Whitetail Sunday 1/22
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JohnL
January 22, 2006
Member since 01/6/2000 🔗
3,558 posts
Skied Whitetail today from 1sh to 5sh. Coverage is getting pretty dicey - after the current Sunday PM/Monday rain, they'll really need the upcoming cold nights for snowmaking to replenish the trail bases. Coverage on Bold Decision and Exhibition were very solid; the top of Far Side was great, the very bottom was getting sketchy. Limelight, Angel Drop and Home Run were fugly; tons of brown spots and rocks throughout. Since the Expert's Choice lift had the best coverage, there were plenty of lower-level skiers on the trails and frequent lift stoppages/slowdowns. All trails had been recently groomed, but mini bumps were forming on Bold and Exhibition.

Tricky conditions, maybe as much to do with no wax on my skis and a raging hangover in my body. Temps were in the low 40's, so it wasn't too warm for Whitetail. Snow was very sticky compared to what I'm used to at Whitetail. (Wax? Hangover?) Trail bases were getting firm and the loose snow started to freeze by the time I left. Towards the end, Exhibition was a nasty mixture of firm base and tons of heavy sugar on top.

Overall, a good day to have in the rear view mirroir.
Gill
January 23, 2006
Member since 06/23/2000 🔗
61 posts
I think conditions were even worse on Saturday when I was up there. At least they made snow Saturday night. Even Exhibition was getting dicey with ground showing through in the mogul troughs.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for cold weather this week (and many weeks after).
kennedy
January 23, 2006
Member since 12/8/2001 🔗
792 posts
Prolly wax. I've gotten into the habit of doing it everytime I ride just because the base tends to dry out a bit quicker on the east coast.
JohnL
January 23, 2006
Member since 01/6/2000 🔗
3,558 posts
Quote:

I think conditions were even worse on Saturday when I was up there. At least they made snow Saturday night. Even Exhibition was getting dicey with ground showing through in the mogul troughs.





That's probably why Whitetail groomed out the moguls on Saturday night - to preserve snow cover.

Saturday was very warm in DC, I'm sure the conditions were were quite mushy at Whitetail. When the trail bases get soft due to warm weather, it's easier for sliders to scrape all the way through the base to the dirt below.
tomimcmillar
January 23, 2006
Member since 11/21/2004 🔗
129 posts
Yeah John, sounds like you got there a bit late. I was standing in the lift line at 8:30am sharp. They were just shutting off the snow guns during the ride to the top. Made one run down Limelight to loosen up and then hit the Expert quad the rest of the day. Snow was good in the morn, wide open, big grin carving fun for the first couple hours. Crud and mashed taters on Bold made for some fun and technical skiing, didn't touch Farside at all, bottom was looking kinda thin. I was initially dissappointed to not finds bumps on Exhi, but they had to preserve the base and the high speed carving that the groomers allowed was a nice change of pace. Made my final run at about 12:15 and couldn't believe how gnarly the 'front side' was getting....I packed it in after that.
therusty
January 23, 2006
Member since 01/17/2005 🔗
422 posts
K lift (Expert's Choice) was having trouble Sunday. There were lots of little stops even before the crowds showed up. Bold was especially sweet first thing. There was a good 2-3 inches of relatively fluffy manmade top to bottom. It got a little dicey on the steeps on skiers left. Either the snow was grabby because they left the guns on a little too long, or it was grabby because it was 6 inches of new unpacked snow that would give down an extra couple of inches when you hit it. That was before it warmed up. Zardoz notwax works best for that kind of snow.

Far Side had a couple of spots on skiers left where the snow was as good as Bold.

Ski and Tell

Speak truth to powder.

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