Day 56
A quick better-late-than-never report. The Kid and I headed up for a few runs before heading back home for our Mother's Day obligations.
85-degree highs in the Salt Lake Valley meant temps in the low 60s up on the hill under cloudless skies and 120 inches of settled mid-mountain base. In a word, gorgeous. Even the leaves on the aspens near the bottom of Baby Thunder are sprouting.
The Bird had made a decision to run Mineral Basin Express from 8 am to noon for the weekend, and according to the tram op on our first ride at 10 am they're "probably" going to do that next weekend as well, when the tram is down for maintenance. GadZoom was closed last weekend, but will reopen next weekend while the tram is down.
We headed straight to Mineral and took a first run on the east-facing aspect of Mineral Launcher. While the first 20 turns or so were delightful and supportable, it got mankier down lower, and we did a quick exit stage right to the groomer. We followed up with two more runs, both starting on Lupine Loop and cruising down to Bassanova, ducking off the groomed here and there to sample the goods.
Our last run was a top-to-bottom cruiser through the Gad Valley by traversing out to Pipeline Bowl, Rasta Chutes, lower Mark Malou, Bassackwards and Bass Highway, as the kid awkwardly jumped the road lip into lower Mach Schnell back to the truck:
Video
A quick better-late-than-never report. The Kid and I headed up for a few runs before heading back home for our Mother's Day obligations.
85-degree highs in the Salt Lake Valley meant temps in the low 60s up on the hill under cloudless skies and 120 inches of settled mid-mountain base. In a word, gorgeous. Even the leaves on the aspens near the bottom of Baby Thunder are sprouting.
The Bird had made a decision to run Mineral Basin Express from 8 am to noon for the weekend, and according to the tram op on our first ride at 10 am they're "probably" going to do that next weekend as well, when the tram is down for maintenance. GadZoom was closed last weekend, but will reopen next weekend while the tram is down.
We headed straight to Mineral and took a first run on the east-facing aspect of Mineral Launcher. While the first 20 turns or so were delightful and supportable, it got mankier down lower, and we did a quick exit stage right to the groomer. We followed up with two more runs, both starting on Lupine Loop and cruising down to Bassanova, ducking off the groomed here and there to sample the goods.
Our last run was a top-to-bottom cruiser through the Gad Valley by traversing out to Pipeline Bowl, Rasta Chutes, lower Mark Malou, Bassackwards and Bass Highway, as the kid awkwardly jumped the road lip into lower Mach Schnell back to the truck:
Video