Zand
Well-known member
Set off to the mountain shortly before 8 and arrived at 10:30. After hearing about yesterday's parking mess, arrived to another messy looking lot. Lots of cars going both ways down aisles that were 1 car wide, people inventing spots and blocking said aisles...it was just a mess. Figured the best course of action was to get in the back of the access road line where I know I at least wouldn't get my car hit. Lucked out as a shuttle stopped at my car just as I started walking.
4 lifts running: K1, Superstar, North Ridge, and Snowdon Triple. All of them had lines in the morning, occasionally pushing 10 minutes at Snowdon with no lift corrals set up. It's a pain in the ass to get through them when they're set up midwinter with nobody actually in line, but when they could actually use them it's a free for all. They definitely could've used an additional base area and maybe another lift or two (especially Needles and Canyon) but I can understand them not expecting crowds like this at this point in April.
The lines and traffic issues were easily offset by how incredible the conditions are right now. The natural snow depth is better than it is midwinter most years. Skied Anarchy a few times, just a treat to ski this late in the year. The rocks at the bottom are better covered than they were last month (and I thought they were well covered then). This will be an unpopular opinion with the old timers, but Flume needs snowmaking. I've never been there and not seen it be a total mess. There's lots of good runs that dump into it and those runs deserve a good runout to the bottom instead of an icy, rocky, bare mess.
Also hit Low Rider and Somewhere for woods. Both of them are phenomenal. Heard Julio is good as well but it was roped every time I went by. Thought about ducking the rope but never ended up going back. Old Superstar and Conclusion had some good bump lines. Highline, Skylark, and Bittersweet also with some widely spaced bumps from traffic. Ovation softened up a bit in the afternoon...a little slick but soft enough for good turns. On the other hand, Skyehawk was a frozen solid moonscape for some reason. It really surprised me because the coverage is great and I skied right into it figuring it was soft and almost ate shit.
Groomed stuff was nice soft butter. North Ridge trails had that perfect spring packed powder for carving. Would've lapped them but couldn't stay out of the glades. East Fall and Cascade a little slick but good. Didn't ski Superstar...total zoo all day and looked pretty skied off. Base depths look pretty much the same as last month. If we can avoid a torch May, June might come easy this year.
Might get back up next weekend if the weather looks good. Hopefully still 5+ weeks to go.
4 lifts running: K1, Superstar, North Ridge, and Snowdon Triple. All of them had lines in the morning, occasionally pushing 10 minutes at Snowdon with no lift corrals set up. It's a pain in the ass to get through them when they're set up midwinter with nobody actually in line, but when they could actually use them it's a free for all. They definitely could've used an additional base area and maybe another lift or two (especially Needles and Canyon) but I can understand them not expecting crowds like this at this point in April.
The lines and traffic issues were easily offset by how incredible the conditions are right now. The natural snow depth is better than it is midwinter most years. Skied Anarchy a few times, just a treat to ski this late in the year. The rocks at the bottom are better covered than they were last month (and I thought they were well covered then). This will be an unpopular opinion with the old timers, but Flume needs snowmaking. I've never been there and not seen it be a total mess. There's lots of good runs that dump into it and those runs deserve a good runout to the bottom instead of an icy, rocky, bare mess.
Also hit Low Rider and Somewhere for woods. Both of them are phenomenal. Heard Julio is good as well but it was roped every time I went by. Thought about ducking the rope but never ended up going back. Old Superstar and Conclusion had some good bump lines. Highline, Skylark, and Bittersweet also with some widely spaced bumps from traffic. Ovation softened up a bit in the afternoon...a little slick but soft enough for good turns. On the other hand, Skyehawk was a frozen solid moonscape for some reason. It really surprised me because the coverage is great and I skied right into it figuring it was soft and almost ate shit.
Groomed stuff was nice soft butter. North Ridge trails had that perfect spring packed powder for carving. Would've lapped them but couldn't stay out of the glades. East Fall and Cascade a little slick but good. Didn't ski Superstar...total zoo all day and looked pretty skied off. Base depths look pretty much the same as last month. If we can avoid a torch May, June might come easy this year.
Might get back up next weekend if the weather looks good. Hopefully still 5+ weeks to go.