Personally, for me, I found a line that is almost heaven. It's at Timberline, and involves quite a bit of trails and sketchy skiing.
Start at the top. Head down Upper Thunderdraft (if its open) or Thunderstruck. Right after the large bend in the trail, head off into the woods for some excellent glade skiing. Just ensure there's enough snow. You'll pop out on Almost Heaven up by Hiz. Either take that back across and head off the right side of Lower Thunderstruck into the edge of the woods for more great skiing, or over to Pearly Glades. Occasionally you can ride from the upper part of Lower Almost Heaven down to the trail leading to the halfpipe, then around that watertower and into Lower Thunderstruck. Only on powder days though. For me, that is the line.
I'll post some of my favorites one of these evenings. Work is getting hectic.
From the top, take White Lightning (black run). It makes a sharp dogleg left and there is a small lip. Hit it fast and you get some racer air (make sure no one is below you as you approach). The trail winds nicely down with trees on either side and you feel secluded for a short while. Near the end, there is an opening to your right that will put you on lower Blue Streak (normally with a small jump). From here I ski to the bottom.
C-Man,
How high up do you first enter the glades? Above, below, or at the cut-through which joins The Thunders with Almost Heaven? I was looking for your line this past weekend. I ended up entering the glades just below the cut-through from Almost Heaven. There was a bit too much underbrush and a bit too much fallen debris (twigs, branches) above my entry point for the bottoms of my skis. I didn't find much powder in the trees this weekend. Still had a lot of fun, though.
1) Start off by bouncing a few bumps under the chair at Upper Thunder Draft.
2) At the merge with Upper Thunder Struck, stick to the right (under the chair). Ski off and on the snow-making ridge. (You can catch some surprising air going from right-to-left back onto the main trail surface. Watch out for the chairs above.)
3) Cut to the right at the Pump House. Skier's right had some nice windblown pow this past weekend. There's a stump or two on that line which seems to discourage most, but there was good cover around the stumps.
4) At the traverse (after the woods exit), cut to skier's left (towards the racing area) into the next set of woods. Ski just to the left of the mini-gully, and ski in the gully where the coverage is good. There is a downed tree half-way down the gulley @ naughty bits level, so beware. Limbo anyone? A bit too adventerous for me.
5) If NASTAR is over, exit onto Lower Thunderstruck. (Otherwise bushwack to White Lightning.) If you make it to Thunderstruck, ski the right side of the trail, skiing from the trail up to the side of the hill and back.
Congrats. You've milked every last bit of terrain possible in that one run.
[This message has been edited by JohnL (edited 02-16-2004).]
Yeah, the entrance on that is a little botched in my first post. When you see the cutover to Almost Heaven on trail left, go down around a slight bend and into the trees off to the left of the trail. You can go in above, and I did do it a few weekends back, but its very tightly wooded, and rought to get through, especially with skis.
I found an awesome line today, that usually isn't there. Came down towards the halfpipe on that cutover trail and right below the lift tower beside the water tower I ripped one big carve around this drift of powder encircling the water tower, shot down to the gully below, hopped the creek and skidded through a few trees onto the bunny slope.
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2) At the merge with Upper Thunder Struck, stick to the right (under the chair). Ski off and on the snow-making ridge. (You can catch some surprising air going from right-to-left back onto the main trail surface. Watch out for the chairs above.)
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It's hard to get real creative at some of our local hills.
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