Loon 1/1/11

[Riverveteran]

Very concerned about crowds today, didn't pull into the main lot until 9:10 and actually got a spot fairly close to the gondi lodge. The cars were packed in but we weren't complaining. Lodge was not too busy, able to find a place to suit up, store bags and get going.

First ride up was on the gondola, shocked at the lack of snow on Sunset. Skier's left over the mini head wall was dirt, grass, ledge, etc. First run was over to Lower Walking Boss, very bumpy, but fun, skiers right - the right 25% of the trail was pretty bare. Snow got firmer as you went down as they were experiencing a thermal inversion. We made some runs on North Peak and made it over to South Peak. Terrain was good over, numerous thin spots, Rip Saw skied well - bumped up over the headwall, and good coverage past that. Made our way over the Kanc Quad and made 3-4 runs over there - best coverage on the mountain, started to get crowded, headed to the Paul Bunyan for a quick beer.

Headed back to North Peak for a few more top to bottoms and it was getting very bumped up, but fun. The trail under the quad, forget the name, was almost un-skiable in spots from the crossover down. The upper skied very well, we skied that and crossed over to lower Walking Boss.

All in all good day for the first one of 2011.

 

[mlkrgr]

Good TR... I wanted to ski Ripsaw too but thought I may have a problem with the numerous bare spots/thin cover spots throughout the mountain since double diamonds typically need more snow to ski well since there's more snow runoff.