Snow? We still need it! – 12/12/04

11/20/04

Last Friday Arty50 scared all of us and said it was the mountain was extremely firm. Shugs, Kwdskier, and the 666 ventured anyway. The only problem with his report…he forgot to mention that he did not ski off-piste. This one of those rare occasions where it was better off piste than on the groomers (on a very firm pack day.)

The groomers were more packed powderish on the north facing runs like Buckboard, and Lower Zachs….with very firm to concrete on any run that gets sun. My camera broke on Saturday so I have no pics of the snow-sand storm blowing uphill like a bat out of hell on the top of Chair 6 on Sunday. Zach's, Monte's, Sentinel, and Look out Janek were beyond firm boarderline Ice Rink. But this is how you become a better skier right? If you can only ski weekends, you're there no matter what, and you'll have fun despite the funky conditions.

Music: Breakage – Bring Back (Remix)

Yes, I tested the Pro Bros or the Bro Pros….

Oops…..looking a little sketch if you catch a tip. The wind blew some great snow in here and was literally 6 inches of fresh…just don't fall.

All the north facing stuff off of Chair 6 was good. Below Jims and Ski School, skiers right to Chamoix, the rest of Oops, and even skiers right of Olympic had some great snow. Vets, my brother and I were even able to find a couple ten footers with smooth landings.

666 – Ski School Chute…riding the Kingswood mini

666

The Wall. Well most of it was wind scoured but if you venture towards the sisters, all the protected north facing aspects were great….more like packed-packed powder. The top of the ridge line that funnels all the way to Waterfall had a buttery smooth bank to crank some killer carve-cut backs.

Sunday, its was cold…..and windy as a mother. They made some snow on Chair 5 on Lower Zachs that created a super smooth surface.

Rinsed out proper

>12/12/04

So it was a packed-packed powder day…

Bluebird…no wind, not super cold (surprising), and some packed snow.

Picked up a free DC beanie and some Krispie Kremes at the bottom and was ready to roll.

Early morning groomers were scary fast…with Sentinel leading the charge of the best snow.

The terrain park off of 5 was kickin’ pretty hard. Consists of tables including in order of hits…..a small , 2 medium, and one medium-plus…..and a wall bonk-re-entry. Down the other run a crapful of rails….of every type.

Wind scoured in spots on the unprotected aspects but great mid-winter snow in all protected north facing aspects. Of course Oops was the highlight for me…just super sick quality of snow in there, all the way to Oops Extendend. Soft powder snow could be found in the trees and below some small cliffs. On the upper mountain, any landing off a drop was super firm, wind-packed snow. My shins are still throbbing.

Hooked up with Greydon Clark (He and I rode bell to bell today), Kellie, Hardrider, and Su Pu and hit every open aspect from the right and left off of 6….to the Top of the wall and everything below…

Railing fast runs, small to medium airs, and super carves galore.

Just a great day in the sun..on a fun mountain.

Sorry for all the words but I’m whoring the free wi-fi up here in Tahoe, here are some pics…it was too fast of a day to take any action shots.

I think you know who that is….

Early morning steep groomers off of 6:

Chair 10:

Krew:

The diving south coastal storm that was supposed to hit…and now its not:

What a storm!!!

It dumped HUGE last night but even better it snowed 90 feet in 67 minutes…that’s got to be a record.

Another bluebird day…the weathermen hung themselves this morning…I could hear the screams all the way from The Weather Channel’s headquaters.

Same conditions as yesterday….EXACTLY.

Tried to get some action shots, but I screwed most of them up….

*note to self*…after attempt to blow up White Trash Electronics (Best Buy to most Americans)…hopefully they will give me back my other camera.

Hardrider….he finally pulled the stick out of his ass and started to charge:

Hardrider….I wish I had photos of all his flat landings with audio:

Kellie on skier’s right of Chamoix:

And this dude won a free snowboard…funny how the guy with the leather pants on snowlerblades gets the last laugh:

…Hardrider had a crush on him…

12/12/04

So everyone on the west coast knows that we’ve had some warm temps on the tail-end of the last storm. Me, Mrs. 666, with meetings with Greydon Clark, and Monster Dump rallied all over the Wood to find some entertainment.

We roll into the ever-shrinking space called the parking lot and see that the temp is reading 45 F..ummmmm…at 9:00 am.

First off, all the groomers were mid-winter packed powder except for the last few hundred feet of the mountain….so that was enjoyable and most surprising since I was expecting death-granular.

We soon ventured off over to the Wall where the snow wasn’t half bad….the temps never dipped below freezing which was good because the snow could still be pushed around in the shade. The steep turns off the top are finally skiable again. However, venturing deeper into the gnar, glazed-untracked met us with might and Mrs. 666 came close to signing the divorce papers right then and there….so we move on.

However, truth being said, I could still break through the crust and winter snow was buried underneath, so the more people that skied it, the better it got….I was treating it as more of a "protective layer."

Rolled over to 6 for most of the day as Monster Dump and I rolled into Ski School chute a couple times. I hit the gnar off of Oops with vigor because it of the glazed-untracked I was so much learning to love. Mrs. 666 and her new Gotamas seemed to like the north facing snow of lower Chamoix, and into lower Oops…so of course, I’m not going to argue with that.