riverc0il
New member
dare i say... first AZ trip report of the 05-06 season?
i have been saying (mostly as a joke mind you) since early september that first skiable snow around these parts would be october 23rd. i even went out on the limb and claimed i'd be skiing today. i never really believed it very much, figured there was an outside shot but really... october 23rd? skiing on natural snow? c'mon...
after browsing the reports this morning, everything seemed pretty uniform up the central greens. it was either going to be kmart, mrg, or bolton. i decided on bolton since it was closest at only 1.15 hours and had confirmed pictures of up to 6" whereas mrg's base cam wasn't showing too much. in hind sight, the extra 45 min drive to kmart would have been worth it, but no use second guessing myself now
pulled off i89 into the town of bolton with ZERO snow on the ground. had me nurvous. temp was on the rise and it was sprinkling. drove up what is arguably the steepest access road in new england and every 100 vertical feet saw more and more snow till i reached the upper base lodge sporting 2-3" of the white stuff and a light sprinkle.
work on the quad is on going, looks like these guys are unfortunately quite behind. no towers yet but the base station had been built. A LOT of construction on going and the construction tred groves made for some 'interesting' skinning in places.
skins were already on, so i booted up, clicked in, and started heading up. headed up the lower double's lift line before traversing around a meandering green circle to the summit. met up with another fellow on tele for the last half of the skin which was cool.
sure was nice being out in all that snow! the summit had about 5-6" of wet wet wet snow. the type that sticks to skins and won't let go if you stop moving. we took a brief rest inside the hut at the top, changed over to downhill mode, and crossed our fingers.
turns were... well, there frankly wasn't much for turns. we scraped bottom on a black diamond pitched run a few times and decided to head back down the way we came on something flatter. we alternated between picking up speed in the skin track and slowing down in the cement like snow. good cover until the last third of the mountain which had warmed significantly since we started up. some melting which kept things interestings.
any ways... as the saying goes, it's about the tour not the turns. so we had a blast. freaking skiing in october, how could we not?!?!?! it had only been 113 since my last day on skis, but it surely felt longer than that! broke in new g-ride boots and noticed the boots created a really different ramp angle which had me way in the back seat. gotta look into the custom fix on that issue this week, i believe i've read about it before on either colouir or tgr forums.
any ways, i may be out and about later this week if burke or the outting club picks up some snow. a few 3pm turns are always in order when ever possible.
:beer:
pics to follow!
i have been saying (mostly as a joke mind you) since early september that first skiable snow around these parts would be october 23rd. i even went out on the limb and claimed i'd be skiing today. i never really believed it very much, figured there was an outside shot but really... october 23rd? skiing on natural snow? c'mon...
after browsing the reports this morning, everything seemed pretty uniform up the central greens. it was either going to be kmart, mrg, or bolton. i decided on bolton since it was closest at only 1.15 hours and had confirmed pictures of up to 6" whereas mrg's base cam wasn't showing too much. in hind sight, the extra 45 min drive to kmart would have been worth it, but no use second guessing myself now
pulled off i89 into the town of bolton with ZERO snow on the ground. had me nurvous. temp was on the rise and it was sprinkling. drove up what is arguably the steepest access road in new england and every 100 vertical feet saw more and more snow till i reached the upper base lodge sporting 2-3" of the white stuff and a light sprinkle.
work on the quad is on going, looks like these guys are unfortunately quite behind. no towers yet but the base station had been built. A LOT of construction on going and the construction tred groves made for some 'interesting' skinning in places.
skins were already on, so i booted up, clicked in, and started heading up. headed up the lower double's lift line before traversing around a meandering green circle to the summit. met up with another fellow on tele for the last half of the skin which was cool.
sure was nice being out in all that snow! the summit had about 5-6" of wet wet wet snow. the type that sticks to skins and won't let go if you stop moving. we took a brief rest inside the hut at the top, changed over to downhill mode, and crossed our fingers.
turns were... well, there frankly wasn't much for turns. we scraped bottom on a black diamond pitched run a few times and decided to head back down the way we came on something flatter. we alternated between picking up speed in the skin track and slowing down in the cement like snow. good cover until the last third of the mountain which had warmed significantly since we started up. some melting which kept things interestings.
any ways... as the saying goes, it's about the tour not the turns. so we had a blast. freaking skiing in october, how could we not?!?!?! it had only been 113 since my last day on skis, but it surely felt longer than that! broke in new g-ride boots and noticed the boots created a really different ramp angle which had me way in the back seat. gotta look into the custom fix on that issue this week, i believe i've read about it before on either colouir or tgr forums.
any ways, i may be out and about later this week if burke or the outting club picks up some snow. a few 3pm turns are always in order when ever possible.
:beer:
pics to follow!
