if you snoozed, you lost ... both days were awesome but for different reasons. saturday was all about ovation & the fiddle. opening weekends on those trails are not to be missed and to get them both in the same weekend, particularly the fiddle, was incredible. both trails skied totally different. ovation was blown from the headwall down on that silky, light man made snow and was essentially flat even late in the day when some small, well spaced bumps developed. the fiddle on the other hand was monstrous. they blew a ton on it and it set up with huge whales that quickly developed in gigantic bumps. the lines didn't make much sense but were a blast nonetheless. they also were blowing on outer limits early and that was great again. guns were shut off on all those runs by early morning. cold was not an issue as we were even able the canyon quad for a few runs. supe & skye lark early were also in excellent shape. needles, escapade and west glade also were great. no crowds.
if that was all it would have been a great weekend. early forecasts had predicted that the storm was going to stay pretty much south of vermont but we woke sunday morning to about a foot of the lightest, driest pow we get in these parts. much windier on the front but still tolerable. we started with tracks on supe and just worked our way over to snowden. we hit ovation next ... awesome. jumped on the gondi and hit escapade>cascade. by now on the trails you were pretty much getting seconds. downdraft followed. west glade, northstar & vagabond were all sweet. hit patsies and though it was great, still thought they needed a bit more base in there. we later heard from others that other tree runs were face shots all day so maybe we blew that one. afternoon was kind of anticlimatic though the fiddle was still great with gargantuan bumps on upper. upper wildfire was great and grizzly was fun. needles & vertigo (from the cutover down) also had tons of pow. wanted to hit the south ridge but we didn't want to do fallsbrook so we bagged it. some lifts were closed due to the wind but despite that and it being a powder day other than the gondis, we skied onto lifts all day. awesome weekend!
if that was all it would have been a great weekend. early forecasts had predicted that the storm was going to stay pretty much south of vermont but we woke sunday morning to about a foot of the lightest, driest pow we get in these parts. much windier on the front but still tolerable. we started with tracks on supe and just worked our way over to snowden. we hit ovation next ... awesome. jumped on the gondi and hit escapade>cascade. by now on the trails you were pretty much getting seconds. downdraft followed. west glade, northstar & vagabond were all sweet. hit patsies and though it was great, still thought they needed a bit more base in there. we later heard from others that other tree runs were face shots all day so maybe we blew that one. afternoon was kind of anticlimatic though the fiddle was still great with gargantuan bumps on upper. upper wildfire was great and grizzly was fun. needles & vertigo (from the cutover down) also had tons of pow. wanted to hit the south ridge but we didn't want to do fallsbrook so we bagged it. some lifts were closed due to the wind but despite that and it being a powder day other than the gondis, we skied onto lifts all day. awesome weekend!
