ExcelsiorTheFathead

Friday December 16. Day 15. Same as yesterday. Too cold so I went up late. Fog in the valley but sunny on the hill. Just six runs down Engen and I was too tired to continue. I'm trying to relax more and open up instead of always trying to turn as hard as possible out of fear and self-preservation. The resort is not crowded and few people use Engen probably because they think it is boring or something. I keep meeting people who say they have old hardboots and alpine boards in their closets. I happened to share one lift ride with the General Manager. We talked about a bunch of stuff but I mentioned my complaint about the grooming report. He said that it was discussed at the afternoon management meeting and the source of the error was found and fixed. At least it is encouraging that they cared enough to investigate, but he probably thinks I'm a weirdo anyway.

I found this on YouTube. It had only 6 views when I saw it.

Thursday December 15. Day 14. It was too cold in the early morning to go up, so I waited until the sun hit the front side and the thermometers started to move. Ultimately I was on a lift around 11:20. Grooming on Engen wasn't perfect, but with clear viz and bright sunshine there wasn't any problem. Many good turns made. The trail is fairly long and I'm not in good shape so I had to stop and rest 3 times on every run. I did all my runs here for almost 2 hours. A strange thing about Engen is that even though it is immediately under the Centennial lift, the fastest way to loop it is to use the Bluebird chair. Weird but true. Next year Centennial is supposed to be replaced with a high speed lift and this may change. There was no problem with crowds even though I arrived late. This will not last because the local schools go on vacation next week, for 2 weeks. Then one week later the Boise area schools will go on break. Engen is a very, very good carving run. I might compare it to Floyd's at Grand Targhee. Maybe it could be a little steeper or a little longer but maybe I could be younger and more skilled.

Wednesday December 14. Day 13. The morning starts with high, thick clouds and cool temps. Engen is groomed really nice today, maybe 90% of being perfectly flat. I made a few good turns on it but the dim flat light was really screwing me up. The top part of Engen has few trees or markers and I can't discern where I am and which way I am pointing. I gave up on it after 2 runs and did laps on 45th which was really nice and easier to deal with. It was actually groomed today, unlike yesterday when the grooming report was full of CONTEMPTIBLE LIES. I found that on the easy midsection of 45th, I could make only around 24 turns riding my Oxess, when my Coiler M radius skwal will make around 30 turns. When riding the longer-radius Oxess I had to release turns earlier to keep my speed up. Viz and WX got worse as the morning progressed and it started to snow. There will be some minor flurries but tomorrow should be nice and clear. One inobvious downside to riding in this part of Idaho is the fact that this is about as far West as one can get and still be in the Mountain time zone. It means that at 9 AM when the lifts open, the sun is still very low in the sky. At this same moment in Colorado, the sun is far higher. Unlike here in Central Idaho, the Idaho Panhandle up North is on the Pacific time zone because of its economic connections to Spokane and the Inland Empire. Schweitzer and Brundage are nearly on the same longitude, but Schweitzer opens an hour later, when the sun is higher. I'm getting the impression that Brundage gets almost no carvers. I wouldn't be surprised if I never see another hardbooter all season here. The locals act like they haven't seen a carver in years.

Nah. How could it be? Especially when comparing against A-Basin/Loveland where it is possible to have a 200+ day season. Most resorts out west of CO are basically Thanksgiving to Easter affairs if you are lucky. Mt. Bachelor and Mt. Hood might be exceptions. People around here say that last season only had barely enough snow to allow the resorts to operate. Only Sun Valley has a really huge snowmaking capability. Brundage is a small place compared to the big CO resorts. One of the benefits is less crowding and I can park my car right next to a trail. Tuesday December 13. Day 12. Some clouds and a bit windy on top. Engen is still the run with the most obvious appeal but the grooming was super stripey and a washboard on traverses. Parts of Kickback were in full sun at open. It was nice to see every detail of the terrain but the good carving areas are limited. In the end I got my best turns on Main Street but had to watch my back for idiots. I wasted a run down 45th which was not groomed even though the report claimed that it was. Same with Sensation. This kind of thing really bugs me so I went into the office to COMPLAIN. I don't think anybody really cares. They must think I am some kind of weirdo.

Monday December 12, Day 11. I took 3 days off because of constant snow that brought around 17". This morning had high clouds and low fog. Viz was ok, but with flat light. I blew $80 on a full tune for my Oxess skwal and this is my first day on it. A shop in town claims to have one of only 4 brand-new super-duper German robotic edge machines currently in North America. I gave it a try and it seems to be good. Because of all the new snow, everything is too soft and I'm scared to bring the Oxess up to the speeds necessary to make it carve well. So I just fart around the resort. I got my first rides up the Bear and Lakeview lifts. The green Bear run might have been great when I was just starting out this season, but now it seems like a waste of time. The Lakeview area has 4 blue runs but only Kickback is groomed. It has a few nice carvy sections. The Engen run under the Centennial lift saw its first grooming of the season. It was wildly uneven, but this might be the Hollywood carving-spectacle run once it firms up. It is comfortably steep, straight, and wide. The forecast is for several days of good (but cold) weather.

Tuesday-Thursday, December 6-8. Day 10. Three somewhat cloudy and cool mornings with no new snow. The Main Street run is now being groomed but it is still somewhat uneven. 45th is still the best run and I have been doing laps there trying to tackle the steeper sections as well as the easy mid-section. Starting tomorrow the Bear chair will open on diesel backup power since the electric motor still isn't back from repair work. Also the Lakeview chair and associated terrain will open. There could be some good groomed blues there. Snow is in the forecast for the next few days so I'm not sure when I will ride again. Tamarack resort opens tomorrow. I might have reports from there soon.

Sunday-Monday, December 4-5. Day 7. On Sunday it started snowing right at open and was moderate for most of the morning. I rode for 90 minutes. Monday was cloudy on top. I went up the high-speed Bluebird lift for the first time and tried the Alpine and North runs. Not good. Alpine was the primary groomed run here since opening day and it is scraped down by the crowds. It is uneven and needs a couple more feet of snow before it will get good. The North trail was on its first day of groom today and had a lot of pushed around snow. On the bright side, both of these runs look like they have good potential as carving terrain, but it is just too early. Back at the Centennial lift, I found that the best current carving at the resort is on the 45th Parallel run. The steep initial section still shows too many undulations, but there is a long, easy mid-section where I could link over 30 turns. This will be my go-to place until more snow comes or the Bear/Lakeview lifts open. Brundage was recently named #4 on the USA Today survey of top North American resorts.

I gave Bachelor a chance. I don't think I'm going back there. Saturday, December 3. Day 5. No new snow, bluebird and cold on the 2nd day of grooming for the Temptation green run. With good vis and firm, fast snow, this is the first day I can really try to make hard turns. It takes me a while to trust the edge again but I am able to link some tight cross-under turns on the steeper parts of the run. I rode for 2 hours but it was freezing cold and the fixed-grip Centennial lift takes LITERALLY FOREVER to get to the top. Yesterday's closure of Centennial must have just been due to ice, cuz it seems to be up and running fine. The Upper/Lower Alpine run was also groomed but I didn't go there because it is only the first day of groom. I really wish the Bear chair would open soon. The green runs there look really good for getting back into shape early season. I read that the resort took delivery of a new snowcat just a few weeks ago; I hope this helps keep the quality of grooming up.

Friday, December 2, Day 4. Lots of new snow fell during the week when the resort was closed. Today was the "official" opening for daily operations. Bluebird and Centennial lifts were operating but the Bear chair is out because its motor is being repaired. It was foggy and single digit cold up top. I was riding the green Lakeview Ridge and Temptation just to orient myself, and this, along with the 45th Parallel trail were pretty much the only groomed runs. I had around 4 runs in when I reached the top of Centennial and an awful grinding noise started coming from the bullwheel area. They stopped the lift and restarted it but the noise continued, and it stopped again. I thought that the noise might indicate a bad failure so I went down 45th and hit the cat track to the main lodge to warm up. After a while I went back to my car and heard that they got everybody off the lift. Later in the day it was running again, so maybe it was just a chunk of ice? The resort was fairly crowded by noon. Not so many people really, but Bluebird was the only lift and nothing was groomed there. As the days progress more of the mountain will be packed down and groomy.

Sunday, November 27, Day 3. The kiddie lift is getting boring AF but I hit it first thing in the morning again. Few other customers around. The resort closes until next Friday. It was supposed to snow Sunday night but it only amounted to a couple of inches. More is predicted for later in the week. I'd really like it if the Bear chair could open soon.

Saturday, November 26. Day 2. The BlueBird high-speed quad to the top opened today, only for passholders. Only two trails back down are open and neither are groomed so I didn't go up. Instead I did laps on the kiddie lift again. There was 1-2" of new snow overnight so conditions there were good. I rode for the first 75 minutes and left. Nearby Tamarack resort has an announced opening day of December 9. Bogus Basin is partially open.

Friday, November 25. Day 1. Brundage opened this morning with super limited terrain. Basically only the bunny lift. Without even trying, I was the first chair of this season. It wasn't a Nate Dogggg event. No photographers or anything. The beginner run is pretty short and shallow but I made a couple dozen laps. I was told that conditions permitting, the Bluebird lift would be next to open when enough snow happens, but with limited ungroomed runs only. I'd really like to ride the runs over on Bear and Centennial but that base area has no snowmaking and coverage is too thin to open yet. More snow is in the forecast over the next week, so I'll be hoping for the best.

First minutes of opening day at Schweitzer with Kram on Carver StalkerCam. Anybody else in this photo?

I picked up my season pass yesterday at the downtown office. I might make a trip to the hill soon to look around. They are targeting Nov 25 for opening if conditions permit. There's around 23" of snow up there now. I understand that the minimal snowmaking they have is all around the main lodge base area. Only one detachable grip lift, the others are fixed. I've never ridden there so I don't exactly know what to expect. This is a 360 video. You can rotate the view. Just guessing, but I think this must be shot on the green Bear and Jammer runs under the Bear chair.

I'm living in McCall now and waiting for snow. The average opening isn't until December sometime but I'm hoping for the best. I'm not sure if Brundage has any snowmaking whatsoever.

Wednesday May 25, Day 29. The weather is warm enough for no overnight freeze so I went up to check things out. The lower level runs are a little soft right from the 8:30 open and I just did my best to make good turns on the Sunrise runs. Summit was on wind hold until 9:30 or so and Beverly Hills was pretty slarvy. Not a bad morning. Some new snow is in the forecast for the weekend but this is my last day of a somewhat unfortunate season. I'll be leaving town soon.

Tuesday-Wednesday May 10-11. Day 28. Nice weather with cool temps, but the lower elevation areas are a little thaw-freezy. Beverly Hills run from the top of the Summit lift is the best trail. Good carving there and I was finally able to meet NoSchoolRider on the hill. Now my life is complete.

Monday May 9. Day 26. 11" of new snow fell over the weekend. This morning had a lucky window of mostly clear skies with cool weather. No thaw yet. It was windy and the cold was a little biting, but the snow was good. The resort is only grooming in the afternoons so just about every run had windblown and a little bit of new over groom. Too soft in general for hard carving but it was a nice morning to be out. I left around 11 and they still hadn't opened the Summit lift.

Tuesday May 3. Day 25. Finally there was around 7" of new over the past couple of days and today was bright sunshine. Only Pine Marten and Sunrise lifts run regularly now, with Summit when possible. At the 8:30 open the snow was softish and sluffy on most of the groomers. Many people came up today and the resort has closed the Sunrise parking lot, forcing everyone into the West Village lot. The line at the Pine Martin lift was way too long for much of the morning. Summit opened after 10 AM when blasting ended (why can't they do this earlier?). I got a couple of good runs down Beverly Hills which was firmish on top and sluffy further down. The forecasted high for Bend tomorrow is 79-80. I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I've been on snow in May since I left A-Basin in 2013.

Monday April 25. Day 24. The resort is now on spring schedule, running from 8:30 to 1:30 daily. The Sunrise lodge is now closed and the only parking is in the West village. I was up at open with temps right around freezing after a warm afternoon the previous day. I was hoping for a reasonably soft surface but things were pretty darn firm. I did a couple of runs then waited an hour in the lodge. After I went out again the very top was softer but most of the base is pretty hard. Closing day is scheduled for May 29.

Friday April 22. Day 23. I might have gone up mid-week but my car's exhaust blew a weld and I had to get it kludged up. Today was mostly sunny with cool temps at open. Not much new snow lately and everything is groomed well. I got a bunch of runs down Thunderbird carving hard on the smooth hero surface. One run down the big groomer from the summit, and some other farting around. Not at all crowded for such a great day.

Monday, April 18. Day 22. There was a little more snow over the crowded weekend. Monday morning was just under freezing with high overcast skies. The snow is pleasantly firm but Thunderbird still had stripey grooming. I cruised and carved the easy runs around Sunrise. Today the resort was dead empty. A nice change for me.

Friday, April 15. Day 21. A storm system came thru earlier this week and dumped something like 4 feet of new snow. Monday thru Thursday all had snowy or otherwise poor weather but Friday was sunny and clear. The steeper runs had stripey grooming again so I stuck with the easier runs where the snow was a little soft but quite nice. The Summit lift opened around 9:30 but the line there was ridiculous all morning. By 11:30 the place was quite packed. Seattle people are on Spring Break and mucking things up. I briefly talked to a visiting Mt. Shasta guy on an old Oxygen.

I'm using Freeride Neoprene liners which are advertised as being High Volume. Out of the box they didn't feel loose or sloppy, but simply not snug and I could notice heel lift in my rear foot. I have added about one tube to each tongue and one tube to each ankle area. This has been a good improvement. The ZipFit guy I talked to on the phone when I bought the liners said that he knows of racers who cram 4 tubes of cork into ONE TONGUE to get the feel that they want. I might also like more in my tongues and could easily put another tube into each of my liners.