As bad as I've seen it

I skied yesterday, mostly because I wanted to ski with some friends who were heading out. Parts of it were OK, but with the below average snow pack and the ridiculously warm temperatures we've had throughout March (15-20 F above average) it's getting very patchy. And one run in particular - Westside - was about as bad as it gets.

Let's pray for snow or the season will not last until April 15.

Here's the GPS data.

St. Louis Friends

i skied last week with my friends Rob and Elizabeth from St. Louis. Just some easy cruising with some slush bumps on the side, in ridiculously warm conditions (so warm that we had a BBQ on the deck on Friday afternoon).

Here's the GPS data.

Monday:


Wednesday:


Friday:

Snowshoeing Rabbit Ears Loop 1A

Today we snowshoed the Loop 1A trail on Rabbit Ears Pass with Aline and Tony.

It was warm again today but fortunately a little cloudy with a breeze which made it perfect.

Here's the GPS data.

Thunderhead Express

It's not often that I go out and spend the entire time on the lower mountain but that's exactly what I did today. We found Goldilocks conditions - not too hard and not too soft - so we just kept circulating on the Thunderhead Express. Concentration was good enough to do twice, which is unusual on a non-powder day. Vagabond was also nice and not too crowded. Even Heavenly Daze on the way home was good.

The high temperature today was 60F or 15C. That's the warmest I've seen it in March in eight seasons.

Here's the GPS data. Only lap 1 on the lower mountain is mine; Tony and Aline stayed out after I was finished.

Summer skiing

It should be spring skiing this time of the season but it is so ridiculously warm I am calling it summer skiing.

I skied with Tony and Aline again today.

Here's the GPS data.

In-laws

I skied today with my wife's brother Tony, and her sister Aline.

Aline hadn't been on skis for several years (she normally snowboards) and Tony hand't been on his snowboard for a couple of years (he normally windsurfs) so we started out on the bunny slopes. They both quickly graduated to Wally World and had no trouble on Heavenly Daze on the way home, so they'll be read for harder stuff tomorrow.

It was warm. warm, warm today, somewhere around 50F or 10C.

Here's the GPS data.

A classic spring day

Today I skied with a former colleague on what was a classic spring day - it was a little crusty early but it got better and better as the day went on and the snow softened. After lunch Shadows was particularly good.

Here's the GPS data.

Not a powder Monday

A big proportion of the best powder days seem to be Mondays, including the best day ever and this late season powder day.

Yesterday was not one of those days. In fact it was so unremarkable I forgot to post my report. Anyway here's the GPS data.

Icicles

These huge icicles form on my back roof in the spring. The warm weather melts the snow on the upper roof and then the water refreezes when it hits this small roof which doesn't get much sun.

Spring can wait

Now that we're into March we ought to be enjoying spring skiing. Since winter didn't really arrive until February it has decided to stay and it's very welcome.

Eight inches of new snow overnight on top of nine inches in the preceding twenty-four hours and the sun coming out makes for an awesome powder day. And it started snowing again late morning as I was heading in.

I started with the lower half of Whiteout where there was enough fresh snow to make the bumps quite friendly, then Twister-cane (the trees between Twister and Hurricane) before finding the really good stuff in Shadows and Closet. 2:30 trees and 3:30 trees. Best of the lot was definitely Shadows. Here's some video of just one of my three awesome runs through Shadows this morning.


Here's the GPS data.