Report #57 Details

Report-ID: 57
Submitted: 01/29/99 21:26:55
Host: ps.pge.com
Date: 01/16/99
Days: 3
Resort: Squaw Valley USA
Hours: Day
Equipment: Snowboard
Rating: 6
Primary-Surface: Powder
Secondary-Surfaces: Hardpack
Gender: Male
Age: 33
Ability: Advanced
E-mail: bdg3@pge.com
Loved: That we finally got some fresh snow! The season isn't over!
Hated: Riding in the rain - soaking through in an hour - no vis
Closed: Most of the upper mountain several of the days
Liftline-Waits: non-existent - even on MLK day. 1-5 minutes, tops.
Moguls: Heavy snow to push around at times

Details:

Headed up Saturday morning - traffic was fine.	Snowy over the summit, but
no chain controls.  Hit the upper mountain (there was virtually nothing
open), and did some laps on the fairly sheltered Shirley Lake (but the chair
was having stop-n-go trouble).	Cal's Marching Band was one the slopes - can
you imagine trying to snowboard down a run with a tuba around your neck, and
a stiff breeze?!?  They actually played while riding down East Broadway...
very cool (especially considering the weather!)
http://www2.jps.net/~bglenn/images/29calband.jpg
Siberia was windy as hell - a whiteout along the ridge, so the face was
actually the easier way down ;-).  It was classic "Dust on Crust", with new
snow piled up (in spots) on old, crusty, hard snow that was easy to find.
Still, any new snow is a blessing - and this was fairly "wet", so it stuck
nicely.  They stayed open a little late (till 4:30) so I packed in Mt. Run,
KT-22, Resort and Red Dog to finish up the day.  All in all - pretty sweet!
Sunday morning it looked pretty bleak from the house.  We took our time
getting to the mountain - and even though it was raining when we got there,
I went ahead and did a few runs.  I took a funitel up top, and then hit
Siberia, which was the ONLY lift running on the upper mountain.  It was
raining, foggy, and pretty tough conditions (wet snow piled up on the face
of Siberia) - but I did a couple, since I was there.  Shot down the Mt. Run,
and found both the snow, and conditions, much more favorable on KT-22.	Did
a quick three of these (that's a lot of vertical in a hurry), and finished
up on the West Face (now "Jonny Mosley's Run") which is pretty damn steep.
It was my first time on this intimidating run all season, and I felt I did
it pretty well...  At any rate, I was soaked through in an hour and a half,
and called it a day (with nearly 10K vertical! That's a pretty good pace ;-)
The weather forecast called for more significant snowfall starting around
midnight on Sunday.  As usual, they were a bit off - but by 10AM, it was
REALLY coming down.  Traffic getting from the house to Squaw was pretty
nasty - partially due to cars sliding off the road and having to be towed
out.  Once again, everything up top was on wind hold - so it was just the
funitel to Mt. Run, and the lower mountain.  Here's a view looking out into
the storm from Oasis at the Gold Coast lodge.
http://www2.jps.net/~bglenn/images/32stormoasis.jpg
Fortunately, no one was out today (I think they were all trying to get
home!) and the parking lot was pretty empty (especially for a Holiday) and
VERY snowy ;-)	Here's a view looking out from the locker room deck - those
cars just parked a couple of hours ago!
http://www2.jps.net/~bglenn/images/30parking.jpg
Brian and Garry poached a couple of runs from SVSC (Squaw Valley Ski Corp)
using their midweek passes today (YEAH!!) - we took a Red Dog over to
Resort, and did a Far East that was just unreal!!  Really nice powder, deep
enough to give you face shots on the big turns.  Did a Dog Leg on the way
back down RD, and it was pretty brutal (chewed up powder in big ruts).	Did
a Mt. Run w/ Carla, Brian and Garry - but B&G were denied a later funitel
(hope you guys got back on Red Dog and Resort!).  Carla and I did a few more
Mt. Runs, hooking up with a snowboard instructor friend of ours, Jim Simons.
Jim and I had a great couple of powder runs, hitting ALL the secret stashes
on the way down.  It started to clear on the last couple of runs, so
visibility was good - and floating through that powder is just the BOMB!!
;-)
The powder even got my courage up to try a couple of jumps - this wasn't my
best, but at least I got a picture!!  We've got to get that digital
camcorder out on a couple of epic powder days!!
http://www2.jps.net/~bglenn/images/33mtrunjump.jpg
BTW- It was REALLY windy up top, and I think we might have just gotten our
$20Million worth out of that funitel.  That thing ran today in winds that
I'm CERTAIN would have kept the old Gondola closed.  That 'having two
cables' deal really makes a difference! I give it a big 'thumbs up'.

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