Posts Tagged ‘springskiing’
Good Friday Indeed
With this afternoon looking like the only good weather of the weekend, I decided to skip the free beer and food offered by the CS dept here at Dartmouth and head out for some corn harvesting at the Snowbowl with Krysta. When we showed up to the Snowbowl around 3:20, it was right around 50° and simply beautiful out – quite a change to much of the recent weather in VT, and a stark contrast to my last day out skiing on Mt. Washington. Additionally, the coverage up at the Snowbowl is still incredible. Aside from a few spots, there’s still snow from wall-to-wall.
As we were suiting up, we saw my buddy Jeff, along with his wife Holly, ripping down the Allen. They confirmed that, as I had thought, it was good out there. Really good. Like absolute perfect peel-away corn good 
. After chatting a bit, we headed up to enjoy the sample the corn for ourselves. After switching over, we skied the headwall of the Allen. And my god, it was just as good as Jeff and Holly told us!
Krysta enjoying the corn on the top of the Allen.
It was spectacular.
What a day!
The corn was highly ripable, as Krysta shows us here.
After skiing the headwall of the Allen, we realized that our time was unfortunately short (especially given how good the skiing was). Too short to take another lap. However, we did have time to skin back to the top and ski the headwall of the Allen again. So we changed over and headed back up for a bit more skiing.
Ready to head back up again and extremely pleased to be doing such fine skiing in late April.
I too like to ski corn (pics of me obviously by Krysta).
This was just so much fun.
Spraying up all the corn.
And ripping fast, right to Krysta’s tracks from the previous run.
After this, we skied it out, and fast – the corn was truly ripable. It would have been nice to have stayed longer, but alas real life calls at times. Luckily, it doesn’t call too often and allows me to get out on days like this!
Bluebird Corn Laps
Here’s a quick shot from today.. I met up with Dalton and we hauled up the skin track (~1000ft gained in 16-18min) for two quick runs at the Snow Bowl. Even though it was full on spring conditions out there, it sure doesn’t seem like winter’s giving up any time soon. I’m simply amazed just how deep the snow pack is out there.
Looks like tomorrow should be another great day, so get out there and enjoy it!!
Twofer Tuesday
During my outing on sunday, I knew that it had been snowing a little bit up in the hills of Vermont. I even saw a little bit of snow on top of the hills as I was driving past Middlebury Gap. However, I didn’t really think much of, having read the forecast that was calling for at most 1-2 inches. That night, I found out I was quite wrong – it had snowed a fair bit up near Stowe. I realized that I might still have a shot at getting some May turns in, if the weather would hold out for for another few days for me (unfortunately, I had work to be doing on monday).
On monday evening, I saw more photos that showed that there was in fact still snow left up in them thar hills. And so, I made plans to head out on tuesday morning to get some May turns at Stowe. It was somewhat ironic that I would be skiing on this day, as this was the day that I was finally getting getting rid of the snow tires and putting the normal summer tires back on my trusty steed. But hey, when Ullr gives us a May dump, we might as well go out and play in the snow!
After a bit of hiking, I spotted my objective, National, from below.
Wait, I’m supposed to skin up this?!
The skinning was thinning. (Heh-heh-heh).
Nearing the top of Nosedive.
Looking out towards Smuggler’s Notch with more of Mansfield on the left.
I passed some neat icicles on the way up.
And before I knew it, I was at the top, sitting out on the deck of the octagon and enjoying my lunch – a peanut butter, jelly and granola wrap. It may not sound great, but trust me, they’re delicious. Especially after climbing a mountain.
Mt Mansfield and Smuggler’s Notch looking awesome.
The outdoors make me happy. Very happy.
After my lunch, I decided to ski down part of Nosedive and then go back up to hit my main objective, National. I only skied down a little bit, but it was glorious. My tracks are the ones on the left.
A closer view of my tracks (on the left), including the spot that I fell. As I was skiing down, wearing my baseball hat, I was musing to myself about the fact that I’d never before skied in a baseball hat (if you’ve seen any of my photos from winter, I always wear a helmet – the few times I’ve skied recently without a helmet, it just feels weird – I don’t like it). Just as that thought was going through my head, lo and behold my hat flew right off my head. I tried quickly stopping, but due to the stickiness of the snow, that turned into falling down the hill. I did manage to stop myself before I went too far down, quickly grabbed my hat, and continued down.
After those too few turns, I switched over to skinning and headed back up. Soon enough, I was back at the top.
Looming in the distance is Mt Washington and the Prezzies (left) and Franconia Notch (right). Click to enlarge. The photo isn’t the greatest (due to the haziness), but trust me when I say it was really impressive.
After a brief rest, I skied off the top and hit my main objective of the day, National. I even had a chance to open it up a bit and make some bigger turns – what great fun. It was quite challenging skiing though since the snow was really getting baked under the intense sunlight. My tracks are on the left.
I finished skiing down National and was able to make it a bit farther down, including a stream crossing in skis, before I had to take the skis off to hike the last little bit. Here’s the end of the snow.
And when I got back to the car, I had a wonderful IPA waiting for me. Mmmmmm…
Although I was done skiing for the day, I wasn’t ready to head home just yet. I decided to finally get out on the water and spend a few hours trying my luck on the Cotton Brook, a small stream in Moscow, VT.
Nice looking water.
It was good to be out again, if only to work out the kinks from not having fished for around 6 months or so.
Beautiful water.
Alas, I wasn’t able to catch anything. I do think that the water was a bit too cold for much fish activity, especially since most of the runoff feeding this stream was in the form of melted snow. Oh well, maybe next time.
All in all, it was a great day. I got some May turns in (making this the 6th consecutive month on skis) with beautiful weather, was able to spend a few hours on the river, and after all that, I finished it out with a beer or two at the Alchemist. And really, any day ending at the Alchemist is a good one, if you ask me.
More Fun In The Sun At JXN
Well, that snow that started falling previously never quite materialized, but on the other hand the sun came out! And when the sun comes out it melts everything and makes the skiing ever so fun. Unfortunately this only happens for the last 2-3 hours of skiing. So it’s best to get a nice late start and work the north facing steeps and the groomers until then.
My father at the bottom of Hoops Gap.
And Marc.
And Jim.
Hoops Gap was so nice we had to do it again. Have you seen how Marc rips?
And Jim. I like the paraglider in the background.
Ah, the end of a good day. Drink some beers, eat some food, sleep and repeat. Luckily the next day was a bit warmer, so we had more time to ski more fun stuff. The snowpack is quickly and disturbingly disappearing, but I guess that’s spring for you, especially in the 3rd worst snow year on record.
Two nice shots of my mom coming skiing through some boulders.
And skirting the shadows in the late afternoon.
My father skiing down under Corbet’s Couloir (right) and the S&S Couloir (left).
Marc coming through the boulder field.
He’s fast.
Jim maneuvering his way through the boulders.
The skiing through the boulder field lead us to the beautifully sunny cirque.
It was awesome there. Sorry for overkill on the tree shots, but the tree is awesome.
We even found a few interesting spots right along the cliffs… (The next three photos of me are by my bother).
Just point ‘em and go. Don’t miss the turn.
And Marc on something equally fun. Note Sleeping Indian in the background 
.
And my father skiing by some big cliffs.
A good end to two awesome days of spring skiing. Not too sure of what the forecast calls for us here, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be as good as this. Oh well, I’ve only got one more day before I have to head back east. Such is life.
Some Sun And Some Snow In JXN
And to begin, a panorama of the Gros Ventre range of the east side of the valley. Click on the image for a larger version.
And now for some skiing. Here’s my brother Marc skiing near some small cliffs.
And his buddy Jim.
Now Marc’s coming down the same chute that we were going through the other day. It’s rather rocky and can’t last much longer.
And through another tight chute. When I first skied this a few days ago, you could make a turn through it. Now you’ve got to just point ‘em, but that’s fun just as well. Marc pointing ‘em:
And he’s gone.
Myself pointing them through the tight chute. Photos by Marc.
Myself coming around an old dead tree.
After this lovely and warm day, the weather changed for the worse. It was colder for a day or two, and somewhat cloudy. The unfortunate reality of such spring conditions is that once they get going, you’ve either got to have warm temps or a big dump of snow to keep the skiing good. Otherwise, everything is just rock solid ice bumps, and everyone knows that’s no fun. So we skied mostly groomers for a few days, until the conditions began to change when it started to snow again!
Everyone’s stoked about the falling snow, including my father…
My brother (and me too, in the reflection!)…
My mother…
And my brother’s friend, Jim.
Taking advantage of the afternoon snow, we decided to ski some north facing stuff that we’d mostly been staying away from due to the lack of sun exposure (ie. rock hard ice bumps).
Here’s my father coming through some trees.
My brother rips.
And just like that, he’s gone…
And my brother’s friend, Jim.
And this last batch of photos is from Marc. It’s not too often that I end up on the other side of the lens these days.
Me with my new steeze going through some freshly fallen soft snow. Still pretty firm underneath, but the few inches of fresh made it much more bearable.
And another of me, freeing my mind as I free my heel 
. Haha.
My father enjoying the new snow.
Jim milking it for all it’s worth.
And another rare appearance from my mother.
It’s been a good few days, and hopefully the snow keeps falling, although I’m not terribly optimistic about it given the forecast. Either way, any day skiing, especially in Jackson (have I mentioned how much I love Jackson yet?), is better than a day of work.
Jackson Hole: The First Few Days
I’m finally on my spring break! Thank god I can finally take a break from all the awful work that I’ve had recently and just focus on nothing but skiing.
It’s so nice to be back out in Jackson. It’s been a while, especially since I didn’t have a chance to get out mid-winter this year. I got out here on friday and with the exception of Sunday (when I was finishing off my last exam for the winter term) I’ve been skiing lots since then. However, the unfortunate fact is that this year at Jackson they’ve got the 3rd worst snow pack ever. Some places around here don’t even have 60% of the average annual snow pack. Oh well, the law of averages says that not all years can be above average. Plus, any day skiing, even if it’s on very little snow, is better than even the best day doing work.
In spite of the lack of snow, the first few days have been a lot of fun with some great spring conditions, as long as the sun is around. It has been quite warm (the warmest day was upwards of 50°), but that’s been keeping the skiing good. I don’t even want to think about what it’s going to be like if it gets really cloudy or cold again…
Anyways, here’s a few shots from the first few days. Not too much as there hasn’t been too much to take photos of, but it’s been a whole lot of fun. Let’s just hope the snow stays around for the rest of my trip out here.
The new tram looks real nice. In the background is the Grand Teton, shrouded in clouds. It’s the second highest peak in Wyoming, coming in at 13,775ft.
Another look towards the north from Rendezvous peak, with the Grand again in the background.
Looking south from Rendezvous peak at Cody peak (the one on the right) and a few others.
Enjoying some lunch outside Corbet’s Cabin, on top of Rendezvous Peak.
Me ripping down one of the lower faces.
And a few panoramics off the summit. Click on the images to see them larger. (They’re pretty large so you may have to scroll to the right to see the whole image or even close the zoomed in view).
Looking towards the south.
And looking towards the east.
Pops coming through on some nice and soft snow.
These rocks on the left are normally covered up… It’s really a low snow year.
I love skiing down tight, rock lined chutes. Here’s my father coming through the chute on what was likely it’s last day. The rocks in the middle of the chute are normally covered up by snow. They were getting more and more uncovered, visibly so, even in the course of a single day.
I really like the whispy clouds in this one.
Gotta make those turns or you’re gonna mess up your skis really badly. There’s rocks everywhere.
I like to catch some airtime every once in a while, especially when the landings are nice and soft.
It’s been a great first few days. I’m just hoping that the sun stays around and keeps warming the snow from it’s rock solid state in the mornings.