dlague
Active member
Wow - what a night!
My son wanted to make it out for the last 2 fer night at Gunstock for the season - yes this is the last week for night skiing there. Kind of sad to see the ski season start to wind down. In any case, with the wind howling away and temps dropping quickly, my wife opted out so it was a father son night. We got there around 5:30 and got dressed and about to head out and the call comes in - the utility company I work for was experiencing major outages and since I work in IT, it meant that I was going to be on the phone. That did delay our start but we did get out and I handled the rest of the calls and texts between runs while on the lift.
We planned on heading up Tiger Triple and found it to be on wind hold which is a bummer since we generally ski off that chair the most. Keeping to the adage - we ski what the mountain gives us - our plans got adjusted and we headed to the park. We quickly found out that the runs had refroze quickly and that was a lot of scraping sounds going on. Funny to watch for the chair. Beginners initiating a slide turn and still going straight. Or people trying to snow plow and not really slowing down. Definitely a night to use those edges!
We lapped Pistol Triple for 6 runs splitting it up between Blundersmoke Park and Pistol. In the park, my son launched himself of the kickers catching good air while I caught air on the rollers and smaller kickers. Due to the trails being so hard the skis would slap loudly on landings. Pistol was just one of those runs where you just let the skis run and have fun with speed. While on the chair the winds were blowing so hard that the chairs were swinging back and forth - kind of freaky! We then went to Ramrod Quad to hit Tiger before eating. Tiger had the best surface of all trails (most carve-able).
We ate at the cafeteria and while there talked to the cook and he said that during the day it warmed up nicely and was very soft - apparently the drop in temps combined with the wind are what caused the trails to freeze up so fast. Wind accelerates the cooling process from a warmer surface to making the surface air temp when it is colder and vise versa.
After eating, we headed back out and skied off the quad for 4 more runs then called it a night. We more or less did tuck and run which was the most fun on Tiger. Overall we had fun and it was nice hanging out together even if conditions were not the best. There was no PP to speak of since everything froze, but these types of conditions build character! BTW the crowds dissipated quickly and at 8:30 it was my son and I and four others lapping the Quad.
Beginner beware - what you do not see in pictures is how hard it is.
My son wanted to make it out for the last 2 fer night at Gunstock for the season - yes this is the last week for night skiing there. Kind of sad to see the ski season start to wind down. In any case, with the wind howling away and temps dropping quickly, my wife opted out so it was a father son night. We got there around 5:30 and got dressed and about to head out and the call comes in - the utility company I work for was experiencing major outages and since I work in IT, it meant that I was going to be on the phone. That did delay our start but we did get out and I handled the rest of the calls and texts between runs while on the lift.
We planned on heading up Tiger Triple and found it to be on wind hold which is a bummer since we generally ski off that chair the most. Keeping to the adage - we ski what the mountain gives us - our plans got adjusted and we headed to the park. We quickly found out that the runs had refroze quickly and that was a lot of scraping sounds going on. Funny to watch for the chair. Beginners initiating a slide turn and still going straight. Or people trying to snow plow and not really slowing down. Definitely a night to use those edges!
We lapped Pistol Triple for 6 runs splitting it up between Blundersmoke Park and Pistol. In the park, my son launched himself of the kickers catching good air while I caught air on the rollers and smaller kickers. Due to the trails being so hard the skis would slap loudly on landings. Pistol was just one of those runs where you just let the skis run and have fun with speed. While on the chair the winds were blowing so hard that the chairs were swinging back and forth - kind of freaky! We then went to Ramrod Quad to hit Tiger before eating. Tiger had the best surface of all trails (most carve-able).
We ate at the cafeteria and while there talked to the cook and he said that during the day it warmed up nicely and was very soft - apparently the drop in temps combined with the wind are what caused the trails to freeze up so fast. Wind accelerates the cooling process from a warmer surface to making the surface air temp when it is colder and vise versa.
After eating, we headed back out and skied off the quad for 4 more runs then called it a night. We more or less did tuck and run which was the most fun on Tiger. Overall we had fun and it was nice hanging out together even if conditions were not the best. There was no PP to speak of since everything froze, but these types of conditions build character! BTW the crowds dissipated quickly and at 8:30 it was my son and I and four others lapping the Quad.
Beginner beware - what you do not see in pictures is how hard it is.
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