bigwavedave

Shhhh! I don't want word getting out. Is Buck done...or are you done with Buck for the season?

Friday Sunny, 25° warming to 45°! Nearly seamless grooming. It seams to be getting better. Started out with 1-2" layer of frozen granular over a hard ice base. The warmer it got, the better the carving. It felt almost like spring slush-slarving. It was a little more crowded than just the typical AM group. Then, as the AM regulars filtered out, the place emptied out about noon, just when it was starting to get soft and slarvy! I had another 2½ hours of free carving on empty slopes with no lift lines. Nice! Big smiles... A plated board helped mute out the roughness of the ice base. I started on a Geckoed Contra 166 and switched to the 171XC testing my homemade, modified Gecko style and Thirst compatible plate. It worked great! 4½hrs Earthrider beer tasting with music and sauna at the Grand ave chalet this evening. Then they move the party up to the top for the pond skimming etc. this weekend. One week to go and we still have all this snow!

Thurs We had 4-5" of heavy wet snow 2 nights ago and then fog & drizzle yesterday. I took the day off. Heard I didn't miss anything. Sunny, 25° and warming up above freezing today. Frozen granular nicely groomed, very few seams. 4Pipe quickly turned into ice cubes and marbles. Skyhooker was fun and remained virtually untouched til noon. It had nearly seamless grooming and got softer as it warmed up. Rode the Super, XC and Geckoed Contra 166. 3hrs Russ was boarder patrolling today. He should have fun this afternoon when it gets above freezing. Haven't seen Ken in a while?

Lutsen announced that they will close for the season on April 16th to prepare for the bridge chair replacement. Jackson Creek Summit will also close early, April 2nd to replace 3 chairs with one high speed 6. Black River basin open Thurs-Sun til April 16th.

JCS Snowriver resort From last week, Monday, March 13. 1st tracks on Alpenglow (formerly Old Flambeau) Again, turn down the sound, as the wind is loud. Riding a Thirst Superconductor and having fun with this new insta360 camera on a lightweight stick. So much easier and lighter than the gopro on a monopod I was using before. It opens up a whole 'nother world in the editing process.

Tuesday Big wind straight off the lake and up the hill. Groomed frozen granular, our beloved "Minnesota firm". Considering all the rain last week, it was surprisingly good carving today, . The surface held up well with nearly seamless grooming. Sun and near freezing temps softened the surface just enough. Superconductor all the way today doing mostly fall line turns next to the tree line trying to beat the wind. Kinda looks like I was getting air in some of those transitions. Russ was softboot carving and looking the same as if he were using hardboots. Lake Superior was covered in frothy white caps. The surf must be way big. 2 hrs. gonna save some for tomorrow. Snow tonight! P.S. and the hill was M T today―no lines, free runs.

Video from last Tuesday, 7th of March: ***turn down the sound as it's just loud wind & snow noise*** My 1st run of the day, making 1st tracks in freshly groomed wet snow and my 1st video with a new insta 360 camera on a stick. And, only the 2nd day riding my 185 Thirst 8rw this season. It was also a full moon!

The video (turn down the sound, it's just wind & snow noise)

I loved it there! Although, it was 20-ish yrs ago for 2 USASA nationals (me & daughter) and later, 2 WC races (daughter). One of the things I liked was that it was not as crowded as a lot of places. Lots of good carving blues off the Village Express. I seem to remember Misty Maiden & peek-a-boo. Seeforever was fun, nice for carving, except it gets a lot of traffic. Maybe best for an early morning run. Someone talked me into going down Bushwacker on the side above the town. It was the steepest groomed run at the time. The kind of steepness where you'll keep sliding if you fall. It was survival mode for me, but worth seeing it and the runs below it that go straight down into town. Really steep! Luckily there's a bailout cat track to get to town in one piece. If it does get busy you can head over to the Sunshine Express which has long, wide open, blue and green groomers. It's set apart from the rest of the resort and was always empty whenever I went over there. It's a good place for relaxed cruising on your longest board. Explore the mountain. The scenery is spectacular. Surrounded by 14,000 ft peaks and a see-forever view to the west. Really cool town too.

Ha! Found a picture of the culprit making those trenches.

Sunday Trenchin' up 1st day groom making 1st tracks down Sundance....in the sun Riding the 8rw Every run had groomer seams. Some, like this one had fewer seams and fortunately the snow was soft enough in most places to slice right through them. But then, some runs had significant seams all the way across and felt wash-boardy as you carved across the fall line. Rode with Beth & Al again today at Jackson Creek. Heading up to Giant's Ridge tomorrow. Hopefully the un-seamless grooming epidemic has not spread there.

SnowRiver 1st day groom trench inspection. We did have a complaint today.

Sat Heavy snow all night and lake effect most of the day. At least another 12", maybe more. Hard to tell with the blowing and drifting. Windy, whiteout conditions were challenging this morning. After making 1st tracks at Jackson Creek I met up with Al & Beth over at Black River Basin where it was more sheltered from the wind. I got stuck in some bottomless snow near the edge of a trail and had to remove my board. My leg sank all the way to my crotch and I had to crawl out with the board. When the weather began clearing in the afternoon, I made some runs back at JCS riding the 202 TS finding deep untracked snow to play in on the gentle Voyageur. Really looking forward to carving some 1st day groom tomorrow. The skies have cleared and it should be sunny.

Friday St Paddy's day Surfing surfari edition Drove over yesterday before the rain turned to snow. It rained all day here and turned to snow overnight. By morning, we had ~10 inches of light fluff on top of crunchy frozen snow. Met up with Al & Beth in the lodge. Al & I rode the big surf boards (TSm²), Beth on her PCjv swallowtail. We had plenty of fresh tracks, occasionally touching the crunchy bottom, but less so in the deeper snow lower on the hill and out of the wind. It's still snowing and seems to be mainly lake effect now. There's a thinly veiled sun visible. The forecast is calling for another 7-14" through tomorrow. There should be grooming overnight laying a soft blanket of corduroy over that icy stuff. With a little luck there'll be a nice layer of fluff on top of the cord. Fun day!

Much appreciated Bob! Hey @Algunderfoot, change of plans. I'm heading back to the U.P. tomorrow afternoon ahead of the snow storm. Gonna stay in the lodge on the hill.

Wed I was tired after a long day yesterday and was planning to take the day off. But, then the sun was out and one thing led to another and I found myself at the base of the hill for 1st chair. Finally, seamless grooming! Mostly, but it's the best we've had all season―and so soft, like buttercream frosting. Yeah, it was sweet. It was a little busy for a Wednesday―2 busloads of kids, plus word is out down in the cities about all the snow up here. 2½ hrs

Tues What a day! Started out 0° at 9AM and got above freezing by noon. Sunny, no wind and very few people on the hill. The carving conditions were as good as any good day out west! Rode for 4 hrs. Had a lunch break with Al and Beth. We spent the morning out of sync which enabled us to watch each other riding on the chair ride up. I was really trying to get woo-hoo from the chair. riding the SuperConductor!

Monday Riding the big board down Caribou, Moose Mt. with bright sun and blue sky next to the big blue lake. A lot of people said yesterday was the best powder day in years here (really? 9"?). Today was mostly firm groom with some soft areas and ungroomed. Not too busy, but more people than a typical weekday. Virtually no lift line and lots of room to carve, mostly. A couple of Spirit Mt patrollers spotted me and said hey. It's a long cat walk or gondo ride to get over to Moose (where the best carving is) which is a drag if you want to swap boards. Planning on Jackson Creek tomorrow. My favorite carving hill.

Planning on tomorrow!

Thinking of Lutsen tomorrow! Maybe SnowRiver Tuesday.

Brilliant! I could have used that today! Looks better than ski poles. There's a telemarker at Spirit who uses a big (7 ft?) old style stick and arcs it around like a kayak paddle. Hey Troy @b0ardski ever use a paddle instead of poles? ^^^^

Sunday Took yesterday off. 12"+ since yesterday and still snowing & blowing. Managed to drive to the top to get 1st tracks. One run on the 181PC then rode the TSm² for another 3 hours. Whiteout conditions at noon for about an hour. Tracks were erased from blowing snow. Fresh tracks all day on DoubleJaw because it was hard to get over there with the head winds. Once in there, it was good. Believe it or not, there was a race on Gandy and it was tracked out and busy over there. I left mid afternoon when it started to get crowded. As fun as it was, I think I like carving corduroy best.

Friday 3-4" of fine, light, lake effect snow on top of a crunchy frozen groom. Temps just below freezing. 2 busloads of home schoolers, otherwise, not many people on the hill. No lift lines. Flat light with light lake effect snow falling. Still windy, requiring an aero pose to get past the flats. Riding with blind faith in flat light. Fortunately no surprise grooming features popped out. Really nice carving today. Rode the 181PC and then the TSm² (this board is way more versatile than I expected). The lifty was in awe of the 202cm woody TankerSpanker. Called me the Silver Surfer (I had look that one up―it's Marvel comic book hero). 3 hours today. 4 hours each of the past 2 days.

Thursday Same as yesterday, but windier with less sun and a softer, granular snow. Riding with Dan and Dianne again today. Russ was patrolling the hill with his softboot set-up demonstrating that it was good for softboot carving too. It was not crowded and virtually no lift lines. However, there were a couple of bus loads of kids scattered around the hill. Every few runs there'd be an interesting in-motion carving course to navigate, often requiring split second course corrections. Temps hovered around freezing all day, so the snow was both slushy and crunchy. Really fun carving with no surprise grooming features! We stayed on the express side mainly due to wind and visibility. I rode the big boards, the 8rw and the TSm². Dan and I traded boards for a bit. His Oxess RXR172 for my 8rw. day 59 at Spirit