Sun Valley 14-15

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Thursday 2/5, Day 71:  Excellent carving on Da Ridge.  Temps in the low 30s on top, kinda warm.  Cloudy with winds on top blowing in hard from the West, a prelude to the weekend storm that we have high hopes for.  Snow is firm, smooth and pretty darn grippy.  Days of picking up rocks may have paid off since I wasn't terribly annoyed today.  3 carvers total this morning.  Who was green plaid jacket guy?  Was that just a new jacket, or a new guy?  Going out on the Cold Springs chair the guy behind me is singing Minnie Ripperton's "Loving You" to himself.  By the time we got to the top he had moved on to Cat Stevens' "Wild World."  Good times.

 

[lamby]

That's Hilarious!

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Friday 2/6, Day 72:  Warm and humid, around 35F on top and cloudy.  The top of Muffy's looks kinda rocky, so I do all my runs down Gretchen's.  Good firm carving again.  The Seattle Ridge lift went into some fits for a couple of minutes.  Yesterday it had a bunch of troubles with chairs stacking up at the top.  Scuttlebutt says that #5 Lookout Express is also having issues, and at some point yesterday they were considering the cannibalization of the Frenchman lift for parts.  Lots of visitors from other places.  Even though our snow isn't great, it is way worse at many places in the West.  Once the lift line reached multiple tens of seconds, I made my way out around 10:45.  Precip is supposed to come later today into Saturday, but it is so warm that it will definitely rain down low.  As long as is snows on top, everything will be cool.  Fingers crossed.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Saturday 2/7: Day 73:  All night I could hear the sound of water dripping from the roof of my condo.  I get up in the morning and turn the 2-way radio to listen to the mountain ops.  It is immediately clear that there will be a struggle to get the mountain open.  The snow stake shows 6" of new on top.  Down low it has alternately rained and snowed.  All of the parking lots and streets are 3" of slushee soup.  Somebody reports a 71 mph gust at the top of the Christmas lift, but most of the gusts are in the 40s. 

 

I go in at open because the weather radar shows a break in the precip.  At 9AM the #1 River Run Express and #5 Lookout Express lifts open, but the Gondola is closed.  On the way up there is a tree near the #5 lift line that has snapped off at the top.  These lifts are going up the lee side, and when we reach the top it is pretty gusty with blowing whirlwinds of snow.  The Chrismas lift is closed, as is the Lookout lift.  Since this leaves no way to reach Seattle Ridge, that area must be closed too.  I head down Ridge and find that while the windswept places might be bare, there is something like 12-18" in the places where the snow built up.  This is perhaps the heaviest slab of new snow that I've ever been in, and I get into trouble pretty quickly.  It's like sticky, wet lead flakes out here.  I'm on the Coda Skwal which is usually reasonable in powder, but this stuff is so thick that I can't make it turn on these steep blues unless I'm going faster than I'm comfortable with.  If I'm going too slow it digs in.  I have the wrong brain, wrong body, and wrong equipment.

 

So it is a long sweaty struggle to get down to 42nd Street where the #5 load is.  Going down Lower River Run was easy and surfy, but near the bottom it got super grabby slow, so I didn't see a point in doing even that run again.  As I walked out many people were coming in, but some less adventurous people were leaving without ever getting on snow.  They had heard horror stories from people who had already been up, and decided to just go home.

 

Dozens of avy blasts were heard this morning.  Many of the other lifts opened around 10, but ski patrol is still dropping 4-pounders into the bowls as I write this.  More precip is in the forecast.

Edited February 7, 2015 by ExcelsiorTheFathead

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Sunday 2/8, Day 74:  1" more of new snow.  Today it is sunny and 25 on top at open.  The snow down low is very firm and frozen.  Up top it is nice, like a big bag of chalk was dumped on the hill but too soft for carving.  On my way out I went down Olympic Lane, following a couple of ski patrol guys far up ahead.  At the top of Lower Olympic I find them stopped.  I slow down to look around but my board breaks thru a bunch of ungroomed crusty new and immediately comes to a stop, throwing me into something of a roll which nearly pulls my back foot out of my boot.  Once the patrollers got over their amusement, they drilled a hole, unbundled a caution sign and set it into the snow.  I guess I got there just a little too early.

 

The Boulder Mountain Tour, a popular Nordic event North of Ketchum was cancelled yesterday due to avy hazards.  The superpipe at Dollar is closed today because it is ice.   There should be good carving again later this week when all this stuff gets packed down.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Monday 2/9, Day 75: It rained down low again but thankfully snowed on top.  There's around 4" of new on the snow stake and it is in the high 20's on top.  Most of the precip breaks with the dawn, so there is just a little drizzle or light snow depending on the elevation.

 

All around the region record high temps are being set in recent days for places like Pocatello and Twin Falls.  Yesterday the high temp in Hailey, 10 miles south of Sun Valley, reached 50F.

 

On the way up the Gondola at open I meet a local guy with a big Donek freeride board and old Switch step-in bindings.  Since boots are no longer available, he has glommed on a few layers of fiberglass and resin along the sides and back of his boots to keep them going.  He said that he had a LaCroix Skwal "back in the day."

 

Up at Seattle Ridge there is 3-4" of heavy new over good groom.  The first runs are party carvy and partly surfy, then just kind of bumpy after the skiers cut it up.  I did my best to carve it hard but hit a bump in a turn and slammed my side into the snow.  I could hear my neck making those happy cracking noises that are so refreshing.  On the way out I found that Lower River Run had stayed well above freezing all night, and it had been groomed just before open.  It was firm and super smooth, and with a soft, grippy springtime top.  I locked my boot cuffs and hit that around 5 times with no one around.  Everybody else is pushing piles of snow on the upper mountain.  When I finally tired out, I saw a group of maybe 8 adaptive riders down at the base getting ready to go up.  They had a couple of ski chasers with what looked like an expensive, big-time video camera.

 

The lower mountain is going to be slush before this day is over.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Tuesday 2/10, Day 76:  Sunny and 25F on top.  Lots of fair-weather skiers are out today.  There's a bigger line for the gondola today than there was yesterday when there was new snow.  Seattle Ridge is groomed fairly well for the first day after new and the carving is good.  After an hour it starts to break up and get bumpy.  The lower part of the runs heading down to the lifts are cookied and crunchy.  Everything on the lower mountain was groomed while thawed and ranges from just bad to dramatically frozen horrible.  Lower River Run was the exception as it was tilled into submission just before open.  It was really good to be out on the Oxess again.  Not a single rock in sight.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Wednesday 2/11, Day 77:  Sunny and mid-20s at open, heading for above freezing.  On the 2nd day of groom, Seattle Ridge is pretty nice but not double-pass nice.  Carving is excellent.  SV is pretty crowded.  Scuttlebutt says that recent days have seen attendance at levels 20% above last year.  Mid-February lodging & lift deals must be popular since the coastal resorts are having such poor snow.  Even here in Idaho, Soldier Mountain is going to close after this weekend.  Brundage and Bogus Basin are still hanging in there.  On the way out at 10:30, Canyon was an icy scrape but once again Lower River Run was a magnificent playground of smoothness and grip.  It would have been a great place for a slalom board, but too shallow for the 14m Oxess.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Thursday 2/12, Day 78:  Another fine sunny carving morning on Seattle Ridge.  Kinda crowded with bad skiers.  Grooming is good but not great.  We've been fortunate with cool temps on top, thus no thaw-freeze.  But it is 40F up there right now so we may have run out of luck.

 

Back in Washington State, Snoqualmie is closing due to bad conditions.

Edited February 12, 2015 by ExcelsiorTheFathead

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Friday 2/13, Day 79:  Well above freezing all night up top at 9000 feet but in the high 20s down low.  40F at open with bright sunshine at Seattle Ridge.  Grooming is ok and the carving is good but it is plenty crowded.  Broadway Face had some cookies from the intense sun exposure it gets.  This is day 1 of a 4-day weekend for many, and some schools have all next week off.  There seems to be a bunch of Snowbasin people up here to burn their 3 free days.  I'm told that SV conditions are better than back home.  At 10:30 it is too hot to ride.   On the way out I find that the lower mountain is pretty darn not bad.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Saturday 2/14, Day 80:  Yet another night above freezing at the top.  On the way up the gondola I'm stuck with a guy who has just discovered SkiTracks and is telling everyone how great it is.  When he goes into the part about maximum speed, I have to keep myself from barfing on him.  I get 1st chair on Seattle Ridge where it is around 38F, cloudy, and an uphill breeze from the east.  The snow is somehow still excellent.  Good turns with one other carver out early.  Around 10AM a guest relations guy comes out to encourage people to quad up on the chair.  I'm normally gone by the time the hill gets really busy, and this is the first time I've seen anybody working a lift maze at SV.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Sunday 2/15, Day 81:  Much colder today at open, 28F bottom and 21F on top.  Sunny and warming quickly.  I just do an hour on Lower River Run before the ski school gums it up with people.  Groomers have granulated the surface into nice sugar that is pretty grippy.  No idea how the upper mountain is today, but this is the first time in 3-4 days that it has been below freezing on top.  Many families are pouring in, and some people are paying the $115 walk-up rates at the ticket window.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Monday 2/16, Day 82:  Colder still, only in the high teens at open but with bright sunshine.  Snow on Seattle Ridge has some crushed cookies and comes apart quickly into some softish piles but is still pretty decent.  Crowded with all kinds of skiers and ski school groups.  The lower mountain is reasonably good, and all these people are getting a great holiday weekend.  Out at 10:30.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Tuesday 2/17, Day 83:  Sunny and cool at open, I get first chair on Seattle Ridge.  The snow continues to hold up.  Grooming is ok, depending on the place.  Most of my runs are on Gretchen's because the light is best there.  Still crowded, and I have to wait for a clear run.  Out at 10:30

 

This might be the only photographic evidence that I was at SV this season.  Just one turn.

. Edited February 18, 2015 by ExcelsiorTheFathead

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Wednesday 2/18, Day 84:  Sunny and inverty.  35F on top, 20 at the base.  I get first chair at Seattle Ridge again and the first few runs are pretty good.  After that the snow starts to break up and I have a couple of slide-out incidents.  A visiting carver was killin' it on a Donek, making slow, tight and smooth turns.

 

On the way out an Aussie guy asks me if I'm riding a skwal.  He says that he used to have a LaCroix with a 20m sidecut.  We are sitting on the brim of Upper Canyon and he tells his little daughters to watch me lay some big trenches.  Now I'm under pressure to perform and manage to make some good turns.  Then this guy and his family carve down Lower Canyon on skis better than I could.

 

It's too warm. 

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Thursday 2/19, Day 85:  Another sunny and inverty day, but I'm starting to feel like I'm in a Seattle Ridge rut.  I've been going to the ridge for something like three straight weeks and while the snow there is decent, the grooming isn't great because of the warm conditions on top.  So today I go up the gondola then the Christmas chair and go down the Warm Springs side.  Warm Springs Face is still steep and scary.  Mid Warm Springs has good snow but is a little too bowl-y for my taste.  A sign says that Upper Greyhawk is groomed, so I take the cat track over there.  What a view from the top.  The snow from mid-mountain on down is pretty firm but not at all crusty.  I have to skid the top but from Mid-Greyhawk I start carving.  Toesides are skidding out a little.  I'm not sure if it is the firm snow or what, but it still happens when I try harder to be stacked and it is a little frustrating.  It is 20F at the bottom and maybe 30 at the top of the Greyhawk lift.

 

After a couple of retries I went down Lower Warm Springs and found a little more grip.  Both Greyhawk and LWS are groomed perfectly smooth, much better than up at Seattle Ridge.  From 10 to 10:30 I sat in the lodge to let things warm up a little.  I even paid $3.25 for a danish, the first time I have purchased anything at SV.  When I went back out a couple of big swaths of LWS were now in the sun and I found that the grip meter had shot up from maybe 6.5 to 8.5.  It was ON now and I made a few hard-charging runs.  I saw some other carvers but I'm not sure who they were.  A couple of them were really young guys who seemed like they were trying to get things figured out.  From 9-10 there is almost nobody on the lower mountain.  After the sun hit it I had to be sure to check uphill, but it wasn't too bad.

 

The totality of Greyhawk before the sun came around.  Somehow this photo makes the whole thing look less steep than it is.  The first section is Upper Greyhawk which is black.  From the cat track is Mid-Greyhawk, a blue.  The very bottom is green.  I saw some skiers come up to the lip of Upper Greyhawk and then turn back.

Look at the difference in snow covering the other side of the valley in this shot from December 22.

 

 

Edited February 20, 2015 by ExcelsiorTheFathead

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Friday 2/20, Day 86:  Incredibly, it is NOT inverty today.  19F on top and 32 at my condo near the River Run base area with just a few clouds.  On the SunValley.com web site they show temperatures for the mountain top and valley floor.  The "mountain top" reading is from the top of Bald Mt, but the "valley floor" reading is taken at the Sun Valley resort (maybe a mile away from Baldy) and is sometimes not representative of Baldy base temps.  Further, the Warm Springs base area is generally colder than the River Run side.   So anyhoo, the "valley floor" reading was a balmy 35, so I was hoping that maybe the entire lower mountain stayed above freezing and would have super grip from open.  I drove directly to the Warm Springs base and found it to be much colder there, maybe only 24F.  At open I went up the Greyhawk lift and tried Lower Warm Springs.  It was very firm, smooth and fast and had enough grip to ride confidently.  I stayed on it for an hour.  Just after 10AM I went down Mid-Greyhawk to get back to my car and had a toeside slideout.  I think that the snow is the same as on LWS, but it is harder to make it hold on this steeper pitch.  Much of the time I ride with my goggles up because of the low light in the shadows.

 

It would have been much better to wait for just the right temperature and some sun, but I don't have the patience for that on a crowded Friday.  Maybe next week.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Saturday 2/21, Day 87:  Cold temps on top have allowed for excellent grooming at Seattle Ridge.  Superb carving conditions and less crowded than last Saturday.  People are starting to go home from their mid-winter break.  When I first arrived at the lift I was sure that I would be on the first chair, but they had brought the lift to a complete stop to load an old lady (on foot) and a resort employee.  The short wait allowed one of the older regulars to catch up to me and we shared the chair.  He told me that the lady in front of us was none other than Carol Holding, the widow of Earl Holding.  I think that with the passing of her husband, she now owns Sun Valley Co.  Mrs. Holding was headed for the Seattle Ridge Lodge while one of her granddaughters was out getting a ski lesson.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Sunday 2/22, Day 88:  Sunny and cold.  1F on top, 17 at the base.  1" of new from some flurries yesterday.  I'm just doing slalomy loops down Lower River Run on the Coda.  Very firm and fast.  The grip is good thanks to some intensive slow-speed tilling just before open.  The snow up top must be in excellent shape, but I gotta get to Yoga.  Out at 9:50 after maybe 8 quick runs.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Monday 2/23, Day 89:  Horizon-to-horizon cloudless and sunny.  10F on top, colder at the base.  Snow on Seattle Ridge is pretty good, with just a slight tinge of crusto-gritification.  Except for a couple of ski school groups, the crowds are down significantly from last week.  I get 4 runs in before I take Mayday up.  Broadway Face is a little too firm in places, and I stop on Cristin's for a short break.  After a minute or so, I notice that nobody is coming down the run.  I carve a few turns and don't see anybody on Muffy's either.  Suspicious.  Sure enough, the Seattle Ridge chair has broken and isn't moving, so I go up Mayday again.  Soon enough I hear them start the diesel generator and the chair is moving, but when I get back down again the chair has been completely unloaded and shut down. 

 

A few floating rocks are starting to appear again, mostly on Muffy's and on the first pitch of Lower Broadway.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Tuesday 2/24, Day 90:  Sunny again, 30F on top and 20 at the base.  At open the Gondola is broken so I take #1 and #5 to the top.  I was planning on going to Seattle Ridge, but now I thought I'd try something different.  Upper College is an excellent easy carve, then I made some good turns on the steep Flying Squirrel and Lower Picabo's.  Lower Warm Springs was groomed perfectly smooth.  It was very carveable but a little on the firm side this early in the morning.  Next I took the Challenger lift for the 10 minute, 3,142' ride back to the top.  From there I went down Upper Warm Springs, Warm Springs Face, Mid-Warm Springs and Lower Warm Springs.

 

I'll make the claim here that the Warm Springs top-to-bottom trail at SV is the longest continuously carveable, constantly challenging run in North America.  I'll buy an SV burger for anybody who can carve the whole thing without stopping.  Plan a trip to SV during the "meaty" part of the season when there is good snow and give it a try.

 

Back again at the top I made some good turns down Ridge, Blue Grouse and Upper Canyon, although this face of the mountain had some cookification.  Out at 10:30.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Wednesday 2/25, Day 91:  Sunny again, mid 20s on top, around freezing at the base.  Today I went to Warm Springs an hour late.  I killed some more time reading the paper in the lodge until 10:20 when the sun started to creep across the Lower Warm Springs run.  I got some good turns in the sunny areas, and could feel definite loss of grip in the very firm shadows.  I took my last run down Mid-Greyhawk which had seen less sun and found it to be too firm even though it was soft snow on top.  Out at 11:40.

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Thursday 2/26, Day 92:  Clouds rolling in and out as a weather system starts to move in.  15F on top at open and I'm back on Seattle Ridge.  I did all my runs on Gretchen's which had good grip but some places with minor chunko-cookification.  Good turns.  At the top of Muffy's the groomers had struck dirt again and opened up the vomiting maw of rocks.  While going up the lift I saw a couple of patrollers checking it out and expressing their dismay.  But I don't think that they picked up a single rock.  Apparently, their job doesn't include picking up rocks.  Picking up rocks is MY job.

[carvedog]

Hey Art. My kids were up yesterday early on Seattle and were talking about this hardbooter rutting up Gretchen's early. We were just talking about it and my wife said something about being….ahem….smaller than me….which isn't saying much and wearing a yellow coat. Oldest daughter said really skinny board. 

So I said "that's Art", right as my youngest came in. She thought I said Arc. My wife said that would be a good name for you. I laughed. Apparently you were looking pretty good. Damn those rocks anyway. Thin cover but good snow is what I am hearing. 

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Friday 2/27, Day 93:  15F on top with 1" of new from some flurries yesterday.  The cold temps have enabled some of the finest grooming up on Seattle Ridge in weeks.  It's bowling alley smooth with good grip.  Crowds are sparse.  Clouds are moving in and out, making for some flat light at times but the runs are so smooth that you don't really need to see them well.  5 runs down Gretchen's and one on Muffy's is all I can do before my legs are gone.  On the way out at the top of Canyon I get to meet the Jerry family!  My name is "Arc".