The last 8 weeks were a blur of awesomeness and I can't pick any one run. I had some days at Wildcat and some days at cannon. I had an 11 day vacation at the peak of it all that I almost went west but rolled the dice and stuck around. I'm happy to have that money in the bank.
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What were your best runs of the season?
- Thread starter RH29
- Start date
machski
Well-known member
Had a perfect untracked powder run down Aftershock at SR during one of the March storms. Amazing run. All the woods were great runs right up through last week from late February on.
sugarbushskier
Member
Red Dog Face at Palisades.
Stood by Far East/Red Dog lifts from 8;30 to 11:15 trying to figure out which lift would open first (along with lots of other folks). Turned out they got Far East cleared of the 5-7 feet that fell during the previous two days, which included a complete resort closure the day before. Mid-thigh, untracked light powder even for Tahoe standards where just point em straight down and go. Most powder I've ever skied and I've been skiing for 55 years.
Subsequent runs off Red Dog and Resort chairs for the rest of the day yielded incredible conditions. Was a bit scary in the trees as tree wells everywhere, but a day (and week) to remember. The first night of this trip was the Saturday of the Men's World Cup so a party atmosphere, bands and blizzard everywhere in Olympic Village. Unforgettable!
Stood by Far East/Red Dog lifts from 8;30 to 11:15 trying to figure out which lift would open first (along with lots of other folks). Turned out they got Far East cleared of the 5-7 feet that fell during the previous two days, which included a complete resort closure the day before. Mid-thigh, untracked light powder even for Tahoe standards where just point em straight down and go. Most powder I've ever skied and I've been skiing for 55 years.
Subsequent runs off Red Dog and Resort chairs for the rest of the day yielded incredible conditions. Was a bit scary in the trees as tree wells everywhere, but a day (and week) to remember. The first night of this trip was the Saturday of the Men's World Cup so a party atmosphere, bands and blizzard everywhere in Olympic Village. Unforgettable!
Newpylong
Well-known member
Most favorable was when my 9 year old son really sacked up (he is a very timid skier) on Dreammaker Headwall at Killington.
We did it twice in 1 day... our legs were cooked. Actually, the second time we caught a train part way down into town.
Smellytele
Well-known member
We hit the train too. Skiing into town was not very good when we were in chamonix
Not my skis, But that's what rentals are for
Snow sucke when we were there as well. First run we did ski all teh way into town and the last mile or so was like picking you way down Stratton or Killington last weekend. Didn't have to take skis off and walk but had to pick our way around a lot of bare spots and dirty old snow/ice.
Dickc
Active member
Have not gotten out this season (back surgery scheduled for May 19th.), but the best runs I EVER HAD in New England were in early April of 1975 at Mt. Mansfield. There was a late season blizzard that dumped on Mansfield. My Dad and I got up to Stowe in spite of the Interstate being closed. We drove it as we did not know it was closed (explained why we saw no other cars!). https://matthewparrilla.com/mansfield-stake/ If you got to this site and select the 74-75 season, you will see we got about 40 inches in early April. Imagine if you will, hitting the North Slope from the Lord and finding knee to mid thigh depth fluffy powder and NO TRACKS on it yet. It was one of those one in a million days.
I'm not going to pick any particular runs...instead I'll pick a specific day - Monday February 27th.
The week prior was when it seemed like winter finally came back to VT as we had a bunch of snow during the week. That also was the week my grandmother passed away. So Friday morning (after it had snowed virtually all week in VT for what seemed like the first time in weeks), I drove to NJ for the wake and funeral. The funeral was Saturday so Sunday was when I was driving back to VT. The forecast looked a little dicey and honestly had me nervous. NWS was predicting heavy snow squalls at times in VT during the afternoon right when I would be driving. Instead I hit barely any snow on the drive up. It started to snow a little bit north of Albany and I thought to myself "here we go", but when I stopped at the rest area on the Northway right before Lake George and looked at the radar, there was practically nothing at all which surprised me. Driving on 149 and 4 it then actually turned sunny with blue skies as I approached the NY/VT border. Stuck to my usual route of heading up 22A and cutting across via Rt 73 up and over the Brandon Gap to Rt 100. Approaching Brandon on 73 it again looked pretty ominous. But I encountered nothing other than some wet roads all the way to the MRV. Driving up the SB Access Rd it finally started to snow a bit again. Not even 5 minutes after I got to my condo it was absolutely dumping snow. The road below my condo complex was completely covered less than 10 minutes after I arrived (and it was bare/wet when I drove it). All I could think of was how it was as if my grandmother was watching over me and clearing a safe path.
Monday turned out to be a sleeper powder day. We had about 6-8" or so of super light fluffy snow from the squalls that came through Sunday night. And Monday was also a beautiful blue sky day with no wind. No one on the mountain either. Every run was fantastic. Fresh tracks non-stop. And every run all I could think about was how it seemed like again my grandmother had somehow given me this amazing day of skiing and was right there with me.
The week prior was when it seemed like winter finally came back to VT as we had a bunch of snow during the week. That also was the week my grandmother passed away. So Friday morning (after it had snowed virtually all week in VT for what seemed like the first time in weeks), I drove to NJ for the wake and funeral. The funeral was Saturday so Sunday was when I was driving back to VT. The forecast looked a little dicey and honestly had me nervous. NWS was predicting heavy snow squalls at times in VT during the afternoon right when I would be driving. Instead I hit barely any snow on the drive up. It started to snow a little bit north of Albany and I thought to myself "here we go", but when I stopped at the rest area on the Northway right before Lake George and looked at the radar, there was practically nothing at all which surprised me. Driving on 149 and 4 it then actually turned sunny with blue skies as I approached the NY/VT border. Stuck to my usual route of heading up 22A and cutting across via Rt 73 up and over the Brandon Gap to Rt 100. Approaching Brandon on 73 it again looked pretty ominous. But I encountered nothing other than some wet roads all the way to the MRV. Driving up the SB Access Rd it finally started to snow a bit again. Not even 5 minutes after I got to my condo it was absolutely dumping snow. The road below my condo complex was completely covered less than 10 minutes after I arrived (and it was bare/wet when I drove it). All I could think of was how it was as if my grandmother was watching over me and clearing a safe path.
Monday turned out to be a sleeper powder day. We had about 6-8" or so of super light fluffy snow from the squalls that came through Sunday night. And Monday was also a beautiful blue sky day with no wind. No one on the mountain either. Every run was fantastic. Fresh tracks non-stop. And every run all I could think about was how it seemed like again my grandmother had somehow given me this amazing day of skiing and was right there with me.
Hawk
Well-known member
I can't remember the exact date but it was that Saturday when we had the bigger storm. It was the Saturday that a bazillion people bought the early ups and the line went all the way up the hill at 7:30. That day Heavens Gate did not open so we went down to gate house and stood in line before it opened at 9. We went right into slidebrook and skied it all the way down in a foot of untracted. That was my best run all year here.
The other run was in the Dolimites, Skiing 4,000 feet of 1/2" to 1" deep corn from the Porta Vescovo down Lake Fedaia. Quiet, beautiful and effortless. Our guide Enrico was a real cool dude and has been all over including a three day assault of El Cap at Yosemite. He said he loves east coast skiers because they always come to ski and can handle most conditions. Ski the East! LOL
The other run was in the Dolimites, Skiing 4,000 feet of 1/2" to 1" deep corn from the Porta Vescovo down Lake Fedaia. Quiet, beautiful and effortless. Our guide Enrico was a real cool dude and has been all over including a three day assault of El Cap at Yosemite. He said he loves east coast skiers because they always come to ski and can handle most conditions. Ski the East! LOL
jimk
Well-known member
Great memories and pics in this thread!
I'll do a little pictorial of my season so far, hope to ski for another month or so.
25 Jan 2023, Hanging Bowl under the upper tram line, Snowbird UT, first time I'd ever skied this particular run, this is my son in about a foot of fresh snow:
6 Feb 2023, another one foot powder day, this is a friend in the STH area off Gad 2 chair at Snowbird:
19 Feb 2023, When I have weary legs i go to the Baldy Chair and ski low angle terrain in Snowbird's Mineral Basin. I rode it about five times late this day, nice view looking over my shoulder on the ride up. Notice nice 4-5" of new overnight snow still not fully tracked out at around 3PM.
Another one foot powder day on 27 Feb 2023, this is a friend in the Catherine's area of Alta, UT:
This is a shot I got of a friend on one of the deepest days of my winter. It was at Sundance, UT on 1 March 2023, and no crowds!
More details on 1 march at Sundance, probably gonna go down as the most memorable day of the season for me: https://www.skitalk.com/ams/sundance-mountain-resort-a-study-in-contrasts.260/
The storms never stopped this winter in Utah, this is a look down the Powderhorn lift line with a lot of loose mid-day powder on 5 March 2023 at Solitude.
Got some pizza in the Solitude condo village that evening, the snowbanks around the sidewalks grew even taller in the weeks after this photo:
9 March 2023 at Snowbird was a really fine day, only about 5" new snow, but that was on top of a lot of earlier snow that was still powdery, and the sun came out at times, a friend in the bookends area of Mineral Basin:
I like this photo I took same day in Ski Patrol Gully at Snowbird:
a friend took this one of me on the same day, 9 March, poaching some pow near a tree
oops, hit max of ten photos, to be continued in next post...
I'll do a little pictorial of my season so far, hope to ski for another month or so.
25 Jan 2023, Hanging Bowl under the upper tram line, Snowbird UT, first time I'd ever skied this particular run, this is my son in about a foot of fresh snow:
6 Feb 2023, another one foot powder day, this is a friend in the STH area off Gad 2 chair at Snowbird:
19 Feb 2023, When I have weary legs i go to the Baldy Chair and ski low angle terrain in Snowbird's Mineral Basin. I rode it about five times late this day, nice view looking over my shoulder on the ride up. Notice nice 4-5" of new overnight snow still not fully tracked out at around 3PM.
Another one foot powder day on 27 Feb 2023, this is a friend in the Catherine's area of Alta, UT:
This is a shot I got of a friend on one of the deepest days of my winter. It was at Sundance, UT on 1 March 2023, and no crowds!
More details on 1 march at Sundance, probably gonna go down as the most memorable day of the season for me: https://www.skitalk.com/ams/sundance-mountain-resort-a-study-in-contrasts.260/
The storms never stopped this winter in Utah, this is a look down the Powderhorn lift line with a lot of loose mid-day powder on 5 March 2023 at Solitude.
Got some pizza in the Solitude condo village that evening, the snowbanks around the sidewalks grew even taller in the weeks after this photo:
9 March 2023 at Snowbird was a really fine day, only about 5" new snow, but that was on top of a lot of earlier snow that was still powdery, and the sun came out at times, a friend in the bookends area of Mineral Basin:
I like this photo I took same day in Ski Patrol Gully at Snowbird:
a friend took this one of me on the same day, 9 March, poaching some pow near a tree
oops, hit max of ten photos, to be continued in next post...
jimk
Well-known member
14 March 2023, another fine day, this time at Solitude, UT
Kapow, far out on the Honeycomb Canyon traverse:
Same day, these two friends took me into Cathedral Cirque, first time for me, very scenic! This is the big cirque off to the right about halfway up the summit chair at Solitude.
20 March 2023, excellent day skiing the trees of Brighton, UT with friends in about 6" new snow:
March was off the hook in Utah, another one footer on 22 March 2023, at Solitude, my tele buddy
Another buddy, same day, shows the depth of the snow a little better:
25 March 2023 bypass road at Snowbird, after a busy winter of tons of snow folks started to get really creative looking for parking spots!
30 March 2023, 15" powder day at Solitude:
Same day/place, lady friend going deep in Memorial Chute
continued in third post...
Kapow, far out on the Honeycomb Canyon traverse:
Same day, these two friends took me into Cathedral Cirque, first time for me, very scenic! This is the big cirque off to the right about halfway up the summit chair at Solitude.
20 March 2023, excellent day skiing the trees of Brighton, UT with friends in about 6" new snow:
March was off the hook in Utah, another one footer on 22 March 2023, at Solitude, my tele buddy
Another buddy, same day, shows the depth of the snow a little better:
25 March 2023 bypass road at Snowbird, after a busy winter of tons of snow folks started to get really creative looking for parking spots!
30 March 2023, 15" powder day at Solitude:
Same day/place, lady friend going deep in Memorial Chute
continued in third post...
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jimk
Well-known member
By 2 April 2023 it's getting hard to enter the Mid Gad Restaurant at Snowbird,
But we hadn't seen the snowmaggedon that would hit the Wasatch from evening of 2 Apr to morning of 5 Apr, 60"+ in 60 hours. I finally got up to ski again on 6 April 2023, it was at Solitude, UT. Strange thing, after 5 feet of snow it only skied like about 10" new snow. They used the term that was new to me "pancaked", meaning the snow was so deep it compressed so that only the last 12 hours of so of snow skied like soft powder, everything underneath was compressed like old packed powder?!?
Whatever it was, 6 April 2023 up at Solitude was another real good day, a young friend in the trees near the Eagle chair:
So much snow on the Moonbeam Lodge:
That's all for now. Ski on my friends!
But we hadn't seen the snowmaggedon that would hit the Wasatch from evening of 2 Apr to morning of 5 Apr, 60"+ in 60 hours. I finally got up to ski again on 6 April 2023, it was at Solitude, UT. Strange thing, after 5 feet of snow it only skied like about 10" new snow. They used the term that was new to me "pancaked", meaning the snow was so deep it compressed so that only the last 12 hours of so of snow skied like soft powder, everything underneath was compressed like old packed powder?!?
Whatever it was, 6 April 2023 up at Solitude was another real good day, a young friend in the trees near the Eagle chair:
So much snow on the Moonbeam Lodge:
That's all for now. Ski on my friends!
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Hawk
Well-known member
Jim, for you guys out West this year, it's not fair. LOL..... wasn't every run your best. So jealous.
That is a good question, there were so many great powder days out west this season so it's hard to choose but I would narrow it down to three runs.....
I had the two best back to back ski days of my life at Alta Snowbird in late December. My favorite tree run at any resort is this unmarked line between Mach Schnell and Dalton's Draw that I always hit a few times while I'm there. The snow the whole way down was incredible this day, there were pockets in here that came up to my waist....
The East Face at Steamboat was another knee/waist deep run the whole way down. I don't think I've ever skied in as much continuous untouched powder back there in my life. It's more of an open bowl at the top but as you get down you have to weave your way through some awesome low angle glades that finishes the run off.
My last, best, run of the year was at Vail of all places. It snowed a ton while we were there in February making it the first time that I've really had a lot of fun skiing Vail. We love this one unmarked section back in the Game Creek Bowl that seldomly gets skied. That whole area this day was untouched powder all the way through the glades.....
I'll add that I skied the Fingers at Palasides Tahoe this season as well, straightling one of the chutes into the wettest, stickiest snow that I've ever skied. As I got full speed into the run out, the snow was so heavy that It made me double eject from both my skis doing a full yard sale while tumbling head over heals 3 or 4 times. The fact that I didn't get hurt at all I guess makes it my run of the year in hindsight even though it was a stupid move to begin with skiing the Fingers in those type of snow conditions. That person in this photo below was my friend collecting both my skis and poles after the wipeout. I was very lucky not to get hurt.....
I had the two best back to back ski days of my life at Alta Snowbird in late December. My favorite tree run at any resort is this unmarked line between Mach Schnell and Dalton's Draw that I always hit a few times while I'm there. The snow the whole way down was incredible this day, there were pockets in here that came up to my waist....
The East Face at Steamboat was another knee/waist deep run the whole way down. I don't think I've ever skied in as much continuous untouched powder back there in my life. It's more of an open bowl at the top but as you get down you have to weave your way through some awesome low angle glades that finishes the run off.
My last, best, run of the year was at Vail of all places. It snowed a ton while we were there in February making it the first time that I've really had a lot of fun skiing Vail. We love this one unmarked section back in the Game Creek Bowl that seldomly gets skied. That whole area this day was untouched powder all the way through the glades.....
I'll add that I skied the Fingers at Palasides Tahoe this season as well, straightling one of the chutes into the wettest, stickiest snow that I've ever skied. As I got full speed into the run out, the snow was so heavy that It made me double eject from both my skis doing a full yard sale while tumbling head over heals 3 or 4 times. The fact that I didn't get hurt at all I guess makes it my run of the year in hindsight even though it was a stupid move to begin with skiing the Fingers in those type of snow conditions. That person in this photo below was my friend collecting both my skis and poles after the wipeout. I was very lucky not to get hurt.....
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I met a friend there in mid March and he said the snow that came down in late February early March was so light and dry it felt like Utah. Unfortunately I missed it by a week. The stuff I skied on felt like skiing in glue. It was a nice mix of snow and rain. Sounds like you timed things perfectly though! The terrain under the resort and red dog chairs are fantastic. That section of the mountain definitely gets overlooked.
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What an amazing season, your going to have a tough time topping this year! You'll be skiing out there until July I'd guess if you wanted to.
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