Date(s) Skied: Sunday, 2/8/2009
Resort or Ski Area: Pico Mountain
Conditions: Papa John's; thin crust, thick crust, dust on crust, probably stuffed crust, little deep dish after a mid day squall
Trip Report:
Left my uncle's in Quechee this morning at 7:45 with the temp at 46 degrees, dark clouds, few rain drops, looking like it could pour.....not promising. Was to meet an old friend from High School that I hadn't seen in eight years and Mondeo. Mondeo was a bit behind us, so Ronnie and I took a couple runs off the lower mountain High Speed Quad. The corduroy was like frozen styrofoam, Mondeo said it best in that if felt like your feet were getting massaged; I said I thought I was developing a stutter. Anyways, meet up with mondeo, decide to head over to the Outpost area and try a run off it. Thick, thick crust, not like the crust that you punch through and loose granular is underneath, but crust that is four inches deep that completely grabs your skis. Painful skiing for the amount of effort you need to use just to hang on and make it down in a gaper fashion.
Headed up to the summit and did a couple of groomers followed by a run down upper Giant Killer, which was the same thick thick crust as the Outpost trail. We eventually head in for a drink at which point it starts snowing hard. Probably picked up an inch and half, maybe two inches, but weather it was the temperature dropping or the new snow chilling the snow down, the crust under foot solidified and became much more skiable......except for the flats (more on that later). We did another a couple runs down upper KA and Summit Glade and the frozen bumps topped with a dusting were fairly enjoyable. Definitely still tough conditions that put a pounding on your body, but the lines were skiable and in some areas pretty sweet.
....but for me, the green runs were a killer; had a very tough time. I was out on my BX's with a fresh tune. I don't know what kind of wax they put on my skis, but never in 25 years of skiing have I ever been on a set of skis that were so slow. I literally had to skate to keep moving on anything that didn't have at least say ten degrees pitch. At one point while Mike and Ronnie were at the lift waiting for me to get there, me (200 pounds on 176cm skis in a tuck) was getting passed by a 5 year old girl on 60 cm skis standing straight up. Totally sucked, but so bad that it was almost comical. Now I know why I never get my skis tuned :lol: I've never once brought skis back after a tune to complain and tried to swing in today to the local shop on the way home, but they had closed early. Perhaps they ran out of super glue...dunno
All in all a fun day though. Could've totally sucked, but some of the bumps ended up skiing pretty decent. Good to connect with an old High School friend and another Azer, mondeo's a great guy and awesome skier, look forward to making turns with him again.
Resort or Ski Area: Pico Mountain
Conditions: Papa John's; thin crust, thick crust, dust on crust, probably stuffed crust, little deep dish after a mid day squall
Trip Report:
Left my uncle's in Quechee this morning at 7:45 with the temp at 46 degrees, dark clouds, few rain drops, looking like it could pour.....not promising. Was to meet an old friend from High School that I hadn't seen in eight years and Mondeo. Mondeo was a bit behind us, so Ronnie and I took a couple runs off the lower mountain High Speed Quad. The corduroy was like frozen styrofoam, Mondeo said it best in that if felt like your feet were getting massaged; I said I thought I was developing a stutter. Anyways, meet up with mondeo, decide to head over to the Outpost area and try a run off it. Thick, thick crust, not like the crust that you punch through and loose granular is underneath, but crust that is four inches deep that completely grabs your skis. Painful skiing for the amount of effort you need to use just to hang on and make it down in a gaper fashion.
Headed up to the summit and did a couple of groomers followed by a run down upper Giant Killer, which was the same thick thick crust as the Outpost trail. We eventually head in for a drink at which point it starts snowing hard. Probably picked up an inch and half, maybe two inches, but weather it was the temperature dropping or the new snow chilling the snow down, the crust under foot solidified and became much more skiable......except for the flats (more on that later). We did another a couple runs down upper KA and Summit Glade and the frozen bumps topped with a dusting were fairly enjoyable. Definitely still tough conditions that put a pounding on your body, but the lines were skiable and in some areas pretty sweet.
....but for me, the green runs were a killer; had a very tough time. I was out on my BX's with a fresh tune. I don't know what kind of wax they put on my skis, but never in 25 years of skiing have I ever been on a set of skis that were so slow. I literally had to skate to keep moving on anything that didn't have at least say ten degrees pitch. At one point while Mike and Ronnie were at the lift waiting for me to get there, me (200 pounds on 176cm skis in a tuck) was getting passed by a 5 year old girl on 60 cm skis standing straight up. Totally sucked, but so bad that it was almost comical. Now I know why I never get my skis tuned :lol: I've never once brought skis back after a tune to complain and tried to swing in today to the local shop on the way home, but they had closed early. Perhaps they ran out of super glue...dunno
All in all a fun day though. Could've totally sucked, but some of the bumps ended up skiing pretty decent. Good to connect with an old High School friend and another Azer, mondeo's a great guy and awesome skier, look forward to making turns with him again.
