Skier75
New member
Date(s) Skied: 3/21/07 1st day of Spring!
Resort or Ski Area: Pats Peak
Conditions: Sunny blue bird skies, early am frozen granular - mid morning soft snow
Trip Report:
Let me first start by thanking AZ for the discounted ticket! I have been just dying to try out Pats Peak for the last few weeks, even though it's not a very big mountain, it's just enough to give you the fix you need for skiing.
What a perfect day for it, the first day of spring, midweek, hardly anyone on the slopes, blue sunny skies, what more could you ask for? I have to say that for this size mountain, not bad.
Got to the lodge by about 8:30, booted up checked out the trail map to figure what I wanted to start with, since I was skiing alone today(hubby didn't take the day off to go with me), I figured I'd better start out slow to see how the conditions were. Chatted with an older gentleman about the mountain, he told me just enough to get me started. All the while looking at the map, I so wanted to start out from the very top, but opted not to.
There were only two lifts running, the Valley Double Chair that took you to some very easy trails, mostly greens and a blue, and theHurricane Triple Chair, that took you to the top to the more difficult trails(if that's what you wanna call them). I figured this would be a good day to work on my form, which I did.
I started on the Valley Double and did the Puff trail first, then Whisper, both greens, and they were greens, pretty mellow. But I promised hubby I wouldn't do anything I couldn't handle alone. Even though they were only greens it was a good warm up and to check out the conditions. That early the snow was a little crusty, but you could tell that when it warmed up, it was going to be really nice soft, creamy, snow. BTW, this lift was pretty slow too, later on I wanted to see how slow it really was and timed it. It ended up being about a 5 min ride up.
On the next ride up this lift, I started to get ansy and decided to head on over to the other side to the Hurricane Triple. As I'm riding up this lift I'm checking out some of the other trails I can see from there, this lift goes right up over a double black called Toranado. Now this trial is full of deep moguls with shiney, icey looking crust on the mounds with deep troughs. All the while looking at them thinking, maybe when it warms up they may become soft enough to do....but promising hubby I wouldn't do anything stupid without him.
My next run I hit a long windy green trail, Breeze, Zephyr, and Blast which was a little more challenging than the first greens, but not too much more as at the bottom they were pretty flat. The snow started to soften up a little by then, but also decided to take a short break for a snack and drink. Went right back to the Hurricane chair so I could hit the rest of the trails on that side. I figured I'd at least try out every trail I could. After doing the easy stuff I decided to go take a look at the blacks and just went for it. Most of the trails on this mountain are pretty wide open, which must be really good when it gets crowded on weekends.
I think the trails they call blacks on some of the smaller mountains are like blues on larger mountains. I have to say the middle of the week is the best time to ski, the trails stay corduroy almost all day, at least here they did. My favorite trails today were Cylone, Toranado, Twister, and the F.I.S. Race Trail. Yes they are all blacks or double blacks, but they were all skiable, had a lot of corduroy, and were more challenging than the other trials. Probably if it were a weekend they'd get skied off pretty fast and then I wouldn't like them much. I had the trials pretty much to myself which was really sweet, I was just carving it right up all over the place, having a great time.
This was a good day to take off work and ski. I almost stayed the whole day, left about 3:00, guess I started to get a little bored, plus I figured I should get home about the same time as hubby.... Now he's making me pay for skiing without him...I gotta go to the store, cook supper, and do the dishes. Oh well, someone's got to do it.
Resort or Ski Area: Pats Peak
Conditions: Sunny blue bird skies, early am frozen granular - mid morning soft snow
Trip Report:
Let me first start by thanking AZ for the discounted ticket! I have been just dying to try out Pats Peak for the last few weeks, even though it's not a very big mountain, it's just enough to give you the fix you need for skiing.
What a perfect day for it, the first day of spring, midweek, hardly anyone on the slopes, blue sunny skies, what more could you ask for? I have to say that for this size mountain, not bad.Got to the lodge by about 8:30, booted up checked out the trail map to figure what I wanted to start with, since I was skiing alone today(hubby didn't take the day off to go with me), I figured I'd better start out slow to see how the conditions were. Chatted with an older gentleman about the mountain, he told me just enough to get me started. All the while looking at the map, I so wanted to start out from the very top, but opted not to.
There were only two lifts running, the Valley Double Chair that took you to some very easy trails, mostly greens and a blue, and theHurricane Triple Chair, that took you to the top to the more difficult trails(if that's what you wanna call them).
I figured this would be a good day to work on my form, which I did.I started on the Valley Double and did the Puff trail first, then Whisper, both greens, and they were greens, pretty mellow. But I promised hubby I wouldn't do anything I couldn't handle alone. Even though they were only greens it was a good warm up and to check out the conditions. That early the snow was a little crusty, but you could tell that when it warmed up, it was going to be really nice soft, creamy, snow. BTW, this lift was pretty slow too, later on I wanted to see how slow it really was and timed it. It ended up being about a 5 min ride up.
On the next ride up this lift, I started to get ansy and decided to head on over to the other side to the Hurricane Triple. As I'm riding up this lift I'm checking out some of the other trails I can see from there, this lift goes right up over a double black called Toranado. Now this trial is full of deep moguls with shiney, icey looking crust on the mounds with deep troughs. All the while looking at them thinking, maybe when it warms up they may become soft enough to do....but promising hubby I wouldn't do anything stupid without him.
My next run I hit a long windy green trail, Breeze, Zephyr, and Blast which was a little more challenging than the first greens, but not too much more as at the bottom they were pretty flat. The snow started to soften up a little by then, but also decided to take a short break for a snack and drink. Went right back to the Hurricane chair so I could hit the rest of the trails on that side. I figured I'd at least try out every trail I could. After doing the easy stuff I decided to go take a look at the blacks and just went for it. Most of the trails on this mountain are pretty wide open, which must be really good when it gets crowded on weekends.
I think the trails they call blacks on some of the smaller mountains are like blues on larger mountains. I have to say the middle of the week is the best time to ski, the trails stay corduroy almost all day, at least here they did. My favorite trails today were Cylone, Toranado, Twister, and the F.I.S. Race Trail. Yes they are all blacks or double blacks, but they were all skiable, had a lot of corduroy, and were more challenging than the other trials. Probably if it were a weekend they'd get skied off pretty fast and then I wouldn't like them much. I had the trials pretty much to myself which was really sweet, I was just carving it right up all over the place, having a great time.
This was a good day to take off work and ski. I almost stayed the whole day, left about 3:00, guess I started to get a little bored, plus I figured I should get home about the same time as hubby....
Now he's making me pay for skiing without him...I gotta go to the store, cook supper, and do the dishes. Oh well, someone's got to do it.
