Yup, I'm still around. I just put up another article tonight, a firsthand report from John Phillips, who was out at Snowshoe a couple weekends ago. Snowshoe's been having a great March.
Things are getting kind of slow as the season sputters out. (Me, I've been playing with Mac OS X this weekend, Apple's new operating system. Maybe not as fun as skiing, but it's still pretty cool!)
Does anyone have any suggestions for things to add to DCSki/DCHike/DCBike for the summer?
Does anyone have any western trips planned for the next few weeks? The season is still young for resorts like California's Mammoth.
Thanks,
- Scott
I had a buddy of mine from Charlotte fly up (it sucks to ski alone). We did Copper Mountain on Sunday. The day started out with a little packed powder conditions. We spent the first hour learning how to navigate the mountain. Finally, we discovered the back bowls. There was some great snow back there. At the top was a huge crevasse we jumped off of to a 60 degree slope. Then we found some huge rocks with snowtrails in between. Finally, Copper has a snowcat that takes you up the back back bowl. Then you have to hike about 300 vertical to the top. Although there were some tracks, we easily found some untracked, knee-high powder from the night before.
The next day, we went to A-basin. If your an extreme skier, you've got to go to A-basin. Don't forget the sunscreen though (boy is my face peeling). There are a few greens and blues there, but they are mainly marked by poles in the wide open space. All around is steep black diamonds. We warmed up on the blues and then hit the infamous East Wall. The upper part was closed (which was ok. You had to hike it, and after hiking the day before, I was not up to it again). We hit the lower east wall and found some great powder all around. We hit some more rock trails, small glades, and just wide open snow runs.
In the afternoon, we went over to the west side and hit the double blacks. The moguls were way steep. My legs began screaming at me. Eventually we hit the glades. Now I love skiing glades. There's something about being in the trees that is so peaceful. However, there was not much peace here. These trees had to be on a 75 degree slope. I was scared ****less. The RSN network suggested you ski out of your comfort zone to get better. I was out of my comfort zone. We made it through and I felt like I had won the superbowl. I can't wait to do it again.
I have one more shot to ski tonight. Hopefully I can get to Keystone to night ski.
