rwmaron

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Friday, April 7 Last day of the season for me - got going at 11 in the bright sun with temp in the mid 30s. Started on Timber Cruiser and worked my way across the hill to the Big Air Park as the surface softened. Had to take one extra run to enjoy the soft, consistent snow on the skier’s left side of the park . Had a barbecue lunch courtesy of the Friday patrol, then packed up for the year.

Thursday, March 30th Temperature in the single digits at the open today slowly climbing only to the mid 20 by this afternoon - so the Minnesota firm groom never softened. To make matters worse it clouded over early in the afternoon. The bright spot for the day was the announcement that Spirit would maintain normal hours until Saturday, April 8th !

Tuesday, March 28 The morning’s bright sun gave way to thick clouds by the time we opened the hill at 1pm; steady temps in the mid 20’s and the flat light felt more like mid winter than early spring. The Express side had a thin layer of loose frozen granular over a rock-hard base; the Gandy side was just plain a rock-hard base. Bottom line - if you stayed home today you made the right choice.

Monday, March 20 Patroller Don and I made a late season pilgrimage to GR today; the term “bluebird” comes to mind…firm in the morning then softening a bit after lunch….I wish this place was 30 minutes closer to my house. Oh yeah, the grooming was seamless to boot!

Thursday, March 16 Thick fog and drizzle at the open - it was crappy enough that: - only 2 of the usual early morning crowd showed up and both were gone in less than 45 minutes and - crappy enough that I had a hard time finding my way back to the chalet from the top of the Express lift after opening the runs on the Express side. Took a couple of runs just after noon when it cleared a bit and the precipitation turned to light snow but the surface remained partially frozen, so I went back in for coffee. Patroller Don and I tried once more at three pm after the school group left and had the best conditions of the day - several inches of heavy but smooth fresh snow ! Heard from one of the rental shop techs that today's was the last school group of the year and from one of the admins that the current plan is to stay open on a daily basis until April 2nd.

Tuesday, March 14 Bluebird day - bright sun, clear sky, no wind and plush soft groom. No school groups today made for light traffic and no Ski Patrol business to attend to kept it fun throughout the afternoon. Managed to boot out on my heel side a couple of times, but they were uniformly gentle slides along the soft surface. Time for some setup tweaking though ! I’ll be back Thursday in hopes that there’s more snow than rain.

Today’s players - Dianne and Dan Nelson ( @nelsonboat), @bigwavedave, and yours truly: Russ

Bump

I got to hang out with a snowboarding legend today:

I have a pair of Deeluxe MP 28.0 boots with Intec heels and BTS….PM me if interested.

FWIW - they’ve removed the rails at the top of the big terrain park making for your carving pleasure !

Looking for one of these (I don’t need the discs) and it has to be the four hole version (as opposed to the Burton 3 hole version). Thanks! Russ

Unlike Dave I only had a two board day , but I did go out after lunch…. Spent the morning on my go to metal Donek Razor; as the morning progressed I felt like I was getting bounced around more and more (even after the sun came out and made it easier to find clean lines). For the afternoon session I rode my Thirst CC+ (both are 165 cm x 23 cm boards), but, oh my, what a difference the Thirst special sauce made. I could ride the same chopped up runs without having to constantly search for clean lines; the CC+ took it all in stride. Had so much fun that I think I’ll be back for more tomorrow!

I too have a pair of the Burton quick adjust ‘rental’ bindings with 4 hole center discs…..yours for the cost of shipping from Minnesota if you want them!

Heads up - the DSAC Winter Camp will be running Tuesday through Friday of this week from 10-12 each day. It'll be warmer too so I'd plan for lots of traffic. As you said above "patrollers have to be there" so I'll be enjoying the spectacle on Thursday.

According to the Big Snow web page Indianhead will be open 4/14-17!

Wednesday, March 23 Missed my usual Tuesday morning outing due to yesterday’s closure so I thought I’d give a go today, though to be truthful, my expectations were pretty low. Flat light, scattered patches of fresh snow on top of the half frozen cord from the weekend’s warm spell, sloppy grooming, and 32F at the start…..a few turns to be had on the fresh snow patches, but they were few and far between. Gradually softened up a little when I left just before noon. If you stayed home today you didn’t miss a thing! I’ll be back for my regular patrol day tomorrow. Oh yeah, did I mention that the light was pretty flat today?

Thursday, March 10 5F at the open today; brilliant blue sky, but a brisk NW wind that kept chair rides invigorating. A thin layer of groom over the typical bullet-proof base made for quick rides….and despite the bright sun and mid-day temperature of 16F the surface never softened. Typical mid-week concentration of snow sports enthusiasts. Today’s crew…. @D Dett, yours truly, and @khoward.

Hey….At least I got it right 50% of the time!

Tuesday, March 8 Flat light and icy groom at the 10am open were far from ideal. Gradually brightened and softened over the next hour, though traffic was a bit heavier than usual for a Tuesday morning - I sense that folks are feeling to get out before the season winds down in a few weeks. Fellow patroller@D Dett joined me for the last hour. Russ

PM sent on the binders!

I’d like to think that I’ve ‘upped the game’ as for the gear in the Patrol equipment rack here at Spirit, thanks to Mark Miller ( @BLOODTYPEZX10R)

I was only able to recover one of the boards that I lost last summer; a friend spotted it on eBay. I’d suggest setting up an alert there as well.