amazing rockpile skiing 5/13/09

Tony Crocker":21v6ye2c said:
Looks really good. How long is it likely to last? I'm sure Patrick needs to know!
Click to expand...

i wish we had pics of the summit snowfields, both east and south as well as monroe brook. the snowpack is definitely thinner than the past 2 years, but in some areas only about a week behind. the auto road is supposed to open saturday (16th), a week or 2 earlier than years past so i'd say that the great gulf will have great skiing and still close to the 1200 vert for a good 2 weeks or so, a bit less vert, like 700 as shown in the upper boot packing pic. tucks of course will have some sort of skiing till summer. i will ski a couple of days a week till the end of the month or so and will def be utilizing the auto roads easeful access. skiing into june? no prob. july? can't rule it out.

rog
 
I'm sure when putting up huge ski day numbers like you do, it's tough to say "this was the best day," but what exactly are you using as your criteria?
 
criteria? excellent question.

a combo of many factors really. snow quality/smooth untracked comes first always for me. pow or corn? as much as i love pow, good corn can be skied in much wilder terrain more safely more often than not. terrain? i like big lines, big steep lines especially when conditions can't get any better. yesterday we skied big/steep lines up to 1400 vert @ 45 degree pitch, multiple times. weather? sun and clouds, enough sun for good light and warmth, enough clouds for not baking me into submission while kicking a fresh booter up 1200 vert for 30 minutes at a time. company? the company was great. the tour? covered a lot of ground and skied perfect corn on east, north, south and west aspects. home town advantage? having skiing like that in my home state takes the cake.

rog
 
The criteria listed above fit mine rather well. And from my weekend back in April 1990 (Tucks Saturday and Killington Sunday) it made perfect sense to me why so many people were in Tucks. The quality difference in terms of both snow and terrain totally justified the grunt work of getting there and lesser quantity vs. lift service IMHO.

Out here it doesn't work that way. You get similar spring snow and terrain lift accessed at Mammoth/LCC. So most of us are content with that. And if quality is similar it's hard to argue that more quantity isn't better.
 
more pics and fun facts have been posted on report from above link. fyi. will report on next weeks conditions for my tues/wed ski days.

rog
 
I was hoping to head up the auto road for some slacking tomorrow but the weather and my schedule may not cooperate. Raining pretty good here and it's supposed to last through mid day tomorrow. My son doesn't get back from a scout trip until 11 AM and it's gotta be a good 4-1/2 hour drive to and up the auto road from here. He's been picking up my Goodman's book and studying it pretty hard. O:) Definitely shooting for the slack-fest next weekend, weather permitting. I'm in LA most of the week and then heading north of Portland, OR late in the week. Gonna take my boots with me in case I can sneak away and find some snow close by. Hoping to hit Hillman's or Left Gully once before it melts too much more. Hey Rog, are you guys going to 50% off on skis this year? Nice TR for the tour!
 
hey gregg,

i'm heading up to ski tues/wed this week the 19th-20th. both days will be highs of low 60's with sun and overnight temps in the 20's in the valleys \:D/ . not that we need overnight refreezes out here, cuz we don't as the skiing seems to always stay perfect. i was looking at reports from turns all year. man i'd hate to have to get such early starts to get the skiing b4 it gets to deep, punchy, manky. anyway, still some good skiing to be had. slackfest turns? east snowfields are close to done. great gulf is great, and hh is still in for a good 1000-1200 vert. skis 50% off?
not yet. i may be up on memo wkend sat the 23rd.

rog
 
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