speden
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- Nov 18, 2008
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Conditions: low to mid 20's, no wind, overcast with flurries
Knew it would be busy today, but wanted to take some turns with my son anyway. We got there about 8:30, and the main lot was already about two thirds full. We booted up quickly and got on the hill ASAP.
Conditions were pretty good early on. The base was rock hard, but there was some loose snow on top to turn on. But riding up North Peak I could see what was to come. There on the head wall of Upper Flume, young kids were side slipping the whole thing and scraping off what little loose snow there was. I even saw one tike snowplowing his way down it. Kind of sad. So we hit Walking Boss and Flume early, before it got completely scraped off.
Looked like there was a pretty serious injury on upper Flume, where someone apparently went into the trees and a guy on the lift said it was a broken leg. We saw the sled headed down to get them from the lift.
There were lots of lift stoppages too, with people that probably don't ski very often falling down when trying to load. I saw one young girl fall off the North Peak quad, fortunately before it had gotten very high. Looked like a group of four eight year old girls, already too cool to put the safety bar down.
We checked out South Peak and there was only one way down over there (Upper Twitcher to Jobber). That was kind of a nice trail since they had left a lot of whales on it, but it was crowded. On a normal weekday it should be pretty nice.
More and more people kept showing up, until around noon the place really jumped the shark. The lines became ridiculously long and it seemed like every trail was clogged with people, and had tons of places scraped down to un-edgeable ice (at least for my somewhat dull blades). The lodges were ultra jammed, so we left the mayhem for a nice lunch in town at some place called the Gypsy Cafe.
So it was about what I expected, but I'd had a faint hope that maybe it wouldn't be that busy. Still managed to have fun, but I've been spoiled by mid week skiing. I guess if I want to ski with my kids on uncrowded slopes, they'll have to cut school to do it.
I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few from the South Peak area.
Here's a couple of shots near the bottom of the (new this year) trail Jobber. Higher up it has a lot more pitch than this.
Also new this year is Lower Twitcher, which is covered with whales. No idea why they haven't groomed it to get it open since they could have really used it today. Higher up is Ripsaw, their double black (not visible here), which has had no snowmaking at all yet.
Tote Road quad. They've made snow under this, I guess for the groomers to use to get over to South Peak
Gratuitous crowd shot #1
Gratuitous crowd shot #2. That's the Gondola line on the right going off farther than you can see, and a full maze set up inside the building. The Seven Brothers line is on the left. We rode the Gondola only once when we arrived.
Knew it would be busy today, but wanted to take some turns with my son anyway. We got there about 8:30, and the main lot was already about two thirds full. We booted up quickly and got on the hill ASAP.
Conditions were pretty good early on. The base was rock hard, but there was some loose snow on top to turn on. But riding up North Peak I could see what was to come. There on the head wall of Upper Flume, young kids were side slipping the whole thing and scraping off what little loose snow there was. I even saw one tike snowplowing his way down it. Kind of sad. So we hit Walking Boss and Flume early, before it got completely scraped off.
Looked like there was a pretty serious injury on upper Flume, where someone apparently went into the trees and a guy on the lift said it was a broken leg. We saw the sled headed down to get them from the lift.
There were lots of lift stoppages too, with people that probably don't ski very often falling down when trying to load. I saw one young girl fall off the North Peak quad, fortunately before it had gotten very high. Looked like a group of four eight year old girls, already too cool to put the safety bar down.
We checked out South Peak and there was only one way down over there (Upper Twitcher to Jobber). That was kind of a nice trail since they had left a lot of whales on it, but it was crowded. On a normal weekday it should be pretty nice.
More and more people kept showing up, until around noon the place really jumped the shark. The lines became ridiculously long and it seemed like every trail was clogged with people, and had tons of places scraped down to un-edgeable ice (at least for my somewhat dull blades). The lodges were ultra jammed, so we left the mayhem for a nice lunch in town at some place called the Gypsy Cafe.
So it was about what I expected, but I'd had a faint hope that maybe it wouldn't be that busy. Still managed to have fun, but I've been spoiled by mid week skiing. I guess if I want to ski with my kids on uncrowded slopes, they'll have to cut school to do it.
I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few from the South Peak area.
Here's a couple of shots near the bottom of the (new this year) trail Jobber. Higher up it has a lot more pitch than this.
Also new this year is Lower Twitcher, which is covered with whales. No idea why they haven't groomed it to get it open since they could have really used it today. Higher up is Ripsaw, their double black (not visible here), which has had no snowmaking at all yet.
Tote Road quad. They've made snow under this, I guess for the groomers to use to get over to South Peak
Gratuitous crowd shot #1
Gratuitous crowd shot #2. That's the Gondola line on the right going off farther than you can see, and a full maze set up inside the building. The Seven Brothers line is on the left. We rode the Gondola only once when we arrived.
