For a fistful of turns.

[lowangle al]

They looked like old school turns but given the steepness of the terrain that was a smart way to ski it. Old school gear may have required jump turns to minimise the time spent pointing down the fall line.

[Woodserson]

*Probably Whitefish is the next trip; the wildcard being; two of my best friends live in West Vail & Beaver Creek so all I need is an epic pass and cash in some SWA miles for a plane ride and I could be there for some wicked dawn patrol sessioning - but the CO snowpack this year...also, college tuition...

Whitefish is a GREAT mountain. You will love it! I can't recommend it enough.

[Harris]

Hmmmm... I don't think you guys understand something. When skiing groom or mellow smooth, untracked pow, or pow over groom, etc, you can steer the inside ski with authority and make high speed long slacker style turns. The runs in the pictures are inbounds heavily skied out chutes with massive crud bumps powdered with cut up 4" of fresh. It is full on rodeo skiing, and even on alpines you have to turn the hell out of it not just to keep the speed down but because it is a mogul field hidden under the fresh chop. Basically what you are seeing, and it is hard to see admittedly because our light at this area is often dim and flat, which makes skiing quite interesting and actually took me a couple years to adapt to (skiing semi-blind to terrain), coming from sunny CO, is a guy skiing steep powdered bump runs. And on bumped out crud runs the skis kinda do their own thing, I don't care who you are, old-school, new school, or just plain tele, the best you can do is just keeping the edge inputs light, controlling the out of control and turning at every opportunity as the bumps and snow variations going on underfoot are playing havoc with the sticks. And so the skis are clacking and doing their thing. That's why all tele boots are built with reinforced instep edge guards; because we tele skiers, new or old school, need that to not have our boots cut through by our edges. .

As for the camera being down, that was inadvertent, which was a bummer because for inbounds skiing here, and Alpental is a tiny 3 lift but seriously expert mountain with just a handful of inbound runs, it was possibly the best day I've ever skied it and I had thought I was going to get some good footage of my favorite runs in rare, prime condition. Instead I just captured my skis. So that sucked. I posted it though because I thought it still captured the gist of it, but apparently knowing what I'm skiing isn't translating to what is actually seen.

Is cut up powdered crud prime? Well, Seattle is a big city and this area is 40 minutes away, the closest area by far, and so when the snow comes in the entirety of hard core Seattle skiers and boarders call in sick and show up in massive force, and within a half an hour these runs are skied out, but on this day it was so light it didn't pack out. And I should say that after moving here I had to recalibrate what I consider great skiing; this skiing out here is very challenging compared to skiing CO due to the typical water density of the snow and the sheer number of skiers sharing space at tiny areas. In fact I would say skiing well here is more exhausting and variable than anywhere else in the US I've ever skied, and like out East but for different reasons its own animal and acquired taste. However once you learn it it is quite fun. But on this particular day we actually had legit fluff, albeit over a denser layer of soft yet still crud bumps from a previous recent storm cycle.

[Harris]

I am a two track alpine skier owing to what OGs like you & me call the new skis, because we are 50 (Stenmark, Mahre bros were the models). I brought 'new ski two track' with me over to my tele habit. I love tele. I never walk away from the ski hill thinking, man I wish I had been on my alpine gear today so I'm ready to commit and swap tele bindings on my 186cm Line Prophet 100s, my true all-mtn, all-conditions, alpine mountain ski vacation boards which I used with Lange race boots. I have a pair of BD 01s just laying there so I am going to bring this pair with me to Whitefish in December which is *probably my next mtn opportunity. A little heavy for dawn patroling but MT isn't very high and I will really love them on anything Whitefish can throw my way.

*Probably Whitefish is the next trip; the wildcard being; two of my best friends live in West Vail & Beaver Creek so all I need is an epic pass and cash in some SWA miles for a plane ride and I could be there for some wicked dawn patrol sessioning - but the CO snowpack this year...also, college tuition...

I hear Whitefish is a great mountain and Montana ski areas in general have really good snow most years; it tends to stay cold there more. Bitter at times in fact, which is great for skiing IMO. One of my all time favorites is Bridger Bowl MT. It is a relatively small mountain compared to Big Sky, but it has incredibly good snow, the mountain layout is badass, in fact one lift requires avalanche beacons, and a lot of ripping telemarkers. And it isn't a resort area. They call it a community ski area serving the little town of Bozeman, which is cool because you can stay down in Bozeman for pretty cheap, and they have some cool bars and restaurants, and if you stay in the eastside of the town in one of the motels (you can take a city bus downtown or just walk) you can easily walk to the road that takes skiers up to Bridger and thumb a ride up to the hill in minutes, meaning you don't have to even rent a car if you fly in. And it is known for some of the steepest inbound skiing in the US (besides Taos, Squaw and our little Alpental). As for Vail... I've never been a big fan. It seems like you spend a lot of time on the lifts for short spurt runs, meaning a run will spill on to a flat and then onto the next section and then onto another flat etc, etc... But I haven't been there in years or even since they installed lift access to the back bowl. For CO ski areas it is hard to beat Telluride and Silverton. But if I were to take a trip I'd probably hit an area somewhere along the "Powder Highway" up in BC. Supposedly it is an amazing place to bury the head in it. And they have some cabin rental areas that are purely pristine backcountry skin track access skiing.

[anemic]

If left to my own devices I would never again darken I-70 however I have a friend with a walkup condo at Keystone and the aforementioned Eagle county buddies and they want to see me and ski with me and I'm lucky to have done it sometimes. but I much prefer "off the beaten track"

In order to better facilitate my household's Nordic ski racing habit which required heaps of travel, we bought an old RV. At the moment the Nordic situation continues to be on pause while high school alpine ski team works through the house (one year to go and then the nest empties). But ultimately, that RV goes on the powder highway and mostly hits zero large resorts. We think alike

How long are those Pinnacle 95s? They look like they are doing a fantastic job in those conditions, which you are making look like hero conditions owing to your mad skills.

I have no idea what I'm talking about with tele.technique as you have surely detected but your video was super sweet to watch because of your tele.mastery but that's all the sunshine you're getting from me till we ski together or you post the next video.

Today is a typical condition for the new school weather of today. A snow day / school is closed and the alpine area can't open due to crappy snow & weather conditions. This combination never used to happen but it's regular now here in Grand Rapids. I'm considering skinning up my 125' hill but having a hard time scaring up the enthusiasm for it.

[lowangle al]

I'm considering skinning up my 125' hill but

There's nothing wrong with that. It's way better than putting in time on a treadmill and lots of people are doing that. A hill with 125' is probably worthwhile to use skins. Most of the hills I ski in winter are less than that but they are worthwhile to me with scales or kick wax. I do most of my big climbs in April and May after the snowpack stabilizes.

[anemic]

thanks Al. I have an 8:30 breakfast meeting. I think I will take your inspiration to heart and hit it beforehand. The skihill is closed till Saturday. It probably won't be very good ski conditions, but when it's long gone soon, I'll wish I had hit it.

[fisheater]

Anemic, I went in late last Friday just to ski 6" of fresh (mostly kicking). I have around 100 plus feet of vertical, but turns were tough at 6" as the milkweed grows pretty thick on that slope. Oh, it was definitely worth going.
Btw, I am pretty sure I will be soloing Saturday.

[anemic]

It took me 4 runs to get 500' but I made my breakfast meeting and I wasa glad I got out. The grey snow was soft corduroy and it was 23 degrees and I had the place to myself. Not all skiing is good skiing but in this age of ski weather issues, I can't be too choosy or I would never get out there!

This Saturday we are off the hill for a couple college visits...or we would see you there Bob! Have fun! I bet it will be real good Saturday.

The other day we were ready for all kinds of snow and GR received not a drop of rain nor a flake of snow. Amazing all the snow we sent down range to you guys! I'm glad you got out there!