First day out for 07 and third for the season overall. Perfect weather for skiing as it remained below freezing for the first few hours in the morning allowing considerable snow to still be made. Around 11:00 it hit above freezing and the guns needed to be shut down, but it looks like considerable progress had been made on Obsesion and Tempest on Whitecap and Rogue Angel on Jordan. Those should be opening up very soon.
Having been two weeks since I had been out, I was excited to get my first runs on North Peak and Aurora. I opened up the day with a couple laps on Escapade then headed over to Aurora where Airglow and Northern Lights both were pretty fantastic - good fast hard pack with minimal scratch. Airglow was particularly fun as though it was groomed, they had left or were unable to smooth out the 'whales' from the snow guns.
After this I ventured over for a couple runs on Spruce and then on to Locke and Barker. Outside of Right Stuff, much of this part of the mountain was pretty scratchy and skied off. It really made little sense to me as their was a good 10 minute liftline at the SR express and quite a few people at the other lifts, when there had been NO ONE over on Aurora.
I headed back over to Aurora for a few more runs to finish out the day. The snow on Airglow was still great and I was looking forward to a few more runs when three quarters of the way up the quad stops. After fifteen minutes I look to the bottom and people are starting to line up for the Quantom Leap triple. Uh oh, this can't be good. Where I was at on the lift, it was probably only a fifteen foot drop into about six inches of snow and a rather 'pucker' free landing. It would have been an easy drop and 100 foot hike over to Upper Vortex and out of there. I somewhat considered it, not knowing how long I would be stuck up there, but chose not too in fear of getting my pass yanked. The lift starts going again, but stops 200 feet later where I am stuck at the highest point above ground with the most pounding wind for another fifteen minutes before the lift started and creeped the rest of the way to the top.
Longest I've ever been stuck on a lift and thankfully it wasn't too cold. Aside from the lift episode, I give the day and conditions a solid B+. For the hand they've been dealt, the mountain operators have done a helluva job up there.
Having been two weeks since I had been out, I was excited to get my first runs on North Peak and Aurora. I opened up the day with a couple laps on Escapade then headed over to Aurora where Airglow and Northern Lights both were pretty fantastic - good fast hard pack with minimal scratch. Airglow was particularly fun as though it was groomed, they had left or were unable to smooth out the 'whales' from the snow guns.
After this I ventured over for a couple runs on Spruce and then on to Locke and Barker. Outside of Right Stuff, much of this part of the mountain was pretty scratchy and skied off. It really made little sense to me as their was a good 10 minute liftline at the SR express and quite a few people at the other lifts, when there had been NO ONE over on Aurora.
I headed back over to Aurora for a few more runs to finish out the day. The snow on Airglow was still great and I was looking forward to a few more runs when three quarters of the way up the quad stops. After fifteen minutes I look to the bottom and people are starting to line up for the Quantom Leap triple. Uh oh, this can't be good. Where I was at on the lift, it was probably only a fifteen foot drop into about six inches of snow and a rather 'pucker' free landing. It would have been an easy drop and 100 foot hike over to Upper Vortex and out of there. I somewhat considered it, not knowing how long I would be stuck up there, but chose not too in fear of getting my pass yanked. The lift starts going again, but stops 200 feet later where I am stuck at the highest point above ground with the most pounding wind for another fifteen minutes before the lift started and creeped the rest of the way to the top.
Longest I've ever been stuck on a lift and thankfully it wasn't too cold. Aside from the lift episode, I give the day and conditions a solid B+. For the hand they've been dealt, the mountain operators have done a helluva job up there.
