saturday 2/3 report

[skiadikt]

it's a bird, it's a plane, it's the SUN!!!!

yes indeed after what seems like forever she graced us w her presence. great to be able to see. after capering over, made a beeline for downdraft which had been groomed overnight. bit of a letdown. ok but flat fast concrete. after that, a bunch of laps off supe. will call that rotd from the guns down. viz a prob but skied great. guns off on the HW. old supe still good. also a couple laps on mid o. a bit more challenging. had to hug the left edge to avoid getting "gunned". disappointed that lower o wasn't open and the guns had been shut off.

claw/burst quite good as was wildfire which was more skied off but still good. bear getting crowded so off to the south ridge we went. even a lift line there and between lift stoppages headed back to the canyon. the light was good and even cascade was "decent". upper dipper line always fun. LEF eh. mouse skier's right good. lower chute sandy and starting to bump. with the crowd reaching critical mass, headed for the safety of the car.

probably the most crowded day of the season with cars parked down to the lookout. 8-10:30 shift. learned my lesson about saturdays ...

[MrsG]

Yep, cars down the road with cones at the furthest car blocking for no more parking. Noticed cars parked in right side of lot at Mary Lou's then noticed “Employee Parking” flag on way back up Access Rd. Only one car left since we headed down the road earlier!
Out at first bell, Gateway to Bear Claw nice - made the mistake of taking cutoff to middle Wildfire - almost ended up in skier’s left woods. Guess it was groomed earlier this week and skied like it was skied off! Oh well, user error:). Couple more, then we were out of there - way too crowded! Hope the Subi Fest is fun!

[newpylong1]

Bluebird day out at the bell, up the Sunrise triple and first ride on a decent Skyeburst top to bottom. Crowds were climbing so we hopped over to South Ridge and skied Pipe Dream to Breakaway and then Jug to Escape. All good. Seems like they sent a groomer down Breakaway at some point? Launch Pad to Lark not bad. Yodeler Headwall to go warm up at Snowshed. Double up and over to Snowdon Cripple and into North Ridge for a few. No crowds over there. Back to Sunrise for lunch then runs down Needles, Home Stretch to Skyeship. GE absolutely thrashed through the S curves. Know it stinks making snow down there but they really need to cover Touchdown to abandoned Lower Juggernaut as President Smith intended when they installed snowmaking there. GE is just too narrow and windy for the traffic it receives down there now. Popped into Skyeship Lodge to check out the renovations, looks really good. Just event tables for now but much better use of space. Samples some Rollin Rooster snacks. The kitchen is not done yet but close they said. We finished up with a Bittersweet and then Gateway to Bear Cub to Sunrise Trail to Sundog home.

Posted in the Expansion thread about the odd snowmaking on Ovation. Wish they got Grizzly pushed out and groomed as well.

Didn't have a problem with crowds as we stayed off the beaten path. Lots of back and forth exploring with my son and not much quality skiing but it's time I'd never give up. If you see us tomorrow say hi. Had Sunrise Cafe for dinner last night, seems like new ownership? Better food for sure but definitely fancier...

[MrsG]

So glad the weather cooperated for your son's special trip with Dad, staying at a place off the trail

[RustyK]

8:30 Bloodshed drop off skier girl at 4241

Skiadict found me on top of Sup. Bummer no lower O.

Couple at Bear. Meh. Long ride up south ridge.

The Wizard was in. Cascade slick. Couple of canyon runs and Skiadict had enough.

SBF showed up to drag me through the un disclosed trees.
While they were doable, they were still rough.

Good lunch at Sunrise bar and grill. Saw Borgy and wife.
Captain Jack tending bar. Nice.

More woods after. Somewhere totally beat up.

Called it around 3 at the snowshed bar. Missed the Subaru fest.

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[Mister Moose]

Birdman has competition....

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[fdskier56]

I rode skyeship at 3pm

It didn’t stop once!

Amazing.

[newpylong1]

I forgot to note that in my report. We rode it maybe 3 times and smooth sailing. Knock on wood lol.

[boston_e]

The crowd was heavy at Pico too. Both lots by route 4 full as well as up towards the sports center and cars cycling through the lot looking for spots - a fair amount of creative parking up on snow banks etc. I wonder what they would have done if another couple of dozen cars showed up. I wonder if the ikon swarm is starting to spill over to Pico?

On the hill - stuck mostly to the groomers which skied well. Pitches on 49er got skied off - upper KA very skied off. B Slope skied well once they opened it up after the racing was done.
Lots of guns going on A slope - bet that will be nice once they groom it out.

[MrsG]

boston_e - hate to say it, but when we headed into town around 11 from EMR, cars heading down Access Road, eventually turning into Pico!

[twilkas]

new birdman doesnt look smelly at least. for the newpy report!

[spanky]

Great Platty day!

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Cloudy to start, but sun quickly broke through. While they sold out and were turning people away, the longest I waited in a lift line was 5 minutes and never did I fear for my life on the trails.

I even got to spin a few laps with buckethead!

Shhh. Don’t go there!

[Captain Hafski]

Afternoon Report: Yep, busiest day of the season, as expected with decent weather on a Saturday for once. 1:00 start to get in some runs before Yonder Mountain. Line at SD6 not too bad which got us to LEF which was decent. However, for this my first run, almost got taken out just after starting down the Ladies Tee access when some yahoo came out of nowhere [on the other side of the snowmaking hut] right in front of me on that 15' wide trail.

Up the Canyon Quad where my wife and I got taken out getting off the chair by someone that had joined us and grabbed my wife's arm for whatever reason getting off the chair. We both went down. Then, had to take one down the recently "groomed" Lower Double Dipper. Not a do-over. Mostly a large sheet of ice for the first half or so of the steep pitch. Looked even worse if you went further left onto the remnants of the snow whales. After that there was at least some scraped off beach sand to turn on the rest of the way down. Escapade / Cascade very good actually and warranted a couple more laps later in the day.

Jug -> Breakaway pretty good; gotta like Good Eastern Technical Skiing on Lower Breakaway though. Challenging to stay on top of the moguls. Calling it ROTD. Pipe Dream still OK as well. Couple of laps there, then off to the Supe snowmaking which we heard was good. On our way there [on Launch Pad] several more yaa hoos coming blindly out of the woods on the right just missing taking out other skiers / riders on the trail. WTF. Middle O not too bad but had to stay left [or maybe right as well?] to avoid the wet guns with little hang time on top of the whales. Lower Supe was a sh*t show but OK if you could stay right in the sweet spot [a bit left of center] and not get hit by anyone. Further right, where it seemed the heaviest traffic was, still had glare ice in the troughs. Saw a couple of good skiers [Sammie etc.] turning nicely on the far right ridge. Wish they wouldn't groom the trail so far right as they've been doing.

Over the back to get on South Ridge and then two more Escapade / Cascade laps enroute to the concert.

Great show by Yonder Mountain SB. Finally got to see them after missing out this past summer, up at Jay Peak, where we had to leave early due to the July flooding at our house.