Harvey
Administrator
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2020
Ski Day 12: We arrived last night and found something we've been missing. Winter. Above 1500 feet everything was plastered with snow. It was cold and windy, temps were dropping and it was snowing lightly. I shoveled a nice amount off the porch. It all felt good.
It was 13 degrees at 6am, and it hadn't warmed up at all when we boarded the Gondola at 8:15. The wind was blowing pretty good, but not as hard as I'd imagined based on forecasts. Still the gondola was swaying on our first ride up.
Pixie dust on Echo
The mountain itself really didn't look that different. The snow that fell was in someways very much like manmade snow as it stuck to everything. The trails themselves definitely benefited from the infusion of natural snow.
When I got to it, Lies had a very difficult headwall that was well worth negotiating for the loose snow that was below.
Our tentative plan was to see if this was the day Neve would ski the summit of Gore for the first time. As Gore families know, the real barrier to bringing a newbie to the summit, is nothing on the summit itself. It's the approach on Pine Knot. Rated a blue, it's often the toughest blue trail on the map. It's narrow, double fall line, high traffic and often windy.
While Neve was in her lesson, I skied Pine Knot to check it out. It was actually in great shape and we decided to go for it.
I was a little nervous, but we really skied it with ease. When we arrived at the straightbrook chair, we agreed that the biggest danger was high speed traffic that was passing us as we made wide turns to control our speed.
Just as we got in line for the chair, it went down. Patrol told us it was going to be a while, so we headed down on Tannery. Neve loved opening it up on Tannery, so we lapped it from Pine Knot again.
We normally eat at the saddle, but it was a zoo today. People were cold and the place was packed. We went to the base lodge and had lunch. After lunch, Neve looked tired, but insisted she wanted to go back up to the top.
Gondi lines were long because of the temps and wind. I rode the Gondi four times and had to wait in the line three of those times. My total wait time, maybe 20 minutes total, was probably more than I waited in Gondi lines all of last season.
Quiet Gondola ride after lunch.
Neve asked me about the "Dark Side." She wondered if Darth Vadar skied there. We rode the double together and I did my best to explain the importance of these few acres.
"So.....welcooooooome..... to .... the machiiiiiine..."
Natural snow and bumps on Upper Steilhang
Sure feels like winter. I like it.
It was 13 degrees at 6am, and it hadn't warmed up at all when we boarded the Gondola at 8:15. The wind was blowing pretty good, but not as hard as I'd imagined based on forecasts. Still the gondola was swaying on our first ride up.
Pixie dust on Echo
The mountain itself really didn't look that different. The snow that fell was in someways very much like manmade snow as it stuck to everything. The trails themselves definitely benefited from the infusion of natural snow.
When I got to it, Lies had a very difficult headwall that was well worth negotiating for the loose snow that was below.
Our tentative plan was to see if this was the day Neve would ski the summit of Gore for the first time. As Gore families know, the real barrier to bringing a newbie to the summit, is nothing on the summit itself. It's the approach on Pine Knot. Rated a blue, it's often the toughest blue trail on the map. It's narrow, double fall line, high traffic and often windy.
While Neve was in her lesson, I skied Pine Knot to check it out. It was actually in great shape and we decided to go for it.
I was a little nervous, but we really skied it with ease. When we arrived at the straightbrook chair, we agreed that the biggest danger was high speed traffic that was passing us as we made wide turns to control our speed.
Just as we got in line for the chair, it went down. Patrol told us it was going to be a while, so we headed down on Tannery. Neve loved opening it up on Tannery, so we lapped it from Pine Knot again.
We normally eat at the saddle, but it was a zoo today. People were cold and the place was packed. We went to the base lodge and had lunch. After lunch, Neve looked tired, but insisted she wanted to go back up to the top.
Gondi lines were long because of the temps and wind. I rode the Gondi four times and had to wait in the line three of those times. My total wait time, maybe 20 minutes total, was probably more than I waited in Gondi lines all of last season.
Quiet Gondola ride after lunch.
Neve asked me about the "Dark Side." She wondered if Darth Vadar skied there. We rode the double together and I did my best to explain the importance of these few acres.
"So.....welcooooooome..... to .... the machiiiiiine..."
Natural snow and bumps on Upper Steilhang
Sure feels like winter. I like it.
