Ski Sundown Hike - 8/19/2007

[Greg]

Date(s) Hiked: Sunday, 8/19/2007, 6:30 am - 8:30 am

Trails(s) Hiked: Exhibition --> Nor'easter --> Stinger --> Gunbarrel --> Woods

Total Distance: 2.5 miles

Difficulty: Easy to moderate

Conditions: Dry trails, sunny, cool.

Special Required Equipment: None.

Trip Report: 48 degrees when I arrived at the mountain around 6:30 am this morning. On the way in I noticed a bunch of these metal cage-like things so I went to the far end of the parking lot to check them out:

Not sure what they're for. They're labeled "Wall":

And there are a number of them:

Any guesses what these are used for? I then checked out the new deck:

...and spotted a whitetail on Little Joe:

I slowly walked over to it. I got near the magic carpet when it seemed to start getting pissed. She flicked her tail and stomped her front hoof. I figured I should leave her alone. On my way across the base area I looked back towards Sunnyside and saw three deer bouncing away. Nice cool morning and some wildlife. Great hike so far.

 

[Greg]

The new base deck seems to be on the same footprint as the old deck:

I then headed up Exhibition. Seems steeper without snow. I then took a hike up Nor'easter which is lying in wait:

It still amazes me how much steeper and more rugged Nor'easter looks in the summer. They need to put down a lot of snow to fill in all the dips. I then headed down Stinger and saw two more whitetail:

Most of Stinger doesn't look to have had any cutting:

However, on the lower section, skier's left of lift one, there seems to be a small lightly gladed area:

If this is what they mean by "widening", I'm all for it. It should be interesting if they clear the rest of the trees or clear out higher up. As of right now, most of Stinger is the same.

I then headed up Gunbarrel:

Gunbarrel, as was most of the mountain has been recently mowed. I took a quick break near the top for a banana and some pics:

I tagged the summit and then started my search for a pretty well-known off-map glade. I'm glad I took the time to do this as the access to it is not as easy as I expected, but I found it, and it looks awesome:

I took a mental note of some landmarks getting to it and will definitely visit this area this winter if we get enough natural. The glade is great, moderately pitch with good tree spacing and virtually no debris or blow-down. Totally skiable with a foot of snow:







The last pitch is narrower and a bit more technical:



Can't wait to try it this year! All in all, a great hike. If you're not yet jonesing for ski season, go hike a ski mountain!

 

[Grassi21]

Sundown just got a little more interesting. Nice TR and media.

 

[ALLSKIING]

I see you got that itch back again...

 

[threecy]

The cages look like traprock cages

 

[Greg]

The cages look like traprock cages

Which are?

It turns out the "cages" are for the road project on route 219 and nothing to do with the ski area itself.

 

[Greg]

I see you got that itch back again...

Understatement.

 

[threecy]

Which are?

It turns out the "cages" are for the road project on route 219 and nothing to do with the ski area itself.

You fill them with traprock and they basically form large building blocks for retaining dirt/roads/embankments/etc.

 

[Paul]

One thing at a time... right now, I'm looking forward to the Brewfest there in Sep.


Who's in with me? We should have AZ represented there, last year's was fun.