Jay Silveira
New member
It’s always nice to wake up and find that your local ski area received twice as much snow as you expected… especially when you expected 10 inches. Since Lost Trail had already received 8 inches in the Wednesday-Thursday timeframe, with more expected Friday night, we had certainly planned to get out there on Saturday. But, when I called the snow phone Saturday morning and got a report of 20 inches new overnight with temperatures in the teens, we knew the day had moved up into “epic” potential. We accelerated our preparations, and were on our way by 8:30 A.M. We had even picked up a couple of inches of snow in the valley, so we knew the drive might be a bit slow. It turned out that the roads were a bit snowy, but some areas of the valley were already drying out so the drive went smoothly. <BR> <BR>We arrived just around opening time (9:30 A.M.) as they were beginning to load the lifts. We quickly got our things into the lodge, and got E out the door as quickly as possible. We had met Derek in the parking lot, and with the use of radios it meant E could hook up with him for some serious powder action. As a bonus, the sun had come out on the mountain, so E was really going to get a taste of one of the best days of the year. I’ll have to let her elaborate on how the morning went, but I did get calls on the radio a number of times expressing how simply ridiculous it was out there. Since it was sunny and relatively mild outside, I took the opportunity to get Tyler outside in his snowsuit and let him play in the snow. He was a bit like the Michelin Man in his snowsuit, but he did manage to walk around a bit. He couldn’t handle walking in the powder yet, but I stuck him in the snow up to his chest a couple of times and he got to play with it. I had an enjoyable morning, but I was also excited to get out in the afternoon and hopefully catch the opening of Chair 4. There were almost 30 inches of untouched powder over there, which meant that the skiing would be fabulous as long as the steep terrain opened. <BR> <BR>E came in some time between 12:00 and 1:00, and I headed out for my ski shift. Just as I got into line for Chair 1, the lift operator indicated that Chair 4 had opened. I was really psyched about my timing. Off the top of Chair 1, I headed down Powder Bowl, and as I went off the side of the trail into the untracked powder, the implications of 20 inches of new snow suddenly hit me. E had told me that you needed steep terrain to keep moving, but it wasn’t until the snow came up to my thighs and basically pulled me to a stop that it really hit home. “Ahh, right, I forgot what happens with this much snow.” Now that I was mentally and physically adjusted to a big powder day, I got back on the trail and continued to the base of Chair 4. In the Chair 3 area, I headed for Lower Main Street, knowing that it was the only trail in the area with enough pitch to allow for real turns in this much snow. Well, other folks must have known the same thing, because although the surrounding trails were basically untracked, Lower Main Street was tracked out. I did manage to catch some fresh snow off the left side in the trees, but it was only a taste. <BR> <BR>With almost 30 inches of new snow over at Chair 4, and a sun-crusty layer below, the avalanche potential was pretty scary. Therefore, the patrol had closed EVERYTHING to the skier’s right of the lift line (which is where all the steepest terrain is located). They even had patrollers and lift operators stationed on the unloading ramp warning everyone not to cross under the lift. They basically had to manage things this way, or else people would cheat (as usually happens) and possibly get themselves into serious trouble. At least it was nice to see them taking the avalanche potential seriously. <BR> <BR>Since basically everything I wanted to ski was off limits, I took the best option that was left, “The Slot” which goes just below the lift. Even though it has a pitch of 30 degrees or so, it was STILL difficult to keep going. I was on my 180 CMH fats, and surprisingly they were feeling very skinny today. The skiing was fun, but not epic due to the combination of snow depth and pitch. I’d have to say that the skiing was actually quite difficult, even on the powder boards, and I had to keep my tips up to even make a few turns. The steepest section was over way too soon, and then I was down to the blue runs. There was basically no chance of skiing the untracked here. The best you could do was to gain speed on the groomed surface, and pop over into the powder for a bit. It’s always a bummer when you have a storm that just give you too much snow, but I’ll take it any day over hardpack. <BR> <BR>I hit another couple of runs, and the skiing got even more difficult as things became more tracked up. The snow seemed to be setting up a bit, leaving serious trenches where other skiers had been, and it really took me a while to dial in the technique to master the conditions. Eventually Derek and his friends made it over from the main area, and as they worked their way down “The Slot” with me, they certainly struggled a bit, and commented that the snow had set up seriously compared to the morning. I was blasting through the stuff pretty well at this point (very happy to be wearing the fats) but it wasn’t the effortless stuff E had spoken of in the morning. All in all, it wasn’t a bad day, but certainly not epic for me relative to what one might expect with almost 30 inches of powder. The never opened Hollywood Bowl or the rest of the steep terrain on Saturday, but that meant Sunday had some really good potential as a super “day after”. Stay tuned for details. <BR> <BR>J.Spin