March 25, 2000Mixed ReviewsIt was hard to summon much enthusiasm on this warm, but cloudy day with no new snow. I finally wandered up in the late afternoon and ran into a fellow in the locker room who gave a decidedly negative assessment of the conditions which did little to inspire me. However immediately after that I rode up the Timber Chair with a woman who thought it was just wonderful. This seemed weird, so I started asking everyone I rode up with what they thought of the conditions and got responses ranging from good to great, although in some cases it seemed any condtions that didn't involve visible rocks on the runs had to be pretty good. Alas my own opinion turned out to be much closer to that of the fellow in the locker room, which apparently convinced most my lift companions that I would be near the bottom of the list of folks to be invited to a party - actually pretty close to the mark come to think of it. So for you patrons of negativism, I found little other than the lower groomed runs which could rise above mediocre. The upper groomed runs, which I guess really just means North Ridge since I don't think I was on anything else, were hard and slick and much better suited to a pro giant slalom race than care free cruising. Even the traverse trail over to Red Tree from the top of Bear was icy. Off trail you could find anything from slick moguls to general crud to crust to sloppy Joe's, often all in the course of one run. After one fellow told me that the KC chutes were just great, I gave them a try and while the skiing was fairly decent, it missed the good range by a long shot on my grump meter. Indeed the best snow I found today was on the lower part of Power Trip. I should point out that I am not saying that it wasn't worth skiing, but in the overall scheme of things it could have been a whole lot better (or worse for that matter). At twenty to six the porch temperature is 4 C and the sky is cloudy. |
|