Lost Trail Powder Mountain, MT 1/4/03

Jay Silveira

New member
Lost Trail reported 7 inches since Thursday night (Friday was a surprise powder morning, although not quite big enough to skip out on work). Today I headed up with some friends from work to see what was left. The Friday people had generally tracked up the trails, but there was a lot of loose snow on the sides and many areas of trees were untracked. The Saddle Mountain SNOTEL reporting station: <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/Missoula/msoobs?site=SDMM8&type=3&src=java" TARGET="_top">http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/Missoula/msoobs?site=SDMM8&type=3&src=java</A> <BR> <BR>is finally approaching the 40-inch mark, and I think the trees are just about ready. Perhaps the Mt. Mansfield official “40-inches at the stake” rule for tree skiing will work for Lost Trail as well. I went in a few areas of trees and things seemed to be covered, and a lot of people were playing around in the woods. <BR> <BR>We started the day off with some groomed runs, and the snow was really soft. To sweeten the deal, Mother Nature came in with a quick squall to drop another inch or two. It dumped really hard for about 30-60 minutes, and just that little bit of new snow bumped the skiing up a notch. We’d heard that they had just opened the Moose Creek area (an area at the Idaho edge of the resort with lots of powder fields). Derek first guided us in through the “Derek” entrance, and we could see that there were large areas of untracked snow still remaining. It was bottomless powder, although the layers below were a bit heavier from the warmer storms. It was great, and certainly worthy of another run. We went in higher this time, guided by Jon, and found more fresh lines. <BR> <BR>We finished off the morning with a few more runs on some of the steeper trails, and I pulled out the head cam to try footage of skiers in front of me. I got some good shots of both Derek and Jon, and an especially good shot of a fall that Jon took, in which he ended up sliding down the hill headfirst on his back. He kindly waved to the camera during his trip. I’ve angled the camera up a bit more as per suggestions and it seemed to get a nice horizon shot. Still, it seems that with this lens (3.6 mm, providing a 72-degree field of view) people get small really fast as they move away. Thus it looks like I’ll want to stay right on their heels for the best shot. Other lenses are available from the Sportzshot web site, like a 2.9 mm lens that gives an 83-degree field of view, or an 8 mm lens that gives a 36-degree filed of view. I don’t think I’ll ever need any more field of view than the 3.6 mm, but it would be interesting to see what the 8 mm does for following skiers. I tested out a fanny pack setup for the head cam today which worked pretty well; I could hang the pack around my neck and set the camera up on lift rides. This is a great option when you don’t want to make people wait while you fiddle with the equipment. I can (theoretically) start the camera running just before getting off the lift and be good to go! <BR> <BR>There is another storm coming through the area tonight, but it seems pretty small. If we get a few new inches though, it will make the skiing even better. I wouldn’t mind being home in Vermont to catch the latest 2-foot dump though; I can’t wait to hear the stories. <BR> <BR>J.Spin
 
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