Zand
Well-known member
After driving up through 2 hours of fog at temps between 29 and 33 degrees, the ~4 miles from Bondville to the parking garage revealed bright sun and a rise in temps to 48 degrees. Great inversion indeed. Arrived to a pretty dead base area and lodge around 10:30 and skied till 3:00. They have a nice variety of trails open, mostly off the Snowbowl Quad. Also a couple trails open on the Ursa side of the hill, but those were difficult to lap with Ursa closed today. As dead as it was (and even with a few solo rides), I didn't want to ride the Gondola that many times so mainly stuck to Snowbowl.
Open terrain on the Snowbowl side included Spruce, Drifter, Meadow, and various segments of some other trails. Actually did a ton of laps on Upper Spruce/Lower Switchback. Spruce had some nice loose snow down the right side except for some boilerplate on the steepest pitch. Even popped into Shredwood Forest as I saw some tracks going in. Actually 4-6" of base snow on it, but the freezing rain Sunday crusted over so I bailed out. Otherwise I would've gone down, core shots be damned. Lower Spruce was slick, but I kind of accidently discovered Lower Switchback one run and realized absolutely no one had skied it, so repeat runs on fresh cord all the way into the afternoon were in order. Drifter, Slalom Glade, Janeway, and the other segments in that area were all pretty skied off by midday, as they saw the majority of the traffic. Meadow was basking in the sun all day which made for nice spring conditions. A few brown spots popping out but largely avoidable.
On the other side, did a run down North American/Yodeler which were half occupied by race training. Soft in the sun, but also skied off with so little of the trail available. The bottom of Yodeler was downright spring corn. Polar Bear and Black Bear were open and I wandered over there once. Not bad, but not worth hiking out of the Ursa loading area up that traverse. Wish they ran that lift instead of AmEx as absolutely no one was using it. Would've made the Bears lapable.
Lunch in the base lodge was Deer Valley quality (and Deer Valley prices). Probably the best lodge food I've ever had in the east. Overall a nice day out in the warm sun, but looking forward to cold temps and snow moving back in by this weekend.
Open terrain on the Snowbowl side included Spruce, Drifter, Meadow, and various segments of some other trails. Actually did a ton of laps on Upper Spruce/Lower Switchback. Spruce had some nice loose snow down the right side except for some boilerplate on the steepest pitch. Even popped into Shredwood Forest as I saw some tracks going in. Actually 4-6" of base snow on it, but the freezing rain Sunday crusted over so I bailed out. Otherwise I would've gone down, core shots be damned. Lower Spruce was slick, but I kind of accidently discovered Lower Switchback one run and realized absolutely no one had skied it, so repeat runs on fresh cord all the way into the afternoon were in order. Drifter, Slalom Glade, Janeway, and the other segments in that area were all pretty skied off by midday, as they saw the majority of the traffic. Meadow was basking in the sun all day which made for nice spring conditions. A few brown spots popping out but largely avoidable.
On the other side, did a run down North American/Yodeler which were half occupied by race training. Soft in the sun, but also skied off with so little of the trail available. The bottom of Yodeler was downright spring corn. Polar Bear and Black Bear were open and I wandered over there once. Not bad, but not worth hiking out of the Ursa loading area up that traverse. Wish they ran that lift instead of AmEx as absolutely no one was using it. Would've made the Bears lapable.
Lunch in the base lodge was Deer Valley quality (and Deer Valley prices). Probably the best lodge food I've ever had in the east. Overall a nice day out in the warm sun, but looking forward to cold temps and snow moving back in by this weekend.
