Date(s) Skied: Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Resort or Ski Area: Wildcat Mountain, NH
Conditions: FROZEN granular, corn the bottom 400 vert. High 20's summit, High 30's Base
Trip Report:
Well, I appear to be cursed. The ever elusive good spring skiing day escaped me again today. If it weren't for the damn weather man, I would've gone yesterday and skied the wonderful corn bumps that Iso crave and am running out of time to experience.
Today was my first time back to Wildcat in a couple of months. The mountain still has full coverage on their snowmaking trails, but the natural trails are thinning quick. The advertised 100% open, but plenty of sections of trails were roped and if it wasn't groomed the night before, it was essentially unskiable except for the bottom 400 vert of the mountain or so. Everything up top was frozen solid and rather crusty. The snow was edgeable, but it seemed very much like skiing on early November snowmaking conditions where there's a ton of water in the snow and it's real 'grabby' yet slick all at the same time.
The only thing remotely close to enjoyable bumps was Chutes, but it needed a ton of skier traffic to break up the crust and get a good corn surface. So, I cut my day pretty short today after about a dozen or so runs on the crusty not too enjoyable conditions. The bottom 1/4 of the mountain had softened to a nice corn surface, but I have no use for corn outside of bumps.
The only real positive that came out of today was I got to take out the new 06' Bandit X's I received. I REALLY liked them. These will be my primary skis over the B2's outside of powder days. The X's were much quicker underfoot and had a very solid edge grip despite being on the factory tune from three years ago. I can tell they are gonna rock in good bumps and will do well on skied off surfaces. The only area they suffer in comparison to the B2 is they're not quite as stable at speed; a bit squirly. I'm sure in powder they will be inferior to the B2's as well. That said, this is a very fun ski that is going to do exactly what I hoped for when I purchased it.
Hopefully, I get to mash some soft sweet bumps in them before the year is through. Only a few days left for it and I hope I don't keep striking out like I have been.
Resort or Ski Area: Wildcat Mountain, NH
Conditions: FROZEN granular, corn the bottom 400 vert. High 20's summit, High 30's Base
Trip Report:
Well, I appear to be cursed. The ever elusive good spring skiing day escaped me again today. If it weren't for the damn weather man, I would've gone yesterday and skied the wonderful corn bumps that Iso crave and am running out of time to experience.
Today was my first time back to Wildcat in a couple of months. The mountain still has full coverage on their snowmaking trails, but the natural trails are thinning quick. The advertised 100% open, but plenty of sections of trails were roped and if it wasn't groomed the night before, it was essentially unskiable except for the bottom 400 vert of the mountain or so. Everything up top was frozen solid and rather crusty. The snow was edgeable, but it seemed very much like skiing on early November snowmaking conditions where there's a ton of water in the snow and it's real 'grabby' yet slick all at the same time.
The only thing remotely close to enjoyable bumps was Chutes, but it needed a ton of skier traffic to break up the crust and get a good corn surface. So, I cut my day pretty short today after about a dozen or so runs on the crusty not too enjoyable conditions. The bottom 1/4 of the mountain had softened to a nice corn surface, but I have no use for corn outside of bumps.
The only real positive that came out of today was I got to take out the new 06' Bandit X's I received. I REALLY liked them. These will be my primary skis over the B2's outside of powder days. The X's were much quicker underfoot and had a very solid edge grip despite being on the factory tune from three years ago. I can tell they are gonna rock in good bumps and will do well on skied off surfaces. The only area they suffer in comparison to the B2 is they're not quite as stable at speed; a bit squirly. I'm sure in powder they will be inferior to the B2's as well. That said, this is a very fun ski that is going to do exactly what I hoped for when I purchased it.
Hopefully, I get to mash some soft sweet bumps in them before the year is through. Only a few days left for it and I hope I don't keep striking out like I have been.
