2/14/07
In a word, epic. Dumped all day; HARD. Temps in lower teens. Light winds. No lines, etc? fresh turns virtually every run. Madonna liftline was good, but did start to get bumped up towards the end of the day. Freefall was the shit. Fresh tracks at 3pm. A bit boney in some area?s, but visible and avoidable. Best runs all year long right here! Best day of the season and will be hard to beat. Night instructing on Sir Henry?s in 2? of pow was a treat? :roll:
2/15/07
Woke up early and tried to get on one of the first chairs up Madonna I lift. Nope. Windhold. 50mph winds. Sterling lift backed way up and hadn?t started loading yet until 8:45am due to the wind. Lifts where running extra slow as well, due to the wind. temps were to reach 3 degrees. It was cold. Stay covered up, ride hard, and keep moving. Bootlegger was my first run. Dope, but 2?-3?drifts all over the place. It was more like a turn, lean way back to get nose above drift, turn, repeat? not as fresh as yesterday on Freefall, but it?ll do. Much deeper too. Over 2? deep and more in the drift?s obviously. All said and done, I think Smuggs was claiming anywhere between 24?-36? from the storm. From my obs, I?d say 40? give or take 5?-6?. I lapped Sterling liftline a couple times after Bootlegger. All good with some drifts, but not as bad. Once it got some traffic to knock the drifts down, it was actually better than hitting it fresh and maneuvering over/around the drifts. I took a quick break to thaw out. nose was white.
MII wasn?t running at all. I went back out and saw a small group waiting near and looking over at the Madonna I lift. Plus I?d just overheard something about it opening soon, so I figured I?d go over and wait for a few. Well well, look who it is. Patrick and Luke. I was planning on meeting up with them on Friday, but their plans changed and there they were. We hung out for a bit and MI didn?t look like it was going to start loading any time soon, so we went over to Sterling. Luke lead the way? Our run was Chute to upper Liftline to Black Bear. All good and fresh, but starting to get a little choppy. 11:30ish. Bombable soft chop if you had the legs. The Canadians had the legs. These guys can ski! MI was running so we headed up. The headwall on Liftline was all blown off. Lots of rock showing again. oh no! all kinds of stuff showing up again all the way up liftline and drifts forming everywhere. It?s all closed, and for very good reason. It sucked. Once we got to the top it was blowing a little bit. Not so much it would blow you over, but not a place we wanted to hang out for very long.
We chose upper FIS since the herds where dropping Doc?s. We can?t go wrong we?re thinking, but expect to see some drifting. Haha. Yep. We found the drifts alright. 4? drifts scattered all over FIS and blowing whiteout conditions riding down. Real safe! Winds were 20-60mph at the top of Madonna. I tried to get a picture of a guy on one of those handicap chairs who was ripping down through all this, but my camera froze up?or was it my hand. Anyways, Patrick and Luke where kindly waiting. Actually, Upper FIS wasn?t all that bad when the wind wasn?t blowing, and you could find a line through all the drifts, and your face/nose didn?t start to burn cause of frostbite. Other than that, it was all right. MI shut down by the time we got down to the bottom again. Obviously, because of wind. Back on Sterling, slackcountry shots off of the LT were good and I heard of folks heading to the BB. I didn?t want the 3?+ fresh in there. Imagine the bootpack back to the lot along the road? ?.if you didn?t just wallow trying to get down that is?. Maybe next time once there are a few tracks in there. Oh ya, patrick and luke headed back there when I went in to thaw out and grab some food. Still wondering how that went? Are you guys alive?
The Mother (nature) greeted us on v-day for sure. Then she got pissed and blew hard all night long. She blew some serious snow around and it all had to go somewhere?. Some say the snow was too deep, and this is fairly true if you weren?t on something steep enough. Unfortunately, there isn?t a consistent 40 degree pitch top to bottom. There are some flat sections and plenty of people going head over heals in these parts and other area?s in the too deep snow. Yep, I did a cartwheel once and it was awesome, cause I rolled right back over and just kept on riding. I love when that happens.
Can?t complain about today, but v-day was by far the best dam valentine I have ever received! Much love
In a word, epic. Dumped all day; HARD. Temps in lower teens. Light winds. No lines, etc? fresh turns virtually every run. Madonna liftline was good, but did start to get bumped up towards the end of the day. Freefall was the shit. Fresh tracks at 3pm. A bit boney in some area?s, but visible and avoidable. Best runs all year long right here! Best day of the season and will be hard to beat. Night instructing on Sir Henry?s in 2? of pow was a treat? :roll:
2/15/07
Woke up early and tried to get on one of the first chairs up Madonna I lift. Nope. Windhold. 50mph winds. Sterling lift backed way up and hadn?t started loading yet until 8:45am due to the wind. Lifts where running extra slow as well, due to the wind. temps were to reach 3 degrees. It was cold. Stay covered up, ride hard, and keep moving. Bootlegger was my first run. Dope, but 2?-3?drifts all over the place. It was more like a turn, lean way back to get nose above drift, turn, repeat? not as fresh as yesterday on Freefall, but it?ll do. Much deeper too. Over 2? deep and more in the drift?s obviously. All said and done, I think Smuggs was claiming anywhere between 24?-36? from the storm. From my obs, I?d say 40? give or take 5?-6?. I lapped Sterling liftline a couple times after Bootlegger. All good with some drifts, but not as bad. Once it got some traffic to knock the drifts down, it was actually better than hitting it fresh and maneuvering over/around the drifts. I took a quick break to thaw out. nose was white.
MII wasn?t running at all. I went back out and saw a small group waiting near and looking over at the Madonna I lift. Plus I?d just overheard something about it opening soon, so I figured I?d go over and wait for a few. Well well, look who it is. Patrick and Luke. I was planning on meeting up with them on Friday, but their plans changed and there they were. We hung out for a bit and MI didn?t look like it was going to start loading any time soon, so we went over to Sterling. Luke lead the way? Our run was Chute to upper Liftline to Black Bear. All good and fresh, but starting to get a little choppy. 11:30ish. Bombable soft chop if you had the legs. The Canadians had the legs. These guys can ski! MI was running so we headed up. The headwall on Liftline was all blown off. Lots of rock showing again. oh no! all kinds of stuff showing up again all the way up liftline and drifts forming everywhere. It?s all closed, and for very good reason. It sucked. Once we got to the top it was blowing a little bit. Not so much it would blow you over, but not a place we wanted to hang out for very long.
We chose upper FIS since the herds where dropping Doc?s. We can?t go wrong we?re thinking, but expect to see some drifting. Haha. Yep. We found the drifts alright. 4? drifts scattered all over FIS and blowing whiteout conditions riding down. Real safe! Winds were 20-60mph at the top of Madonna. I tried to get a picture of a guy on one of those handicap chairs who was ripping down through all this, but my camera froze up?or was it my hand. Anyways, Patrick and Luke where kindly waiting. Actually, Upper FIS wasn?t all that bad when the wind wasn?t blowing, and you could find a line through all the drifts, and your face/nose didn?t start to burn cause of frostbite. Other than that, it was all right. MI shut down by the time we got down to the bottom again. Obviously, because of wind. Back on Sterling, slackcountry shots off of the LT were good and I heard of folks heading to the BB. I didn?t want the 3?+ fresh in there. Imagine the bootpack back to the lot along the road? ?.if you didn?t just wallow trying to get down that is?. Maybe next time once there are a few tracks in there. Oh ya, patrick and luke headed back there when I went in to thaw out and grab some food. Still wondering how that went? Are you guys alive?
The Mother (nature) greeted us on v-day for sure. Then she got pissed and blew hard all night long. She blew some serious snow around and it all had to go somewhere?. Some say the snow was too deep, and this is fairly true if you weren?t on something steep enough. Unfortunately, there isn?t a consistent 40 degree pitch top to bottom. There are some flat sections and plenty of people going head over heals in these parts and other area?s in the too deep snow. Yep, I did a cartwheel once and it was awesome, cause I rolled right back over and just kept on riding. I love when that happens.
Can?t complain about today, but v-day was by far the best dam valentine I have ever received! Much love
