Date(s) Skied: January 1, 2007
Resort or Ski Area: Pico Mountain
Trailboss Day #: 16
Ms. Trailboss Day #: 5
Conditions: Wet MG
Weather: Cloudy in the AM with fog on the summit. Fog and drizzle in the PM. Temps in the 40's.
Trip Report: After a quiet NYE, I got up and looked out the window to see glaze on the trees and some fog and drizzle. I had accepted the almost foregone conclusion that our planned ski day was going to be cancelled. Ms. TB and I had been hoping to go to Pico and ski--her pass was not blacked out then.
As I sat in my PJs and read E-mail, Ms. TB walked into our home office and asked.
"So what are we doing today?"
"I dunno."
"How about skiing?" My kind of woman!
I looked out the window. It was not raining. Then I looked online. Pico was saying 10 trails and that they were open. The radar was clear of precip for that area. A quick call revealed that they were delaying the Summit HSQ but everything else was a go.
"What the hell! We've got Gore Tex!" I said.
So we gathered our things, made some tea, and hopped in the car at about 10:15 or so and made the drive over. We must have passed 2-300 cars LEAVING K-mart on Route 4....seriously. The roads weren't great, but they weren't bad. I drove a steady 40 mph and we made it in an hour...no mishaps at all. And as usual we were one of about 15 cars in the lot.
I put out the skis and talked to another local who was coming in. He reported soft snow down low and fast, yet edgeable, snow up top.
We boarded the Golden HSQ and took a spin Gold Rush to Swinger. This was a nice, looonnnggg run that was in better shape than Fool's Gold. After taking a spin on it, Ms. Trailboss said, "the snow is much better than I expected! Let's do it again!" Indeed, the conditions exceeded my expectations...soft MG snow at 11:30 and 12 noon and NO CROWDS at all! Second run was down Fool's Gold, which was not as good, so we did laps on Gold Rush/Swinger before trying out the Triple. Triple Slope was in good shape with a deep base and some more soft groomed and ungroomed machine made snow. Ace of Clubs was in fantastic shape again. Some new snow had covered the bare spots. This little trail is still a real charm!
So we did about 10 or so runs before Ms. TB needed a break and I braved the summit. The ride up was a wet one in the fog. 49er was in decent shape...some SM had taken place on Upper KA. The fog was annoying though and there were some thin spots on 49er that had to be avoided. No other SM had taken place on Mid or Upper Pike it had appeared :blink:
I joined Ms. TB for lunch and we filled out another ASC Customer Survey. After this, the rain had returned and we delayed our return to the snow by visiting the ski shop.
We did take four more runs though...one on the Gold Rush/Swinger run and three on the triple with its soft snow. By then it was about 3pm and we were cold and wet on the faces. So we headed in and called it a day.
So we took a chance...carpe diem. I learned last season that waiting for "good snow" is kind of stupid at times because eventually the season ends and you are there in the ski shop putting the skis away for the summer and wishing that you had taken those turns when you could! Besides, we had spent some big $$$ for us on passes and they do no good unless you use them! We had a good time....well worth the trip.
:beer:
Resort or Ski Area: Pico Mountain
Trailboss Day #: 16
Ms. Trailboss Day #: 5
Conditions: Wet MG
Weather: Cloudy in the AM with fog on the summit. Fog and drizzle in the PM. Temps in the 40's.
Trip Report: After a quiet NYE, I got up and looked out the window to see glaze on the trees and some fog and drizzle. I had accepted the almost foregone conclusion that our planned ski day was going to be cancelled. Ms. TB and I had been hoping to go to Pico and ski--her pass was not blacked out then.
As I sat in my PJs and read E-mail, Ms. TB walked into our home office and asked.
"So what are we doing today?"
"I dunno."
"How about skiing?" My kind of woman!
I looked out the window. It was not raining. Then I looked online. Pico was saying 10 trails and that they were open. The radar was clear of precip for that area. A quick call revealed that they were delaying the Summit HSQ but everything else was a go.
"What the hell! We've got Gore Tex!" I said.
So we gathered our things, made some tea, and hopped in the car at about 10:15 or so and made the drive over. We must have passed 2-300 cars LEAVING K-mart on Route 4....seriously.
The roads weren't great, but they weren't bad. I drove a steady 40 mph and we made it in an hour...no mishaps at all. And as usual we were one of about 15 cars in the lot. I put out the skis and talked to another local who was coming in. He reported soft snow down low and fast, yet edgeable, snow up top.
We boarded the Golden HSQ and took a spin Gold Rush to Swinger. This was a nice, looonnnggg run that was in better shape than Fool's Gold. After taking a spin on it, Ms. Trailboss said, "the snow is much better than I expected! Let's do it again!"
Indeed, the conditions exceeded my expectations...soft MG snow at 11:30 and 12 noon and NO CROWDS at all! Second run was down Fool's Gold, which was not as good, so we did laps on Gold Rush/Swinger before trying out the Triple. Triple Slope was in good shape with a deep base and some more soft groomed and ungroomed machine made snow. Ace of Clubs was in fantastic shape again. Some new snow had covered the bare spots. This little trail is still a real charm! So we did about 10 or so runs before Ms. TB needed a break and I braved the summit. The ride up was a wet one in the fog. 49er was in decent shape...some SM had taken place on Upper KA. The fog was annoying though and there were some thin spots on 49er that had to be avoided. No other SM had taken place on Mid or Upper Pike it had appeared :blink:
I joined Ms. TB for lunch and we filled out another ASC Customer Survey. After this, the rain had returned and we delayed our return to the snow by visiting the ski shop.
We did take four more runs though...one on the Gold Rush/Swinger run and three on the triple with its soft snow. By then it was about 3pm and we were cold and wet on the faces. So we headed in and called it a day.
So we took a chance...carpe diem. I learned last season that waiting for "good snow" is kind of stupid at times because eventually the season ends and you are there in the ski shop putting the skis away for the summer and wishing that you had taken those turns when you could! Besides, we had spent some big $$$ for us on passes and they do no good unless you use them! We had a good time....well worth the trip.
:beer:
