Welch Village

[bobble]

went to Welch.

4 hardbooters; erik, matt, dave, myself.

conditions were excellent. i think it was -10F when i got there. it was so cold that Welch kept every friggin' light on to provide radiant warmth. not sure how warm it got. took two breaks.

so glad i went!!! i shall be pissing off everyone at work tomorrow about how great the weather was today.

High Points

Lookout/Wild Finally were ours. hardly anyone there. pure carving pleasure. had to force our selves to go to other runs. a few skiers eventually showed up.

i got to the bottom of Dan's Dive to the applause of a group of ski patrollers at the bottom. they were doing drills. one of the patrollers who was clapping said they loved watching us. i wish i had whipped out the camera before they headed to the chair. Dan's was getting pretty chewed up by time we left.

Minor Disappointments

skiers right of bakke had a swath of ungroomed snow from top to bottom. it narrowed the top of the run for me and matt. erik was able to carve through it. rest of the run was fine.

jon jon has moguls straight down the center. wtf-f.

some video from today. footage not so great. wish i had a better view finder and better editor.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/q2QEjivjgvw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[bobble]

1/18/15

 

fast snow on lookout. on my first run i was already exhausted (probably from spending nearly all day at buck). took several runs to get used to the speed.

 

crowded! buzzers and creepers.

 

5 hardbooters present. 

 

a tele-skier was asking about boards and saw some guy at buck making arcs over New Year's eve. a woman on skis asked me where her husband could buy hardboots.

 

i didn't like dan's dive. bakki was had weird grooming with ridges. they're like skateboard blockers.

 

yes, its real. dinosaur erotica! (NSWF-ish). a totally new genre... heard about this on Mysterious Universe podcast. read the amazon reviews.

 

[bobble]

2/1/15

 

Greg, Matt, and myself.

 

i didn't think that it would so cold today. it was blowing snow and i stupidly thought it was mid to upper 20's. it was more like in the teens. it was really cold. forgot to bring a gator.

 

flat light wasn't an issue. the blowing snow accumulated on some parts of Lookout and left patches of corduroy untouched. there was enough contrast between new snow and corduroy to be able to see.

 

Lookout was decent to ride except the wind was blowing up the hill. we were hiding faces from the wind. there was 2-3 inches of snow on top of cord. took a couple runs to get used to the conditions. 

 

Dan's Dive was good too. by the time we got there the sun started to poke through the clouds. after several runs we all took a break because of the cold. went back out later and Dan's was getting chopped up.

 

Jon Jon... greg said the top was ok. i saw what looked like race ruts and just didn't try. the bottom of Jon Jon had a course set up for kids so we went back to Lookout.

 

overall it was fairly decent carving despite the weather. i expected only to be there an hour and left around noon time.

[bobble]

3/2/15

 

greg, trent, matt and myself.

 

almost had Lookout to ourselves.

 

ski patrol was doing some sort of training that involved standing on the run. otherwise the place was dead. 

 

snow felt good ...  ...  ... on a metal board. 

 

there might be some people riding there this wednesday evening. trent has an extra ski pass he's willing to sell cheap.

[bobble]

saturday morning.

 

matt, paul, and myself.

 

snow was great ... ... ... at first! eventually ice started to poke through. 

 

the crowds were terrible. spent almost entire time on Lookout. it wasn't all fun and games. lot of kids falling down on first pitch. some aggressive skiers. 

 

 

one guy gave me the stink-eye. i had skied all the way over to skiers-left to avoid the crowd. no one behind me so i make one turn. i hear something and look. there was a guy already right on my ass. i stopped to avoid him and he just glared at me as he whipped by. 

 

i had left at around 12pm only to turn around and go back. i received a text message from my brother that he was at welch just as i got within range of a cell tower. so i went back. it was difficult to find parking. the lot was so muddy that you almost needed 4-wheel drive to get through it. what surprised me is the number of cars that did park in mud. i had to wash my boots outside when i got home.

 

this was the scene on the other chair.

 

 

[bobble]

sunday morning.

 

just me.

 

 

Lookout: first couple runs were ok. the snow was soft with ice underneath. after half hour started chattering and falling down. crowds showed up. no matter where i turned there was some skier.

 

Dans Dive: un-funking-carveable. mix of soft snow or slush with bumpy ice underneath. my toe-side first turns i slammed. i noped the phnck out of there.

 

Bakke: took 2-1/2 runs. the top had some weird rolls. the snow broke away on my second heel-side turn of first run. couldn't montucky euro to save my pants. the snow was just sh!tty to carve. it just broke away. on second run near the second transition i lost it and took a hard slam. just couldn't hold an edge. i went back to Lookout to lick my wounds.

 

left at 10:30. too many skiers. sometimes life imitates art.

 

 

 

 

p.s. earlier in the week i went night riding and i could see buck from highway 52 where they just installed a power substation. google earth says 15.6 miles.

 

[bigwavedave]

Hey Bob, get your new board yet?

[bobble]

Yes I did. 175 Schtubby V2.0 x 21.5 with 13/14m sidecut. $640 does buy you happiness.

Friday was my first day on it. It handles almost like my Nirvana. I had to lower my angles and stance. Feels good.