Whitetail Trip Report 1/15/06
January 16, 2006
Having decided Saturday night that the storm was not going to do anything around here I went to bed with no intention of going on a trip the next morning. I rolled out of bed Sunday morning checked the webcam and promptly packed my gear, cooked some breakfast and hit the road (I am so very weak willed).
Put a call in to one of my riding buddies from the road and picked him up in Frederick about 40 minutes later. We arrived at Whitetail some time after Mid day and got riding as quickly as possible. I was initially pleasantly surprised by the light crowds. It actually looked lighter than an average weekend Saturday and far lighter than any MLK weekend should be.
Click in and hit the lift. First run down Angel Drop was shockingly good. Soft snow over ice but the soft snow was winning the battle. On to Lower Angel and the park and I have to hand it to the team at Whitetail, they do a very good job with the park. I think they have gotten the placement of kickers and rails pretty close to right. The take offs are great but in some cases the landings are a little rough. I'm pretty happy with myself though because I managed to ride out the C boxpretty much perfectly, I think the the landing section through though. Instead of continuing the rotation to land switch I tried twisting back the other way, didn't quite work out though.
Unfortunately on this first run the third member of our group, friend of a friend, completely breaks the base plate of his binding and unfortunately it's completely irreperable and since his board is old as the hills he cannot replace the binding. In other words the board is trashed and it's rental time for him.
Throughout the rest of the day however the conditions remained excellent with Drop In probably being one of the most fun trails all day. While we were riding the expert chair we could see Farside getting blanketed, unfortunately it wasn't open so no bomber runs there.
Bold decision was fantastic early in the day with plenty of soft cover but as the day progressed and it bumped up the steep section became a little more arduous. My board doesn't like the flicking around required to navigate that section when it's a bump fest. Exhibition was off limits for me, again bump fest.
To sum it up the conditions were more than acceptable given the toll the past few weeks has taken on this area. Hopefully this cold shot will give everyone enough time to do some repairs and keep the season on track. Score to date 5 days riding 5 days of great conditions. Not bad so far.