Day 52 - Kite Hill

Total fail - way too warm.

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Day 49 - Kite Hill

Earn your turns Day 2. After a more or less failed attempt at skiing at my house after the 2+ foot snowstorm in December, I thought I'd try it again in a little more favorable set of conditions - 4" of new snow on top of an old layer of firm snow covering the entire field. I made two runs on my Volkl Katanas. I forgot my phone so instead of Ski Tracks I used Google Earth to determine each run of 75 vertical feet was about 875 feet long. I didn't want to have a heart attack so I stopped after just two runs. #justgivemeagroomer    

Day 36 - Montage

Out 9:00 to 3:00 with a long lunch in the car; 3" new snow overnight; light snow all day with temps in the twenties - maybe 2" more today; 24 runs; 18,307 vertical; skied the Volkl Katana; powder; not too big of a crowd for a powder day; skied with Radvanyi and Company this afternoon; destroyed my skis - first in the trees beside Lightning, then following Chris in the trees off Fast Track; first tracks on Boomer, Smoke, Lightning Woods, Highball and Main Street; covered the entire trial map today, including some trails (Easy Street) for the first time ever. #justgivemeagroomer    

Day 56 - Killington

MLK Weekend 2019, start of the 2019 Polar Vortex?. Out 8:00 to 2:30 with a coffee break at Snowshed and lunch at the condo; 12" overnight with 6" more during the day; warmer, 10°, and a lot less wind than forecast; 13 runs; 14,333 vertical; skied the Volkl Katanas; deep, light, dry pow - lots of bumps later in the day; big crowd right from opening bell; skied with Chris and Trev; 1st chair on SPE4; freshies or close on Bear Claw/Wildfire, Growler, The Stairs, and Interceptor - Upper Needles and Ovation were good, The Throne was not.



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Day 13 - Killington

Snowstorm. Out 9:30 to 1:00 with a KBL Coffee Break; 12" overnight, 4" more this morning while we skied, 32° and snowing hard, no wind; 7 runs; 8,250 vertical; skied the Volkl Katanas; powder - ok, it was really just heavy, wet, deep snow; lots of people, but no lift lines at all; my 7:30 AM attempt to make it to the mountain failed, as I immediately got stuck - had to wait for the plow; power's out at the condo.



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Day 83 - Winter Park

Pow! Out 9:00 to 10:30; snowing hard but not too windy - 10" overnight; 4 runs; 6,055 vertical; skied the Volkl Katana's; deep powder everywhere; HUGE crowd - I just left after standing in a couple of big lines; did get a couple of good shots - Kinnikinnic and Wildwood Glade.



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Day 49 - Kicking Horse

10" overnight, but delayed opening because of avalanche danger. Instead of remaining in the humongous Gondola line, we walked over took the Catamount chair and did a few laps on the bottom of the hill. Got first tracks on a groomer with 5" or 6" on top and did some low angle powder bumps then went back to the condo for coffee while the Gondi line hopefully diminishes. We'll head back out shortly. Letting Tommy use my Line Supernatural 108's for the remainder of the week.

Went back out and did a couple off Redemption Ridge and one down Feuz Bowl. Mostly clear and comfortable today with a little snow in the late afternoon. 7 runs, 11,000 vertical, skied the Volkl Katana's. Fell 3 times today.



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Day 62 - Winter Park

Bored? Tired? Homesick? Left early when I went to the car to change skis and just left. Out for about an hour and a half; 3" snow last night; beautiful day - clear skies, light winds, and temps rising into the thirties; skied the Volkl Katanas; just 4 runs; 6,000 vertical; powder and wind blown snow; big crowd; disappointed when my first run strategy of heading for Eagle Wind backfired - Eagle Wind was still closed and I ended up wasting the first run on some flat run on High Lonesome; left hand still hurts from hitting it on a gate last week at Steamboat; right knee is a little balky too, but nothing that a little Vitamin I won't fix; I'll be glad to head home, even if it's only for a few days.

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Day 48 - Brighton

Pow - 11" overnight with light to moderate snow continuing all day! Out 9:00 to 2:30 with a coffee and a lunch break; 15° snowing and windy - new snow accumulating at least a couple of inches; skied the Volkl Katanas; 17 runs; 19,575 vertical; powder - tons of snow here; lots of short tree shots; fair crowd as you'd expect for a foot of snow; fresh tracks all day if so inclined; kept skiing into flat spots; rode every lift - all 6 of them; Brighton's RFID lift tickets actually say Crystal Mountain on them.

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Day 47 - Mt. Bachelor

Full on blizzard today. Out 9:00 to 1:00 with a couple of breaks - one for coffee, one just to dry off; heavy blowing snow - 30° and extremely windy; 3" by first chair, 6" by the time I left; skied he Volkl Katanas; 9 runs; 10,750 vertical; powder; tough start today with the heavy snow, the bad visibility, and my tired legs it took a little while to get the kinks worked out; in and out of the trees on the front side of the mountain all day; Summit, Northwest, and Outlook closed because of the wind, but I did get to ride the Red Chair for the first time; rear wiper on the car is finally fixed.

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Day 40 - Big Sky

More snow! Out 9:00 to 2:00 with a break for lunch; 6" new snow overnight and into this morning; 20° and overcast with light snow and variable winds; skied the Volkl Katanas; 14 runs; 22,250 vertical; powder; today's fav was Whiskey - baby soft, perfectly spaced, low angle trees; fell once and needlessly scared myself on a couple of blind breakovers today.

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Day 36 - Boyne Mountain

Snow ended overnight. Out 9:00 to 12:30 with a break for lunch; 19° overcast with occasional light flurries and no wind - 3" more new snow overnight; skied the Volkl Katanas; 25+ runs; 11,000 vertical; more powder and soft groomers;

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Day 35 - Boyne Mountain

More snow! Out 9:30 to 1:30 with a nice coffee break; drove in yesterday while they got 13", last night we had 3" more; 15° today with constant light snow and surprisingly little wind; skied the Volkl Katanas; 25+ runs; powder or 3" or less of fluff on top of a fresh, super soft groomer - however, I did ski a couple that were a little boney; 11,000 vertical; very few people; despite the recent snow not all the mountain is open yet; tons of snowmaking in progress; the Katanas are still great skis; had fun.



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Day 54 - Killington

Pow day. Out early for the very first chair at 7:30 - didn't load until 8:45; 12"+ overnight - not near as heavy as I was expecting; overcast with temps in the mid-twenties; first tracks in Patsy's and The Throne were great; did Chop Chop in an attempt to find some more freshies, but it wasn't really ready - hit tons of stuff, including a stump that took my left ski off for a pretty good fall.



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Day 27 - Killington

Not quite a powder day :( - Out 9:00 to 12:00 without a break; 13" of wet, new snow overnight; 32° with low clouds and various kinds of frozen, non-frozen, or freezing precipitation this morning; snowing hard again now @ 4:00; 9 runs; 8,500 vertical; skied the Volkl Katanas; lots of groomed and ungroomed choices; initially the ungroomed trails were very difficult - 13" of untracked cement on Upper Rim Run made me feel like a beginner; once skied in, the ungroomed trails weren't too bad - my second time down East Fall and my only run down Cascade were OK; the groomed soft pack on Rime and Highline was very good; lifts were slow to open - only the Snowdon Quad and Northridge Triple were running at the opening bell, but later we unexpectedly got the Canyon Quad - I guess that was to compensate for no K-1 or Superstar; lots of people; taking tomorrow off in preparation for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday races.

#justgivemeagroomer