On Monday the road opened at 11:30 and we reached Hotel Portillo at 12:05. We decided to have their excellent lunch at 12:30 and started skiing about 2:00PM. Only half the area was open and closing time was 5PM, so it seemed wise to save energy for the sunny full operation day Tuesday. It was nonetheless an adventurous afternoon.
After a warmup on the plateau groomer we skied a short skier’s left pitch to test the new snow and came back up via the poma serving Tio Bob’s.
Liz skied the groomer again while I wanted to try Garganta, which I had observed from the lift was way wider than in 2007.
This was my approach to where I dropped in under the chair.
Bad navigation on my part as I was here instead!
I managed that though not as easily as before age 70 with at least one suck wind break. But here’s the lower part.
I fell in the choke where the lower skier is and slid about 100 feet before self-arresting. Patrol showed up promptly but I was OK to continue.
I returned and went the right was to the correct Garganta entry below Tio Bob’s.
It about as steep as Climax at Mammoth and widens out not far down. The steep part was already skier packed and lower down I spread out skier’s right enjoying the classic lake and hotel view.
This also allowed me to test the untracked snow which was heavy from whatever rain had mixed in but was supportable with rounded turns. These took quite some effort and I knew I would rent whatever fat ski Portillo had for Tuesday even before reading ChrisC’s recommendation.
I rejoined Liz and we agreed to ride the Condor slingshot poma as practice before Roca Jack on Tuesday. The first time we made the error of getting off at the same time with both of us falling and Liz losing a ski. Another skier gave us the helpful description of procedure. Each Va-et-Vient poma has a rope on one side which a skier pulls down so people can reach the platters to load. When exiting, do so one person at a time with the person on the rope end exiting last.
From the top of Condor we traversed skier’s left and found a smooth slope that felt like soft packed powder. As we neared the Plateau piste we traversed farther left and found a couple of other similar lines.
The groomer is at left and you can see five skiers traversing out this Plateau Superior area.
Liz ripping some of the soft packed powder.
Some of the skiable lines left some tracks.
This required more effort but not as much as the apron below Garganta.
Our last run we traversed under the Plateau cliffs. Here’s a couple more sporting lines available in this year’s deep snowpack.
Here is the view of my two runs.
Note on the run where I fell there’s another line intersecting from the left that does not have as narrow a choke. Jeff snowboarded that on Tuesday.
We skied 8,300 vertical in the three hours.
After a warmup on the plateau groomer we skied a short skier’s left pitch to test the new snow and came back up via the poma serving Tio Bob’s.
Liz skied the groomer again while I wanted to try Garganta, which I had observed from the lift was way wider than in 2007.
This was my approach to where I dropped in under the chair.
Bad navigation on my part as I was here instead!
I managed that though not as easily as before age 70 with at least one suck wind break. But here’s the lower part.
I fell in the choke where the lower skier is and slid about 100 feet before self-arresting. Patrol showed up promptly but I was OK to continue.
I returned and went the right was to the correct Garganta entry below Tio Bob’s.
It about as steep as Climax at Mammoth and widens out not far down. The steep part was already skier packed and lower down I spread out skier’s right enjoying the classic lake and hotel view.
This also allowed me to test the untracked snow which was heavy from whatever rain had mixed in but was supportable with rounded turns. These took quite some effort and I knew I would rent whatever fat ski Portillo had for Tuesday even before reading ChrisC’s recommendation.
I rejoined Liz and we agreed to ride the Condor slingshot poma as practice before Roca Jack on Tuesday. The first time we made the error of getting off at the same time with both of us falling and Liz losing a ski. Another skier gave us the helpful description of procedure. Each Va-et-Vient poma has a rope on one side which a skier pulls down so people can reach the platters to load. When exiting, do so one person at a time with the person on the rope end exiting last.
From the top of Condor we traversed skier’s left and found a smooth slope that felt like soft packed powder. As we neared the Plateau piste we traversed farther left and found a couple of other similar lines.
The groomer is at left and you can see five skiers traversing out this Plateau Superior area.
Liz ripping some of the soft packed powder.
Some of the skiable lines left some tracks.
This required more effort but not as much as the apron below Garganta.
Our last run we traversed under the Plateau cliffs. Here’s a couple more sporting lines available in this year’s deep snowpack.
Here is the view of my two runs.
Note on the run where I fell there’s another line intersecting from the left that does not have as narrow a choke. Jeff snowboarded that on Tuesday.
We skied 8,300 vertical in the three hours.
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