bigwavedave Posted March 10, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 10, 2023 Friday 3-4" of fine, light, lake effect snow on top of a crunchy frozen groom. Temps just below freezing. 2 busloads of home schoolers, otherwise, not many people on the hill. No lift lines. Flat light with light lake effect snow falling. Still windy, requiring an aero pose to get past the flats. Riding with blind faith in flat light. Fortunately no surprise grooming features popped out. Really nice carving today. Rode the 181PC and then the TSm² (this board is way more versatile than I expected). The lifty was in awe of the 202cm woody TankerSpanker. Called me the Silver Surfer (I had look that one up―it's Marvel comic book hero). 3 hours today. 4 hours each of the past 2 days. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 Sunday Took yesterday off. 12"+ since yesterday and still snowing & blowing. Managed to drive to the top to get 1st tracks. One run on the 181PC then rode the TSm² for another 3 hours. Whiteout conditions at noon for about an hour. Tracks were erased from blowing snow. Fresh tracks all day on DoubleJaw because it was hard to get over there with the head winds. Once in there, it was good. Believe it or not, there was a race on Gandy and it was tracked out and busy over there. I left mid afternoon when it started to get crowded. As fun as it was, I think I like carving corduroy best. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted March 12, 2023 Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 54 minutes ago, bigwavedave said: Took yesterday off. 12"+ since yesterday and still snowing & blowing. https://www.snowboarder.com/trending-news/ever-try-snowboarding-with-a-paddle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2023 On 3/12/2023 at 4:43 PM, bobble said: https://www.snowboarder.com/trending-news/ever-try-snowboarding-with-a-paddle Brilliant! I could have used that today! Looks better than ski poles. There's a telemarker at Spirit who uses a big (7 ft?) old style stick and arcs it around like a kayak paddle. Hey Troy @b0ardski ever use a paddle instead of poles? ^^^^ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b0ardski Posted March 13, 2023 Report Share Posted March 13, 2023 one of the groomers at MCC was teleing w/long pole. found this, now I'm interested 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwmaron Posted March 15, 2023 Report Share Posted March 15, 2023 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2023 Wed I was tired after a long day yesterday and was planning to take the day off. But, then the sun was out and one thing led to another and I found myself at the base of the hill for 1st chair. Finally, seamless grooming! Mostly, but it's the best we've had all season―and so soft, like buttercream frosting. Yeah, it was sweet. It was a little busy for a Wednesday―2 busloads of kids, plus word is out down in the cities about all the snow up here. 2½ hrs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwmaron Posted March 17, 2023 Report Share Posted March 17, 2023 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 Video from last Tuesday, 7th of March: ***turn down the sound as it's just loud wind & snow noise*** My 1st run of the day, making 1st tracks in freshly groomed wet snow and my 1st video with a new insta 360 camera on a stick. And, only the 2nd day riding my 185 Thirst 8rw this season. It was also a full moon! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2023 Tuesday Big wind straight off the lake and up the hill. Groomed frozen granular, our beloved "Minnesota firm". Considering all the rain last week, it was surprisingly good carving today, . The surface held up well with nearly seamless grooming. Sun and near freezing temps softened the surface just enough. Superconductor all the way today doing mostly fall line turns next to the tree line trying to beat the wind. Kinda looks like I was getting air in some of those transitions. Russ was softboot carving and looking the same as if he were using hardboots. Lake Superior was covered in frothy white caps. The surf must be way big. 2 hrs. gonna save some for tomorrow. Snow tonight! P.S. and the hill was M T today―no lines, free runs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2023 Thurs We had 4-5" of heavy wet snow 2 nights ago and then fog & drizzle yesterday. I took the day off. Heard I didn't miss anything. Sunny, 25° and warming up above freezing today. Frozen granular nicely groomed, very few seams. 4Pipe quickly turned into ice cubes and marbles. Skyhooker was fun and remained virtually untouched til noon. It had nearly seamless grooming and got softer as it warmed up. Rode the Super, XC and Geckoed Contra 166. 3hrs Russ was boarder patrolling today. He should have fun this afternoon when it gets above freezing. Haven't seen Ken in a while? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 24, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2023 Friday Sunny, 25° warming to 45°! Nearly seamless grooming. It seams to be getting better. Started out with 1-2" layer of frozen granular over a hard ice base. The warmer it got, the better the carving. It felt almost like spring slush-slarving. It was a little more crowded than just the typical AM group. Then, as the AM regulars filtered out, the place emptied out about noon, just when it was starting to get soft and slarvy! I had another 2½ hours of free carving on empty slopes with no lift lines. Nice! Big smiles... A plated board helped mute out the roughness of the ice base. I started on a Geckoed Contra 166 and switched to the 171XC testing my homemade, modified Gecko style and Thirst compatible plate. It worked great! 4½hrs Earthrider beer tasting with music and sauna at the Grand ave chalet this evening. Then they move the party up to the top for the pond skimming etc. this weekend. One week to go and we still have all this snow! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted March 24, 2023 Report Share Posted March 24, 2023 2 hours ago, bigwavedave said: Friday Sunny, 25° warming to 45°! Nearly seamless grooming. It seams to be getting better. Started out with 1-2" thick frozen granular over a hard ice base. The warmer it got the better the carving became. It felt almost like spring slush-slarving. It was a little more crowded than just the typical AM group. Then, as the AM regulars filtered out, the place emptied out about noon, just when it was starting to get soft and slarvy! I had another 2½ hours of free carving on empty slopes with no lift lines. Nice! A plated board helped mute out the roughness of the ice base. I started on a Geckoed Contra 166 and switched to the 171XC to test my homemade modified Gecko style and Thirst compatible plate. It worked great! Earthrider beer tasting with music and sauna at the Grand ave chalet this evening. Then they move the party up to the top for the pond skimming etc. this weekend. One week to go and we still have all this snow! sauna? the spirit mtn chalet or big wave dave's house of thirst [boards]? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2023 1 hour ago, bobble said: sauna? the spirit mtn chalet or big wave dave's house of thirst [boards]? Shhhh! I don't want word getting out. Is Buck done...or are you done with Buck for the season? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted March 25, 2023 Report Share Posted March 25, 2023 it might be last weekend for me. it depends. they have pond skip today. they're open tomorrow. they close for the week and reopen for april 1st and then it's done. rumor is they're taking down the main chair and installing a new one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2023 Saturday 25° and forecast 40° by noon, so I went up at 11:30 hoping to aviod frozen groom. It was busy, lots of costumes, rental skis and careless riding. The groomers left hard curbs at the seams. It seams their attention was focused on turning the small jumps into the approach for the skim pond and turning the tubing park into something resembling a banked slalom. Costumed races on Gandy. I made 2 runs and left after having a close call with a distracted skier. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, but I had such a good time yesterday with no crowds and carvable snow... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 26, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2023 Sunday 35° at opening, sunny and warming up. Not as busy as yesterday, about like a weekday morning. The Spring Fling party seems to be over and everyone must be home with a hangover. Conditions looked promising, but under 2-3" of soft slush was a crunchy hard and rough ice base. I was beginning to think my knee was healed until I rode this stuff today! Gecko style plates weren't enough. Had to pull out the F-plated Rev. That muted the pain from the bumps, but my knees still got jammed up and I was occasionally bounced airborne from hitting unseen ice features. The snow (ice) was fast and I couldn't push hard to tighten my turns, so I was making large across-the-hill turns and going pretty fast. I had a skier drop in behind and start tail-gunning me (2nd time this year). After a few turns, I slowed and waved him by. Rode the chair up with him later and he apologized for getting so close. He said he had been watching me for years and always wanted to see what it was like doing big turns. I had 2 close calls on the next run with people bombing the hill from different directions, so 1hr and done. Snowriver looked quiet on the webcams today. I wonder how the conditions are? @Algunderfoot Russ gave me a pass for Giant's Ridge. Maybe tomorrow. I've heard the grooming is the best in the upper midwest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Algunderfoot Posted March 26, 2023 Report Share Posted March 26, 2023 Snow didn't soften until 3:00 set hard rumble strip laden groom this morning, had no interest (knees too), Sun is playing hide and seek today won't soften much at all. Waiting for snow or a Sunny 45° 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Algunderfoot Posted March 26, 2023 Report Share Posted March 26, 2023 5+inches forecasted by Saturday... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwmaron Posted March 28, 2023 Report Share Posted March 28, 2023 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted March 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted March 29, 2023 We had a burst of snow for a couple of hours late today. Nice big flakes, but it didn't amount to more than a thick dusting. Maybe this next storm will have enough snow to soften things a bit. I'm heading up to Giants Ridge tomorrow. They got the same skiff of snow from the clipper today. Since they didn't have the rain and melting we had, I'm hoping to find some soft seamless grooming. It's gonna be cold, but sunny! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwmaron Posted March 31, 2023 Report Share Posted March 31, 2023 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 ! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted April 1, 2023 Author Report Share Posted April 1, 2023 Fri Big surf on the lake today. Spirit was closed due to the high winds. We only had 1 inch of wet snow last night, not enough to cover the icy slopes and tonight's snow forecast has been downgraded to less than 1 inch. It looks like another big one heading our way next Tues-Wed! Winter is not done with us yet. The birds know it's supposed to be spring. Canada geese started showing up last week. I saw a big beautiful swan flying over the frozen river this morning. He made a u-turn right overhead and flew back to the south. Bald eagles arrived last month. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted April 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2023 Sunday After a great day at GR a few days ago, it was hard to get motivated to get back on the ice at Spirit. Even after a skiff of wet snow this morning, I wasn't planning to go up, but then the sun came out and temps rose from 20° to 45° by mid afternoon. As often happens, one thing led to another and... I found myself slarving on an inch or two of slush over a softened ice base. After one run on the 166 Geckoed Contra, I decided to go to the other extreme and rode the 202 TSm². Sooo fun. I think 45° & sunny is the magic combo to soften that ice base. It wasn't too crowded. Barely a lift line, but no empty chairs either. Lots of folks up from the cities. Sounds like everything has closed down there. I rode for an hour until clouds moved in and it got cooler and harder. The tubing hill is now a ski run again. Remember that? Looks like Lutsen got a few inches today. Talked to some folks that said it was good yesterday. I might go up there tomorrow. We're still on track for a big, intense and messy storm t-w. Could be interesting. day 68 at Spirit 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khoward Posted April 3, 2023 Report Share Posted April 3, 2023 (edited) Jane and I are at USASA Nationals at Copper. Jane beat 2 other ladies in Halfpipe yesterday. Getting a lot of riding in on the Blues. Edited April 3, 2023 by khoward 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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