Times you've skied in sketch conditions

[Dickc]

Went out at Sunday River last March 5th. They have some of the best grooming around. I did two runs. We had freezing rain the night before and the perfect corduroy would not give you much of a grip. Saw kids screaming at their parents that they could NOT ski the stuff. My two runs barely raise a dust trail behind me as the cord was bulletproof! I've skied in the northeast since 1960. Saw a patrolman on my way back to my condo and asked him point blank why is this mountain even open? His reply was a classic. "It was not our decision"!!!!

 

[chuckstah]

Ovation at Killington after any freeze-thaw is pretty gnarly. You fall, you slide.

Did that once. Quite the yardsale. Long slide down! And impossible to go uphill to collect gear. Wish I had pictures.

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[Jully]

Went out at Sunday River last March 5th. They have some of the best grooming around. I did two runs. We had freezing rain the night before and the perfect corduroy would not give you much of a grip. Saw kids screaming at their parents that they could NOT ski the stuff. My two runs barely raise a dust trail behind me as the cord was bulletproof! I've skied in the northeast since 1960. Saw a patrolman on my way back to my condo and asked him point blank why is this mountain even open? His reply was a classic. "It was not our decision"!!!!

Might have been at Ragged that same day. Rolled in late at like noon and was confused why every trail had corduroy still. Didn't make a dent in the trails!

Ended up having some fun actually and skied until closing. I've skied many bulletproof days before, as we so have, but this one stands out as the craziest.

 

[catskillman]

I have skied all over the world and I have to say that the worst ice conditions I have ever seen are at Hunter. There are so many times that you have to wornder why certain trails are even open, and why they opened that day at all or should have just waited until the sun did its magic.

I have never run into breakable crust at hunter, but that is no fun at all.

 

[kingslug]

Hell I've walked out of 1/4 mile of breakable crust backside of Alta..It's one thing to get caught up in frozen cordon here..out yonder it gets truly ugly.

 

[andrec10]

I have skied all over the world and I have to say that the worst ice conditions I have ever seen are at Hunter. There are so many times that you have to wornder why certain trails are even open, and why they opened that day at all or should have just waited until the sun did its magic.

I have never run into breakable crust at hunter, but that is no fun at all.

So you have never skied Whiteface or Windham?

 

[catskillman]

So you have never skied Whiteface or Windham?

I have been to both. And have done my share of night skiing in NY and NJ. Still stand by my original statement.

 

[tnt1234]

Went out at Sunday River last March 5th. They have some of the best grooming around. I did two runs. We had freezing rain the night before and the perfect corduroy would not give you much of a grip. Saw kids screaming at their parents that they could NOT ski the stuff. My two runs barely raise a dust trail behind me as the cord was bulletproof! I've skied in the northeast since 1960. Saw a patrolman on my way back to my condo and asked him point blank why is this mountain even open? His reply was a classic. "It was not our decision"!!!!

This reminds me:

- At Jay with my daughters. Wind holds for everything except the lower mountain lifts and the Jet. Wind was blowing like crazy.....went up the Jet, down that Montrealer trail > Angie's Wiggle and the wind came up the trail so hard it actually blew my youngest daughter up the hill! She was I guess 8 at the time - maybe 9.... I had to push her to get her started down the hill.....

Never been so cold in such wind before in my life.

- Also at Jay a year or so ago, after a thaw/freeze, they got about 6-8 surprise inches, but of course there was wind. So the trees were fantastic, but the trails, particularly the high traffic intermediates were blown off and brutal. Skiing down Urlls to that Beaver glade.....yound kid and dad are barely surviving the trail.....they see the sign for Beaver Glade with the black diamond on it. The Dad grabs me by the shoulder in utter panic...."Excuse me, but is there a different way down from here?" He was terrified that they HAD to go into the trees....in his panic he didn't notice the trail made a right turn. What a bummer - you see all that snow falling, but it just didn't stick -and then to face the frozen trails....yuck.

 

[ceo]

I was at Stowe with a bunch of people from the SKIVT-L mailing list ages ago, and for some reason this crew had a tradition of everyone poaching a closed trail. Important thing to note: Sometimes when they close trails it's for a good reason. In this case Chin Clip was wall-to-wall solid ice moguls. Somehow we managed to scrape and bang our way down that thing without serious personal injury, but it wasn't pretty.

 

[cdskier]

Important thing to note: Sometimes when they close trails it's for a good reason.

I'm shocked! Who would have thought? :grin:

 

[machski]

I started writing this up in the lessons and pointers thread but I think this falls under a separate category.

Last season, I had my Soul 7's at Sugarbush on March 5th. I forgot how liberal of the trail opening policy Sugarbush has.... I went on the run directly underneath the north ridge expressway. Straight up ice moguls that I was unable to dig an edge into. I grew up skiing the east coast so I am no stranger to hardpack, but this was incredibly difficult.

I'd like to think to myself that there was probably good reason there didn't appear to be any recent tracks. And also that it was a good thing the lift wasn't spinning since I was directly under the lift line.

I purchased some Armada Tracer 98's (180 length) and finally have some boots that fit right (27.5 vs the 29.5's I've been rocking the last 4 years). I am curious to see if this combo would handle better on the super hardpack.

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As in 98 under foot? Good luck.

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[tnt1234]

Kind of feel like this weekend might provide opportunity to add to this thread!

 

[skiNEwhere]

As in 98 under foot? Good luck.

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Yes. I already demoed them at Loveland and they did very well on scratchy snow where no other ski did. It's all relative though

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[kingslug]

I was at Stowe with a bunch of people from the SKIVT-L mailing list ages ago, and for some reason this crew had a tradition of everyone poaching a closed trail. Important thing to note: Sometimes when they close trails it's for a good reason. In this case Chin Clip was wall-to-wall solid ice moguls. Somehow we managed to scrape and bang our way down that thing without serious personal injury, but it wasn't pretty.

One of the more brutal trails to get caught in..no way out.

 

[deadheadskier]

One of the more brutal trails to get caught in..no way out.

And LONG!

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[deadheadskier]

Not overly sketchy conditions in a traditional sense, but the most recent oh crap moment that comes to mind also involves a pouch.

Last year I pouched Idiots Option at Attitash. It was whaled up with the guns still going and looked like perfect dry man made snow with great coverage. It was for the top, but about a quarter way down I skied in front of a really wet gun. Not only did my goggles get completely glazed, but so did my skis from the glop on the ground. The following whale was right above the headwall, which made it even steeper than it normally is. It was super hard pack on the backside unlike the fluff above and the glaze on the bottom of my skis made them almost completely uncontrollable. I felt like I was driving a car on black ice. Couple that with the goggle glazing making me feel blind, I just basically slid all the way down the headwall side ways. I managed to stay upright for the ride and then at the bottom as I was heading at a high rate of speed towards the woods the snow softened just enough and I was able to hip check myself to a stop just before going off the edge of the trail into some boulders and trees. Inches from the edge really.

I could only laugh and felt like I got what I deserved for ducking a rope while I spent the next 10-15 minutes scraping the frozen glop off the bottom of my skis. Headed to the bar for a couple of beers after that one.

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[machski]

Yes. I already demoed them at Loveland and they did very well on scratchy snow where no other ski did. It's all relative though

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Loveland scratch and NE scratch are two different animals!! [emoji12]

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[Smellytele]

Loveland scratch and NE scratch are two different animals!! [emoji12]

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Actually the last time I went there the sunburst Chutes looked great from chair 4 until we actually skied them and it was solid frozen mess. It was just like the east coast after a thaw/freeze! We felt right at home and had the whole section to our selves for that one run.

 

[Wicked1]

Oh hell, time for an old story.
In white out conditions, decided to ski a favorite run. Drop Out Chutes at Mammoth Mountain.
The snow conditions were, skied off hard pack...slick and steep, double diamond.
So, on about the second turn an unseen bump knocked me off my edges.
Earlier in the day they had evacuated a skier who had slid into some rocks on the run. (learned on lift on the way up, I didn't listen well)
I was now sliding head first, later feet first without skis and accelerating down the chute towards rocks.
There was a gap between the rocks, 10 feet or so, which gravity pulled me through. Thank You!
Probably slid about 1000' of vertical.
Thats all.

 

[ironhippy]

The conditions were mostly good, but the most scared I've been on skis was on the backside of Amqui in the Gaspe.

The trail was steep, but seemed good enough. I got to the really steep part and realized the entire pitch was wind swept and basically ice.
I was able to get down, but it was incredibly sketchy.

Here is a picture from the trail beside the icy one, this trail was pretty much fine, but will give you an idea of the steepness