I knew when I woke up this morning, there was a pretty good chance things would be on wind hold. It was howling at our place. And with only half a day to ski, I considered draining the pipes and heading home. But the pull of the mountain got me.
It didn’t look good for the Gondi. It wasn’t moving at all at 8:15. One piece of true comedy, Gore announced that the only lift cleared for operation was Lift 3, the Sunway Chair. Everyone from the Gondi line zooped over to the Sunway Chair. The lifty over there got kinda nervous I think. He can usually sleep over there, and he was really anxious for the ok to start loading. For some reason everyone went up, one skier per chair. With all those hotshots riding solo, it was like a scene from Mad River Glen.
It was really cold and windy. The overnight wind had filled the troughs of the bumps across the mountain and most of the glades I hit were pretty good. I rode the Sunway Chair to the top, and hit the Otter Slide Glades:
My second run…as I got onto the chair the lifty told me the BRQ had opened. As I rode up to the midstation, I lengthened my poles for the skate over. I got off at the midstation and pointed em straight down. Just as I was about to make the cut towards the dreaded Cedars… I noticed the Gondi loading and changed my plan.
They ran the Gondi slow and limited it to four or five people to minimize the risk of wind damage. The ride took a long time. Pine Brook, Twister, Straightbrook and Double Barrel Junior were all excellent… especially first (maybe fourth really) tracks below the SB chair…nice windblown in all the troughs.
I was going to take Tannery to Topridge and finish my morning with another run in Twister Glades. When I got to the Topridge Chair it was closed. For my first time, I finished my day taking the cross country trail down to the base. It seemed like fitting ending to the weekend.