JD
New member
Back to north today. A few more inches of snow, warmer temps and wind made for a fine day of natural snow skiing, and I have to say that while the Mtn. isn't as sick as some, I like the touring scene better then most, as in, there is absolutely no touring scene. Ghost town. Had the place to my self again, yesterdays tracks were gone, and conditions had improved a bit more. The plan going in was to ski lower FIS then hop back on the skin track and head up a bit higher and finish with Tumbler. Skinning up Cliffs, the cover was excellent and I couldn't resist the sure-thing-ski-what-you-skinned-temptation and shralpled it. Really nice. Still a little crispy, but only to the ear. The snow was nice and dense. A good 10-14". I put the rock skiis to bed last night and was on the Karhu BC100s in a 179 and LOVED them for maching the firm, open, rolling pow-pow. Reskin, and up bound for Lower FIS. Got to the top and looked down. Scoured off. Went down the the first horizon and peeked over. Scoured, and the wind was whipping, from the south. Not a good exposure for wind loading, so I continued on thinking "looking good" would be looking good down to right edge. Got to the top and felt like climbing somore so I kept going. Under Black Diamond, looks like a fun trial, but still a bit chunky. I hope to catch it with better cover before they open'er up. Continued up under upper FIS and it was blown off. Got to the top of the Northridge quad and there were some lifties up on the last tower. I decided I was gonna ski from there and was thinking of peeking at Exterminator becasue of it's exposure. AS I slid over one of them whistled. I thought, "here we freaking go....." I looked up and he's pointing down Bravo enthusiasticly. I kick tun and glide over and ask if it's looking good from up there (he was on the tower). He says, "Yea. I walked it this morning...stay to the right of my tracks." Gives me the thumbs up. I drop in. Cash money! a solid foot plus of fluff drifted in so nicely down the right 10 feet of the trail. Whiteroom. Hoots echo off the tower as I let em'run. Could be the nicest turns of the season to day...at least right up there with Chin Clip on my last day at Stowe, more fun because I'd never skiied this trail before so it was pure improv. Cut over to Tumbler after and kept the flow going down this playful trail with good cover, a bit more variable, but intresting skiing in undulating terrain. The flat runout at this Mtn. sucks, but I really do like Bravo, and the mid mountain pitch, especially Hammerhead and Tumbler...Plan on spending the next 2 days there if the natural snow stays nice.
