Jay Silveira
New member
Another 10 inches were reported at Lost Trail on Sunday, making for a total of 16 inches on the weekend. It was obvious where I needed to be. I wasn’t sure who else was going to be there, but I put out a call on the radio to check for Andy and Derek on my first trip up the lift. I didn’t get a response, so I figured I’d try again next run. I was anxious to try something I’d not yet done with first tracks, and opted to go for a run over Femur Ridge and into the bowl below. I skipped the steeps above Femur Ridge, since 10 inches wouldn’t be enough to make them bottomless, and warmed up on North Bowl. I then traversed into the bowl below Femur Ridge and found great snow. The base was still a bit irregular from the previous day’s exploits, but this new snow was light and skied great. While Saturday’s snow was probably in the 8-9% range of H2O content, today’s fluff was more like 5%. <BR> <BR>On my next lift ride, I called out again on the radio and received no response. Fortunately, at the top I saw Bruce hanging out with his friend Rob, and joined up with them. Skiing with Bruce is a lot of fun, but it’s a bit different than my regular pace. Bruce really likes to go go go, instead of my style of poking around and exploring. But, it’s always nice to push yourself out of your usual routine to expand your skiing. Well, I certainly had to expand my speed skiing with Bruce and Rob. We ripped off 5 runs on the main slopes, most of the time blasting through the powder at breakneck speed. We also caught up with another guy from the lab, Ted. The four of us really had quite a fun time, all in an unplanned sort of way. I was happy I had the CMH fats; they loved the high speed pace we were keeping. Bruce was riding a new pair of skis (Orange Atomics, pretty fat) and was really ripping it up. Both he and Rob were excited to check out a few trees, so I led them through a couple of my favorite places and they seemed to have a lot of fun. <BR> <BR>Once I’d confirmed that chair 4 had opened, I was anxious to get over there and hit the fresh snow. I didn’t expect that Bruce would want to go (he’s more if a fan of the chair 1 & 2 terrain), but I was excited when he did. I showed him the best route over to chair 4 via Main Street, and we dove through the open trees to Side Street. The snow was fantastic – very light and barely tracked. Bruce had a great run and was psyched. Off of chair 4, we pretty much hit the same run I had done the previous day with Derek and Yvette, “The Slot”, followed by “Lewis and Clark”. Bruce and I each took a side on Lewis and Clark, and kept skiing untracked snow until our quads burned. Often, the powder ends before my quads, but not this time. We Ripped off 2 runs in the same manner, and then finished off with Walt’s Run, which got Bruce back to chair 3 to finish his half day. <BR> <BR>I was going to head back to the lodge as well, but I had noticed something when I was last up at the summit. To the far skiers right of the Saddle Mountain terrain, there appeared to be a new trail. I was amazed that I hadn’t noticed it sooner, but there it was, just as big as the rest of the trails in the area, and waiting to be explored. I checked with the lift op on chair 4 and he told me it was called “Super G”. When I took a run, I found that it started out similar to the rest of the main Saddle Mountain runs, with a general blue pitch, but it seemed to twist and turn a bit more. Then, I noticed the real difference when it dove off the south face into Elk Basin and got nice and steep. I poked around in the trees off the sides, and there were some really nice shots. This was terrain that James and I had explored last year before it was cut, but the new trail really opened up some options. Super G was so fun that I had to go up and hit it again. It is definitely now one of my favorite trails on Saddle Mountain. <BR> <BR>The moisture continues to flow into the region, and when Lost Trail reopened today (Thursday), the reported 11 new inches since Monday. I didn’t make it out for any turns, but Erica will be out tomorrow with her 5th grade class and should be able to give a report. Saturday should be some great skiing off Saddle Mountain when they reopen chair 4, so I plan to be there. I got a few scenery pictures from Sunday, which can be found at: <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.JandEproductions.com/2004/25JAN04.html" TARGET="_top">http://www.JandEproductions.com/2004/25JAN04.html</A> <BR> <BR>J.Spin