flat and tends not to get skiied to death and had pleasant stuff to play on in its usual places, and then I got out the fat skis and went and played on the "ungroomed" stuff that was open. Upper Wildcat was a mix of very skiiable lines and broad patches of ice flows, but not too many rock gremlins. The tops of Top Cat and Lift Lion were thin but fairly good otherwise (except that I basically never enter from the top of Top Cat and not often the top of Lift Lion, I usually take the traverse in).
Most of the flatter lower mountain "ungroomed" was open but pretty horrible. Al's Folly was unlovely. On Cougar and Catenary, rocks were growing everywhere, and more than a few water holes. It turned out to be one of those +$25 days; I took a base shot on skis that I care about. There was a huge difference between the top and bottom of the mountain. Last Saturday, I was impressed by how much more horrible Jay's open trails were than Wildcat's. Wildcat was trying to catch up this weekend, but they actually still didn't get close. But I didn't even think about entering the trees that day.
Sunday I went over to Cranmore with a racing friend for the Xxxxxxxx Xxx Vertical Challenge and free skiing around that. Turnout for the event was low so we were able to go through the yellow and black trees four times or so. Alas, the edges on my bright red skis are dull. In the afternoon, the snow at the base fell apart from an hour of sun, and I got the fat skis out again and played on whatever there was to play with, which wasn't much, especially since clouds rolled in and stuff froze up again. I went down Koessler, which had some piles of soft snow to work with, and then I saw somebody do a zipper line down the tufts (I won't call them bumps) on the right edge of the trail. I hadn't even noticed them. Such is the state of North Conway snow this winter. I walked off the snow into the bib raffle for the event, and Won! Stuff! that I can't think of as "food" or "drink".
This all sounds terrible, but I still had a pretty good time, especially on Sunday. I continue to be impressed at Cranmore's ability to keep their mountain going in the face of spring sun. Spring is coming on; I fell half-asleep riding the chair from the warm sun.
I did a few runs on Polecat, which is mostly flat and tends not to get skiied to death and had pleasant stuff to play on in its usual places, and then I got out the fat skis and went and played on the "ungroomed" stuff that was open. Upper Wildcat was a mix of very skiiable lines and broad patches of ice flows, but not too many rock gremlins. The tops of Top Cat and Lift Lion were thin but fairly good otherwise (except that I basically never enter from the top of Top Cat and not often the top of Lift Lion, I usually take the traverse in).
Most of the flatter lower mountain "ungroomed" was open but pretty horrible. Al's Folly was unlovely. On Cougar and Catenary, rocks were growing everywhere, and more than a few water holes. It turned out to be one of those +$25 days; I took a base shot on skis that I care about. There was a huge difference between the top and bottom of the mountain. Last Saturday, I was impressed by how much more horrible Jay's open trails were than Wildcat's. Wildcat was trying to catch up this weekend, but they actually still didn't get close. But I didn't even think about entering the trees that day.
Sunday I went over to Cranmore with a racing friend for the Xxxxxxxx Xxx Vertical Challenge and free skiing around that. Turnout for the event was low so we were able to go through the yellow and black trees four times or so. Alas, the edges on my bright red skis are dull. In the afternoon, the snow at the base fell apart from an hour of sun, and I got the fat skis out again and played on whatever there was to play with, which wasn't much, especially since clouds rolled in and stuff froze up again. I went down Koessler, which had some piles of soft snow to work with, and then I saw somebody do a zipper line down the tufts (I won't call them bumps) on the right edge of the trail. I hadn't even noticed them. Such is the state of North Conway snow this winter. I walked off the snow into the bib raffle for the event, and Won! Stuff! that I can't think of as "food" or "drink".
This all sounds terrible, but I still had a pretty good time, especially on Sunday. I continue to be impressed at Cranmore's ability to keep their mountain going in the face of spring sun. Spring is coming on; I fell half-asleep riding the chair from the warm sun.
