bigwavedave Posted March 19, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 19, 2017 Thanks Neil. I'd love to go back there, I did some backpacking 30+ years ago in Banff─majestic would be the word that comes to mind. Sun Peaks looks pretty interesting. Thanks for the suggestion. I like that it's only 7,000' elevation. Anything over 9,000' and I feel the lack of oxygen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted January 14, 2018 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2018 January 2018 Rode up the chair at Spirit with a patroller who had been to Giant's Ridge this season and reported that the 2 new chairs are installed and working. A high-speed quad over Sarajevo and a fixed quad at the Helsinki race hill. According to the website, lift ticket prices have gone up ($47 midwk) and no more late season or senior discounts. A Spirit pass still gets $10 off a weekday ticket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 17, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2018 (edited) Rich called to tell me that conditions are fantastic at G.R. He'd been at both Spirit and G.R. the past couple of days. Says the grooming has been exceptional at G.R.. Have to get up there. Edited February 17, 2018 by bigwavedave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 27, 2018 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2018 Heading up to G.R. tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2018 Man oh man, nice carving today at GR. Really nice snow, groomed to perfection. Sunny and warm, but not too warm─the snow held up nicely. The new lifts are great. Rode all day with Russ. Big boards mostly, then a little SL fun on some of the steep and narrow Some tracks...and a lot of tracks, laid under the new express lift... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted March 1, 2018 Report Share Posted March 1, 2018 54 minutes ago, bigwavedave said: <snip>, laid under the new express lift... How quick is the ride up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2018 Maybe about twice as long as the ride down on a big board doing big turns, so about 4 min?...and it was good 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwmaron Posted March 1, 2018 Report Share Posted March 1, 2018 Bright sun, sweet groom, mild temps and sparse mid-week crowd makes for big smiles all around... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 1, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2018 (edited) ^^^That was towards the end of the day and I can see the fatigue in our faces...and the lack of wisdom to call it a day when legs are depleted. Burnt onion soup and a Castle Danger stout made for a good rejuvenator at the end of the day. Here's where we spent most of our time: Orange lines are the runs wide enough for big boards (12m+scr); Yellow lines for steep&narrow and best on a SL board; Yellow/orange line is where you can usually find untracked groom on a wide steep slope later in the day, but pay for it with a long run at the very bottom to get to the lift. Edited March 2, 2018 by bigwavedave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted January 26, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2019 On 2/28/2018 at 8:12 PM, lonbordin said: How quick is the ride up? 2018-19 Russ and I took a retiree holiday to GR today.What the heck, it was sunny, only 10-15° below zero (that's -25°Canadian Corey:), light wind and 3rd day groom after 7" of dry arctic powder. Surprise! We had the place to ourselves for the first couple of hours. Purfect grooming as typical. We destroyed Sarajevo (the run under the high speed chair) and later moved on to make the first tracks on our other favorite run (Squaw Valley to Helsinki Race ). To Dave's question, we found ourselves beating the chair we rode up by 2-3 chairs. In other words, if we rode up on #35, we boarded #32 at the bottom for the next ride up. On each ride up we would look for some empty canvas of un-tracked corduroy and go after it on the next run. Pretty soon we found ourselves chuckling on the ride up as we admired the results of our morning's work, virtually the only tracks on the hill, and they were everywhere! Rode for 4½ hours. We both realized afterwards, for one, we really don't know when to stop, and riding in really cold temps saps your energy. Tired now...sauna time... It was so cold that phone batteries stopped working before we could properly document our artwork, but here are the tools of the day. Rode the 185 Thirst all day! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MNSurfer Posted March 21, 2019 Report Share Posted March 21, 2019 Any late-season reports from Giant's and/or Lutsen? How are things holding-up? I'm contemplating a hooky day, tomorrow (Fri, Mar22), and make for one last trip. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 21, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2019 Rich, a skier friend reported that GR was great a couple of days ago. Should be about the same as Spirit. Spirit was pretty nice today. Coverage is still good. I only rode for 2½ hours until untracked groom was hard to find. No crowds or lift lines. It starts to get a little rough when it gets all tracked out, not that bad, I'm just nursing a knee injury that doesn't like a bumpy ride. GR might have frozen groom to start. Looks like it will be below freezing til about mid-day. It's 48° there now. Spirit doesn't open til 10am. I can get you a $10 lift ticket on my pass if you decide to come here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted January 7, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 7, 2020 January 2020 Russ & I drove up to GR this morning and arrived in time to catch the first chair. Snow was Minnesota extra-firm, borderline frozen groom. On my 2nd run I lost my heelside edge at the top of the last steep on Sarajevo, landed on my back and slid head first about 100 feet almost to the bottom. Could've used an ice ax. Switched to the short board after that to keep speed down. Then an hour later... No crowds & wide open runs in the sun over on Helsinki...back on the big board. We found the best carving on sun-softened snow on the Squaw Valley/Helsinki side. A nice surprise was finding no big-air park set up on Grenoble which turned out to have lovely undulating waves on its wide slope. We rode for about 4½ hours when early-season legs cried "no more!". Burnt onion soup with a Castle Danger Stout put a nice finish on a beautiful day of carving. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 18, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2020 Russ & I back up to GR again today. 4-5" of new snow since yesterday and still coming down. Soft groom, no sign of ice, even some fluff on top of the groom. Blustery, cold, snow-nados at the top, and gradually clearing skies. No traffic or lines. GR and Indianhead have had the best grooming the past few years. 1st tracks on Grenoble...after noon... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurch Posted February 19, 2020 Report Share Posted February 19, 2020 What! No stout or onion soup today gents?! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 19, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2020 7 hours ago, Lurch said: What! No stout or onion soup today gents?! Oh yeah, we did, it's the main reason we go (we're retirees after all), but first we have to get the cost-per-run down to a dollar or less (not sure if that's an old man thing, or the expression of frugal-Yankee genealogy). I wasn't counting, but I think we got our 40 runs in. ...and it was good 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 16, 2020 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2020 Closed for the season as of today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted February 2, 2021 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2021 Groundhog day 2021 Met up with boarder patroller Russ and ski patroller Bruce at GR today. They had 4" of snow recently to freshen things up. The forecast sun never appeared, but the groom was so nice and smooth that you didn't need to see where you were going. It was hard packed powder of the kind that your board makes a ripping zipper sound as it slices through the cord. No lines, few people, no worries, carving empty slopes from 9-3. This was on Cortina, a wide, moderate steep slope where untracked groom can always be found after noon... 2 skiers stopped to admire my ruts. "is that snowboarder actually stopping to take pictures of his tracks?" Grenoble often has jumps, but today it was just wonderful groomed rollers 200' wide and Helsinki Race next to it was equally satisfying. Got to ride the big boards! PS: Oh, limited indoor dining started yesterday, but no more french onion soup, no Castle Danger stout on tap. pps: saw a local guy, riding ski boots on a board. He was carving nice on softies earlier and donned his hard setup after we showed up. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwmaron Posted March 2, 2021 Report Share Posted March 2, 2021 March 2, 2021 I couldn’t swing the trip to Indianhead with BWD today but got in a couple of hours at GR starting at noon. Filtered sun at the start clearing to blue bird skies....the usual impeccable GR (firm) groom; a little busier than mid-week usual though I always found my way clear. State Section 7 Alpine events on Helsinki and Innsbruck kept me on the Sarajevo chair side. GR never disappoints! Russ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 8, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2021 Sunny and warm, started out near freezing with firm cord, but no ice! Headed over to the the Helsinki chair for sun softened snow and did laps on Squaw, Grenoble, Helsinki and Grenoble over and over, like crimson & clover. Grenoble is so nice this year, no jumps, just a series of rollers, like waves. So many different ways to ride them. Had me hollarin' and the lifty was eggin' me on too. Rode for 5 hrs I'm beat and I have an appt for shot #2 later. Made some afternoon runs on Cortina before leaving. Untracked buttery smooth groom, slarvaliscious. Oh yeah, it got warm enough to make the snow sticky and slow. So, I got to experiment with FastStik® warm "wax". Simple on the hill application, just rub on and then a light brushing/polishing with the pad on the backside of the applicator. I got 2 good runs. After that, I reapplied following the instructions more carefully by applying with single 2" wide passes from nose to tail, rather than rubbing on like a crayon (which worked better for me with the below freezing FastStik). After the reapplication, it seemed to work better and lasted for several more runs until I quit for the day. It provided decent glide on the flats and I was easily gliding by everyone else. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2021 GR still has really nice snow. I was expecting frozen groom to start (30°), but it was soft, packed ice crystals, enough for 3-4" deep trenches. The groom over on the Squaw side was exceptionally smooth and relatively untracked even in the afternoon. It was overcast, flat light with precious few peeks of sun. I ride so much better when I can see. It began to get a little slush/slashy in the afternoon (38°) but remained very fast. Morning tracks of the XC during a rare peek of sun on Sarajevo, from the chair.... No Russ (car trouble) and no Ken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 25, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2021 GR had about 2" yesterday. All rain in Duluth. So, drove north this morning, back into winter. Started out at 26°, overcast with flatish light and a carvable Minnesota firm groom, with crunchy spots. The sun came out after an hour and the snow softened and pretty soon we were making trenches several inches deep. There's more snow in the forecast, so not putting the boards away yet... 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 26, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2021 Hey @trent if you're reading this and you run into Jim Rothman, tell him hello. I miss seeing him up here. He really made an impression at GR. Every time I come up, someone points to my board and says, "haven't seen one of those in awhile", and of course it turns out they knew Jim when he lived up here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trent Posted March 27, 2021 Report Share Posted March 27, 2021 (edited) sorry @bigwavedave, i haven't seen jim, or dave, in years. i would've actually thought jim was still up there. i can only hope i'm that energetic and positive when i get to his age! and thanks for all your reports and pictures! for those of us that didn't get out much this year, it's been fun living vicariously through your adventures! Edited March 27, 2021 by trent 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 27, 2021 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2021 8 minutes ago, trent said: sorry @bigwavedave, i haven't seen jim, or dave, in years. i would've actually thought jim was still up there. i can only hope i'm that energetic and positive when i get to his age! and thanks for all your reports and pictures! for those of us that didn't get out much this year, it's been fun living vicariously through your adventures! Keep your eyes peeled, word is that Jim moved to Hudson, WI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.