riverc0il
New member
this has been such a great week. vacations rule. i only wish my body was in mid-season form so i didn't have to blow off the last two days to rest for the next four in a row. so i only did a half day at mad river packing it up at 1:30p, just when the snow was starting to soften up and i could feel the muscles starting to ache.
much was said about mad river not opening last week. having seen the damage in first person, i can say with 100% certainly it was WAY more than justified. :shock: that said, there was some INCREDIBLE skiing to be done today. conditions were best on the upper mountain and deteriorated quiclkly as you descended. best idea was to load at the mid-station and ski the upper mountain when possible.
started out on upper catamount to warm up which held out pretty good, a few icy patches (and when i say ice, i mean 100% legit frozen puddle of water, not what most folks mean when they say "ice" referring to a scraped down groomer track). but the ice was few and far between and easily avoidable. next up was cat bowl with decent coverage, sometimes thin, a little loose snow on the sides, and holding up well. this trail would have been MINT to come back to when things warmed up, but it didn't happen.
they just dropped the rope on glade, so i had at it. wished i hadn't. crap loads of thin cover making untracked pow look deceptive. i took a few lame falls due to hitting rocks and stumps to knock my ego down a few steps. sometimes that is a good thing. the run out on bunny was... um, interesting. one section featured near wall to wall ice (real legit ice flow here folks) with some scraped down groomer tracks in between (not much wiggle room). ski it if you can, as they say :shock: rockafellas would have been nice bumps when it warmed up, was so so in the AM but holding out well considering it was a lower mountain trail.
back to the top for two exquisit runs down chute. SWEET! great bumps starting to soften up, and both times got boot deep in pow on one of the side chutes, killer. repeat! my back and legs were feeling too much burn and i wanted to take it easy... so i went over to fall line for two runs :twisted: love fall line, love it love it love it. great soft bumps with occasional thin cover. i went for a spin through the woods but wasn't enjoying the coverage in the tight trees. thank you sir may i have another!
last run was paradise. paradise indeed. this was actually the first time i have hit paradise, nice run! as i started out, i knew there was the waterfall hit coming up soon. it pretty much dropped out from under me just as i saw it, sweet hit! snow was fantastic, bumps were great, and again i wondered off into the woods finding some untracked boot deep, killer! but it wasn't powder, the above freezing temps had generated a cruddy glop which made my normally quick and nimble turns feel sluggish.
finished out on canyon. upper canyon had lots of thin cover but excellent soft snow and nice bumps. lower canyon was a total mess and i wouldn't bother repeating. a few steps of grass walking on a short section of survival turns wasn't that much fine.
props to the management for all they have done. they made all the right decisions and if it was about the money, they would not have bothered opening up mid-week as they surely lost money today with not a big crowd and most likely either pass holders or mad card holders (which i was). this will probably be their last weekend, and it isn't for lack of excellent skiing at the top! but the lower elevation trails are descimated and even mid-mountain is slim pickings.
much was said about mad river not opening last week. having seen the damage in first person, i can say with 100% certainly it was WAY more than justified. :shock: that said, there was some INCREDIBLE skiing to be done today. conditions were best on the upper mountain and deteriorated quiclkly as you descended. best idea was to load at the mid-station and ski the upper mountain when possible.
started out on upper catamount to warm up which held out pretty good, a few icy patches (and when i say ice, i mean 100% legit frozen puddle of water, not what most folks mean when they say "ice" referring to a scraped down groomer track). but the ice was few and far between and easily avoidable. next up was cat bowl with decent coverage, sometimes thin, a little loose snow on the sides, and holding up well. this trail would have been MINT to come back to when things warmed up, but it didn't happen.
they just dropped the rope on glade, so i had at it. wished i hadn't. crap loads of thin cover making untracked pow look deceptive. i took a few lame falls due to hitting rocks and stumps to knock my ego down a few steps. sometimes that is a good thing. the run out on bunny was... um, interesting. one section featured near wall to wall ice (real legit ice flow here folks) with some scraped down groomer tracks in between (not much wiggle room). ski it if you can, as they say :shock: rockafellas would have been nice bumps when it warmed up, was so so in the AM but holding out well considering it was a lower mountain trail.
back to the top for two exquisit runs down chute. SWEET! great bumps starting to soften up, and both times got boot deep in pow on one of the side chutes, killer. repeat! my back and legs were feeling too much burn and i wanted to take it easy... so i went over to fall line for two runs :twisted: love fall line, love it love it love it. great soft bumps with occasional thin cover. i went for a spin through the woods but wasn't enjoying the coverage in the tight trees. thank you sir may i have another!
last run was paradise. paradise indeed. this was actually the first time i have hit paradise, nice run! as i started out, i knew there was the waterfall hit coming up soon. it pretty much dropped out from under me just as i saw it, sweet hit! snow was fantastic, bumps were great, and again i wondered off into the woods finding some untracked boot deep, killer! but it wasn't powder, the above freezing temps had generated a cruddy glop which made my normally quick and nimble turns feel sluggish.
finished out on canyon. upper canyon had lots of thin cover but excellent soft snow and nice bumps. lower canyon was a total mess and i wouldn't bother repeating. a few steps of grass walking on a short section of survival turns wasn't that much fine.
props to the management for all they have done. they made all the right decisions and if it was about the money, they would not have bothered opening up mid-week as they surely lost money today with not a big crowd and most likely either pass holders or mad card holders (which i was). this will probably be their last weekend, and it isn't for lack of excellent skiing at the top! but the lower elevation trails are descimated and even mid-mountain is slim pickings.
