Spirit Mt 22-23

[Algunderfoot]

Merry Christmas to you too! By the way "Theresa" is coming up with Ross & Michelle Christmas Day through Wednesday....She's the Professor from Louisiana Beth spoke about...

BRB should be 100% this weekend, while JCS has work to do but this storm should speed that up.

[bigwavedave]

3 hours ago, Algunderfoot said:

Merry Christmas to you too! By the way "Theresa" is coming up with Ross & Michelle Christmas Day through Wednesday....She's the Professor from Louisiana Beth spoke about...

BRB should be 100% this weekend, while JCS has work to do but this storm should speed that up.

I think I'd better get over to the U.P. next week! 

[bigwavedave]

Wed

A short day on the hill today for me.  -10°F by the river, -2° just 200' higher at the base of the hill. A fine mist of arctic powder made the sky silvery white and made for flat light on the hill. Near impossible to see the occasional hard ridges between the groomer passes. I was surprised that the groom was still so hard, it just has far fewer ice chunks. It's getting there. The new snow should help soften it up.

Yup, not a great carving day. Just 2 runs on the shortest of days  

[bigwavedave]

Thurs

From the shortest day to the longest, at least for me, so far. 3-4" additional fine polar powder last night finally softened up the slopes. There were even fresh tracks to be had in 4-6" of powder on the ungroomed sides where wind blown snow accumulated.

Minus 10 to start and warmed up to -5°F, but sunny.  After a few runs on the 181 PC swallowtail, I switched to the XC. The PC was a little more fun in the soft stuff, but the XC just slayed everything from the chalky groom to the fluffy side pow. Rode for 2½ hrs. So nice to be on soft snow!  Had every run to myself along with boarder patrollers Russ & Don. Of course patrollers have to be there, no matter how cold, I have no excuse.

Made some of the prettiest tracks so far this season and I forgot my camera. 

[bigwavedave]

Spirit closed today due to wind. Maybe tomorrow too. They seem to post updates on facebook more frequently and earlier than on the website. They're still blowing snow 24/7.

If we had new snow last night, I'd hike up today.

The U.P. (Snowriver) is getting hammered with 35-45 kt winds producing lake effect snow through Sunday morning. 

[Algunderfoot]

Snowriver closed today too, lake affect, 35+ mph Northwinds creating dangerous windchill and whiteout conditions....

[bigwavedave]

Monday

Sunny, subzero, no wind!  

Drove to the top to make first tracks and as I suspected the hill had been scoured and polished down to a hard surface from days of high winds.  Spirit's cursory "surface grooming" was soft enough to carve 1" deep in places but hard ridges and depressions between the groomer passes made a plated board necessary.   It got busy quickly with straight liners and beginners and @bobble's favorite FXR clad hazards out for their sole ski and snowboarding adventure for the year. 

[rwmaron]

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.

[bigwavedave]

Look who showed up...

 Tuesday

Above freezing, overcast with flat light and softer more consistent groom today. There were lots of people to navigate on the hill with SL practice on Gandy, several lesson groups criss-crossing the slope, along with occasional grooming features hiding in the flat light, all made it a challenge to get a clear run without having to make evasive maneuvers.  It was still quite fun and we managed to get a couple of hours in before too many people on the hill and in lift lines forced a couple of spoiled weekday carvers to call it quits.

[bobble]

here were my highlights

• riding a chairlift with a woman with cross-country skate skis. she told us she skied downhill on four pipe.
• in the lift line, a father on skis with two very young kids started telling us that our alpine snowboard boots were uncomfortable. i knew the guy was trouble as soon as i saw his poorly drawn mustache. at the top of the run, the father abandoned his kids. i ended up passing him on skiers right as far as the tree line. the guy had no situational awareness. he kept making slow wide turns and then he turned right towards me. i yelled "APRIL FOOLS MUTHAF***ER!!!!". the look on his mustache was priceless. he panicked, got locked into a carve in opposite direction and wiped out 20 kiddos running a snake. of course, that latter part didn't happen (in this timeline), but he came close to bumping me on a frickn' green run. he almost wiped himself out. 
• watching dave masterfully guide the sheep in the lift line. there wasn't an employee to manage the queue.  dave started pointing and telling people whose turn it was next. funnily enough, people listened and didn't seem to mind when we cut ahead of everyone. weird how that worked so well.
   

[bigwavedave]

Wed

Wow! 4 hrs today. The freezing rain never really happened and the flat light became almost bright enough to make a shadow. I got 3 runs on fresh zipper-cord while Bob waited in line for his ticket. 

The grooming is getting better everyday, soft and consistent on 4Pipe & ScissorBill, crunchy but carvable on SkyHooker, DoubleJaw was hard and Gandy had race courses. Everything is open except for the BigAir park.

Rode the Thirst XC all day . So much fun. First day in a while that I didn't want a plated board under my feet.

Despite the crowds, we managed to get free & clear carving on many runs with a mix of strategy and luck. We used the single lane to avoid wait time in the lift line.

Met a young softboot carver woman on a Donek Saber making very nice long clean carves.

[bobble]

the highlights

flat light but the snow was decent -- better than yesterday. at one point the sun peaked through just enough to make me thrusty.

very crowded. there was a lifty that managed the lift which freed up dave to focus on other important stately matters.

i really liked sky hooker and scissor bill. very fun indeed.

dave was mostly downhill from me. he couldn't see the chairlift were turning heads.

we met a young woman carving on softboots with a donek. we had noticed her from the chairlift because she was the only softbooter carving. we talked with her for a bit. mentioned ryan knapton and alpinesnowboarder.com.

i enjoyed riding today. i think i could've rode longer but when dave called it i decided not to push my luck.

the low lights

arrived early so dave could bring his tools to dial in my board edges. i made the mistake of not getting my ticket right away.

there was a large family and friends group that decided "hey ' go skiing". the father had a big wad of season passes and was using them to buy additional buddy passes and rentals for extended family members. i'd guess maybe 20+ people. it was taking way way way too long. after about 5 minutes i started my stopwatch to record how long it took.

there was only one employee behind the counter. i don't know what the hell was going on. is Spirits ticking system messed up?

i was third in line and there was a long line behind me. every couple minutes i would show the stopwatch on my phone to people behind me. reason? because when i'm pissed and sweating underneath my jacket i do asshole things to keep myself entertained.

at around 30 minutes, the line hadn't moved. that family was seriously clusterfncking the system. occasionally i would hear the father say "did you apply buddy pass? okay what about ...". 

people were groaning in the line. a guy in front of me grew frustrated and told the employee he'd give her $100 cash if she would just give him a lift ticket so he could snowboard. the father sensed the frustration and offered to buy the guy's lift ticket. the snowboarder told the father in so many words that he doesn't want his charity. not sure what happened but the employee got him a lift ticket.

just after the snowboarder left, big wave dave shows up and was incredulous. he took pity on me and offered up a buddy pass to ease my pain and suffering. a big thank you to dave.

around 40 minutes another employee showed up. it took him a couple minutes to boot up the Windows 95 computer. the 2nd employee was able quickly issue a new season pass to person in front of me. finally after 43 minutes on stopwatch i finally get mine (more like 50 minutes). when i left, that father was still trying to purchase rentals and buddy passes.

when i finally got to the chairlift, there was already long lines. we kept going into the singles lane. 

to make matters worse, the bar wasn't open. dave thought it was due to employee shortage.

currently i am drinking my restorative beer in the hotel room with ms bobble. 
 

[bigwavedave]

Thursday

The best thing about Bob's post above is finding out that inside his "Minnesota Nice" exterior is a raging Nick Cage (not unlike most Minnesotans, that "Minnesota Nice" has a dark side).

I drove to the top for first tracks today. The parking lots were already packed, but I still had the hill to myself on the first run. Everyone must still be in that ticket line .

Overcast, with flat light and near freezing temps. There was a lot of moisture in the snow today so tracks compacted into hard ruts. I switched to a plated board after several runs. I'm a little tired and sore from yesterday and was done after 2 hours. It was just as busy as yesterday.

Russ was there. The boarder patroller rumor is that 2 of the 3 groomers are down  . Probably because they've been working for days in the tubing and BigAir parks. Also, the Atmore FIS ski race is this weekend, so the upper lot will fill up early and the Gandy side will be extra busy.

[bigwavedave]

I wanna see the sun again.  Fog this morning  Tired of flat light and holiday crowds. 

[bigwavedave]

Atmore racers were out on Gandy before sun-up and the upper lots were packed when I got there 40 min before opening. Somehow I still managed to make the 1st tracks on ScissorBill & 4pipe. The Express side  was deserted. There was no one at the bottom and 1 person suiting up in the Grand Ave chalet. No skinner-uppers in sight either. 

Another day of fog and really flat light.  ~1" of snow yesterday afternoon helped make today's grooming the best for carving all week. That and warm temps near freezing made the first turns nice and soft, but trenches set up hard in the moist snow making for a rough ride when you crossed them later. Rode for 1½ hours. Less crowded today and no big classes. 

[bigwavedave]

Tues eve

We had a quick 4" of dry fluff in 2 hours. Light snow falling now that feels like it's lake enhanced. The forecast is calling for another 4-6" overnight through wed. I think I can see the groomer(s) working the slopes already. Maybe we'll have a little pow over soft groom tomorrow.

[bigwavedave]

Wed

Additional 3-4" overnight and snowing harder up on the hill. NE wind, 20 gusting 30kts off the lake with alternating heavy to light snow and near whiteout conditions.

Drove to the top for first tracks. 4Pipe had 2-4" over a crusty groom. but 6"+ on the ungroomed sides and deeper over on the Gandy side. The upper slopes had 1-2' windrows interspersed with crusty groom, but  lower down there were nice powder stashes near the trees.

And no crowds!!  Duluth schools did not close today! 

Rode for 4½ hrs on 3 different boards, just for the fun of it. The 2 swallowtails—PC 169 and PC 181 and the TSm².

Met a young woman riding a slalom sized (157?) Donek Talon with an f-plate making some nice carves. She's from Duluth and trains with the GTeam.

When I got back home I had to walk in on my unplowed driveway. The snow was up to the top of my boots (~10") and it's still snowing.  Should be very nice tomorrow.

[lonbordin]

3 hours ago, bigwavedave said:

The 2 swallowtails—PC 169 and PC 181 and the TSm².

Well... What's your opinions after riding those back to back? 

[bigwavedave]

3 hours ago, lonbordin said:

Well... What's your opinions after riding those back to back? 

The main difference between them is the running length—smooth, smoother and smoothest.

I started out on the PCjv for the maneuverability, not knowing what the conditions would be like and to keep my speed down in the low visibility. A good board if it's busy, if you want to go into the trees or want to look for every little bit of untracked powder in narrow spaces, go anywhere. It is more like a slalom board for all terrain—effortlessly goes from deep powder to soft groom.

Once the hill started getting tracked out and rutted up I switched to the 181 PC to smooth out the ride. A bit more speed, but smoothly carves through everything. It felt a little more comfortable doing bigger, longer carves and really rides like a carving board whether in powder or groom.

Both the swallowtails have a softer, smoother ride than a non split tail. Something about that empty space and the tail flex that dampens feedback. Regular tails have a kickback in rough terrain that swallowtails don't.

Then I had to give the big kahuna a try, just because. A 202cm board is a little intimidating under your feet. You want to let it run a bit to get some speed, but not near as much as you need on a big GS race board. This board floats and glides like no other. It smoothed out all the ruts like nothing else. I could feel the looks from the chair as I was doing long, smooth carves across the hill like it was perfect groom instead of the rough chop over crunchy groom. Bigger IS better, at least in those conditions.

Just don't ask me to pick one. 

[bigwavedave]

Thurs

1st day groom! Flat light to start and later sun. Another 3 board day for me. Started out with several runs on XC (171). The groom was firm on the surface and soft underneath and was a bit challenging if you carved hard the board would sink deep. I decided to try the TSm²  as our ruts were making for a rough ride. There were a few carvers on the hill today—@rwmaron, guy on a 163 Donek SL (can't remember his name), softboot-carver-girl from the other day on the Donek Saber and me, so it was getting rutted up pretty good.

The big (202cm) board really smoothed things out nicely. I think the 8rw (185) would have been good too, but I didn't have it with me. Gotta say the TankerSpanker really carves up soft groom nicely! Smoothed out the bumps and didn't sink as deep when carved hard.

I switched to the Super (175) just before the sun came out. Funny how sun and visibility can improve your riding. All of a sudden I was finding untracked groom and was able to find the smoothest line avoiding the worst of the ruts.

Rode for 2 hrs. Might go back for more after lunch.

[rwmaron]

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!

[bigwavedave]

Friday

...And he was...back for more, that is...and a good plan too, as it was the best carving groom in a long while. Sunny , and a little nip in the air (0°F).  My 1st day on the 8rw this season!!  

The 1st  few tracks before things got out of hand...as in we destroyed all untracked cord.

 

 

Very few people out today, lots of room to carve, like pre-pandemic times. 

Calling @khoward, it's safe to come out and play.

[bigwavedave]

Sunday

I took yesterday off due to thick fog and mist.  By the time it burned off it was super busy. USSA had races this weekend with 2 courses on Gandy and 1 on BlueRuin.

Beautiful sun this morning with a sky blue sky, so I drove to the top. The upper lots were packed. Races started at 8am. Cars were parked anywhere and everywhere. By the time I left the "B" lot was FULL and cars were parked all along the access road out to the stop sign!! 

I still managed to get 1st tracks on 4Pipe. The groom was consistent—the best it's been. We're back to "Minnesota Firm" where the deepest trenches are 1-1½ inch deep with that racecourse hardness that holds up all day. 

I rode for a few hours managing to keep finding free and clear runs despite the crowds. Rode the Superconductor all day—yup, just one board. 

[bigwavedave]

Wed

After a couple of days of fog, mist and drizzle with near freezing temps, I expected a hard & icy groom today, but it turned out to be crunchy, soft and very carvable, plus it's been snowing all morning–about 2" on the hill so far and still coming down. I didn't make the 1st tracks today but they still stand out. 

There were races on Gandy again today so I stayed on the express side. It never got crowded, but my 2-3" deep trenches compressed the wet snow into hard ruts  and made for a rough ride later. Rode for 2½hrs. 

I rode the XC with Geckos mounted with reverse asym (Mark's suggestion) and it seemed to have less negative effect on the Thirst ride than mounting them the normal way. 

Should be good tomorrow. 

[bigwavedave]

Thursday

Rode for 2½ hrs again today. Very flat light, more so than yesterday. The groom was firmer, crunchy, sort of like manmade snow, or what's referred to as ice out west.  It got above freezing yesterday and snow turned to drizzle for awhile.

Trying some different configurations with the Geckos on my XC. Think I'm on to something that works.

Hoping for some sun tomorrow. 

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