Pictures, pictures and pictures!

[Montana St Alum]

Wednesday at Deer Valley:


This is "Triangle Trees". Another hidden gem. Nice open glades (I get the sense that, back east, the glades are tighter with more opportunity to eat bark!). About 25 degrees or so, I think. In other words, a typical civilized DV run.

Did someone ask for powder over bumps?

Alas, no more snow here for at least 10 days. Our typical mid to late January drought. But snowpack is around 150% of normal.

[randoskier]

It would be nice to have a "Like" function on the forum!


Edit:

I was looking through photos for Northern Light photos and didn't find any but came across some pictures from flying out of Seattle (SEA). On a nice day, you could request the "Rainier visual". They'd let you maneuver, VFR to stay south and west of the mountain. I'd cruise in around 17,000 feet or so on a slow climb and go into a slow left turn around the mountain. The passengers loved it and when I got to Salt Lake and slammed the airplane into the runway, hardly anyone bitched about it!

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And no, I never skied it!

What did you fly in the service? P-3s? Did you ever fly the Million Dollar Ride out of Whidbey Island- it was mostly A-6s or A4s or something- they took off from Whidbey Island NAS flew down the Pacific coast then turned up the Columbia river, flew up the Columbia Gorge then flew over Lake Wenatchee then at very low altitude up the White River valley straight at Glacier Peak then banged a hard turn and headed west back to Whidbey. I found this out the hard way- we were approaching Glacier peak to climb it from the east side following the White River (biting flies!!), a two day hike to the base. A plane came screaming above at almost tree top we thought it was a plane crash but it passed, no bang. Later I noticed on the USGS Topo map it said it was a low-level training range for the Navy, then I looked it up and found the info on the route. One time an A6 passed us when we are on the summit above Lake Minatur he was flying sideways and I could see the pilot clearly in the cockpit, he was very close to us and same altitude, i am sure he did not see us he was hauling ass. In Sweden last year the Saab fighters were flying the valleys around Abisko National park, that is my wife looking up at one. I tried to photograph them but they were fast, I have to go back and look at the detail and see if I caught one.

[Montana St Alum]

I started out in the F-8 (RF-8g) Crusader and made one cruise on the Independence in it. Then I went on to fly the F-14A for 2 cruises on the Enterprise. Gotta love an airplane that burns 4000 pounds of jet fuel PER MINUTE(!) in burner, with a gun that fires 100 rounds PER SECOND(!). Anyway, I flew that low level you describe (and many more in the western U.S.) in the F-14 and yeah, it's insanely beautiful. Pull up to clear terrain and as you get to the ridge, roll inverted and pull DOWN the other side at about 6 G's to stay near the surface. It was Alps level beautiful!

After the F-14, I became an Adversary pilot and flew the F-16N and the A-4F simulating enemy aircraft and tactics. I had gone through Top Gun (NFWS) in the F-14 and then went into VF-126 (Bandits) to do that. After I got hired on with Delta, I stayed in the reserves as an Adversary pilot in the A-4 (the "Super Fox", a stripped-down A-4M version with better than one to one thrust/weight ratio). I retired out of Delta 4 years ago.

I don't think I could have asked for more in my flying career!

The Swiss Air Force does GREAT aviation porn!


Sadly, this is at 360p. When it was at 720, it was spectacular. It captures the feel about as well as any video I've seen. At time: 3:14, it captures the idea of rolling inverted to stay below the ridgeline which reduces your vulnerability to surface to air threats.


Oh, Man. Now I miss it!

With "the beast", back in 1987.

[Woodserson]

The Deer Valley trees and bumps are just... just... oh man

Doing some cruising around town tonight on 4" of light fluff on frozen grass

YOU DO WHAT YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU HAVE

[Woodserson]

How does one get a discounted ticket at Deer Valley

[Montana St Alum]

How does one get a discounted ticket at Deer Valley

It helps to be old (over 65 discount), or a veteran.
Probably the best strategy is to get an Ikon pass that gets you 7 days at DV, unrestricted.

Deer Valley is very "Advanced Intermediate and below" oriented. I'm fine with that, and Grand Targhee in Wyoming, another of my favorites, is as well.

45% of Deer Valley skiable acreage is glade skiing and the majority is solid intermediate. That's 930 acres of glade skiing.

There are Mountain Hosts all over that will give directions to the glade skiing. Given the lack of crowds, you'd think they were closely guarded secrets - they're not.
For perspective, I guess Killing

https://blog.deervalley.com/glade-skiin ... ey-resort/

Little Cottonwood Canyon is more demanding for sure, and the Wasatch Back (Park City, Deer Valley) is nowhere near as scenic. LCC is spectacular! BCC is nearly as nice. Still, the Wasatch Back is pretty sweet. Of course, in 4 or 5 days of no snow everyone will be bitching incessantly!

[orangeviking]

Northern Finland testing out my Fischer S-bound 98 skis with Rottefella Xplore bindings and Alfa Vista Advance boots.

[randoskier]

Northern Finland testing out my Fischer S-bound 98 skis with Rottefella Xplore bindings and Alfa Vista Advance boots.

Kilipsjarvi? Inari?

[riel]

Doing some cruising around town tonight on 4" of light fluff on frozen grass

That was fun, though. We'll have to do that again before the freezing rain hits on ... Sunday

[randoskier]

I started out in the F-8 (RF-8g) Crusader and made one cruise on the Independence in it. Then I went on to fly the F-14A for 2 cruises on the Enterprise. Gotta love an airplane that burns 4000 pounds of jet fuel PER MINUTE(!) in burner, with a gun that fires 100 rounds PER SECOND(!). Anyway, I flew that low level you describe (and many more in the western U.S.) in the F-14 and yeah, it's insanely beautiful. Pull up to clear terrain and as you get to the ridge, roll inverted and pull DOWN the other side at about 6 G's to stay near the surface. It was Alps level beautiful!

After the F-14, I became an Adversary pilot and flew the F-16N and the A-4F simulating enemy aircraft and tactics. I had gone through Top Gun (NFWS) in the F-14 and then went into VF-126 (Bandits) to do that. After I got hired on with Delta, I stayed in the reserves as an Adversary pilot in the A-4 (the "Super Fox", a stripped-down A-4M version with better than one to one thrust/weight ratio). I retired out of Delta 4 years ago.

I don't think I could have asked for more in my flying career!

The Swiss Air Force does GREAT aviation porn!


Sadly, this is at 360p. When it was at 720, it was spectacular. It captures the feel about as well as any video I've seen. At time: 3:14, it captures the idea of rolling inverted to stay below the ridgeline which reduces your vulnerability to surface to air threats.


Oh, Man. Now I miss it!

With "the beast", back in 1987.

F-16 guy.jpg

Nice ride the F-16. The Iranian Air Force still has a few F-14s in various states of disrepair as they have to fabricate or swindle spare parts. When I was in Basic at Lackland AFB, Texas in '77 the Iranian Air Force was doing theirs in the dorm right next to mine! It seemed even their privates had scrambled eggs on their hats. I hear Iran has nice skiing, too bad we will never see it.