At the start of 2010, I am back on the East Coast. I had a great holiday with my family in Idaho. We spent a few days in Boise and a few days up in McCall. I got a total of 5 days skiing, mostly groomed snow, but a bit of powder on the last day. I was hoping to film some of the skiing to put into a short movie, but given the lack of powder I didn’t break out the camera.
I’m in DC for the 2010 Winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society. I have a poster presentation tomorrow and will be doing miscellaneous meeting events throughout the week. First AAS meeting for me, looking forward to it!
I again took the opportunity to do some skiing around my part of town this evening. There was a bit of light snow as I started, but it quickly stopped. I started by skiing up the hill again…
Getting a bit further up the hill I saw a second car stuck on the hill. I had actually encountered this car (and the occupants!) the previous night as they worked to free their vehicle. I was unable to help, and it unfortunately appears they were ultimately unsuccessful.
The combination of snow and odd lighting made for some eerie scenes. As I took this picture a driver backed their car out of the subdivision after making it haflway down the hill, only to be stymied by a stuck car left in the middle of the road.
After I skiied up the hill the road opened before me on the ridgeline. This normally busy road was completely quiet. Just the occasional “whoomp” as my skis settled into the twenty inches of powder…
I continued skiing down the road, aiming to make it at least to the grocery store a mile from my house.
The traffic light ahead of me eternally green, waiting for me to ski through the intersection underneath it.
After over an hour and a half of skiing and shooting, I arrived at the parking lot of the grocery store. Despite the early hour (20:30), all the stores were closed and the parking lot populated with an assortment of cars left to sit until the snow is cleared.
After standing underneath the bright lights, I turned around and began skiing back. I soon encountered a couple walking along the road. They explained their car was stuck, but they lived close and were enjoying the walk through the snow.
A few minutes further and along came another couple, walking down the middle of this normally busy road. “Hello.. are you stuck as well?”
“Nope.” (smiles), “We are just walking to visit a friend.”
We continued on separate ways, walking to visit a friend, and skiing down the icy center of the road leading home…
Central Virginia (and much of the East coast) is currently being snowed under. I suspect I have roughly 8-10″ of powder outside and it’s still coming down strong. A few hours ago (when it was only 6″ deep!) I took my AT skis and skins for a lap around the neighborhood. I shot some footage and condensed it into a short video:
As the title notes, I’ve had an excellent Spring Break. I’ve spent most of it skiing with my parents. Our first day skiing was up at Bogus Basin. The snow was fairly good, and conditions were fine. Sunny and windy, so the snow stayed firm. Chris joined us, and it was great to spend time with him.
On Sunday we drove up to McCall, stopping off at Tamarack Resort for a day of skiing on the way up. The weather was somewhat warm, and the lower half of the mountain was getting pretty slushy by the end of the day. The upper runs were good, although windy. Tamarack has been undergoing financial troubles, and will close later today, possibly for good.
Monday morning we headed up to Brundage Mountain. Conditions were good again, with nicely groomed snow. There hadn’t been much recent snowfall, so there was little powder to be found. As the day wore on, things warmed up and some runs became quite a chore to ski. I shot a couple videos of Dad skiing:
Towards the end of hte afternoon, clouds came in and the snow hardened up. Conditions were fast again and we could see a storm coming in from the South-West. After a full day of skiing (and around 12,500m of vertical!) we called it a day and headed back into town.
Tuesday morning dawned to an inch or so of snowfall in town, and Brundage hidden in the clouds. After breakfast we headed back up to the mountain for our 4th day of skiing in a row. There was a few inches of fresh powder already on the ground, and it just kept snowing!
It snowed on and off until mid-afternoon. It was fantastic snow. I spent most of the day playing in the powder, skiing until my legs were so tired I could hardly turn. What started out as a few inches of powder on top of groomed runs turned into almost a foot by mid-afternoon. True to form I had many a crash into the soft powder. I’m happy to say my new skis performed quite well in the powder.
We were pretty wiped by mid-afternoon, and called it a day around 14:30, having skiied another 6,500m vertical. All in all, an excellent 4 days of skiing, topped off with great powder and no lift lines!
I guess I could have called this post “Bogus Skiing”, but the skiing wasn’t really bogus. However, I was skiing at Bogus Basin. The weather was pretty good. Quite windy on top, but generally sunny (with some thin clouds towards the end of the day). The snow was ok, although pretty hardpacked. Quite similar to the conditions I’ve grown accustomed to, skiing out west. Perhaps a bit softer though.
The slopes weren’t quite as crowded as I expected, but there were plenty of little kids zipping around in their yellow vests taking lessons. There were also a few people on sitskis as well as the tele skiiers. I even saw someone skinning up a run towards the end of the day.
Tomorrow we head up to McCall to ski Tamarack (before they close for the season on Thursday), and the Brundage Mountain later on in the week. If I’m not too busy skiing, I’ll have some pictures to post. No promises though…
Aaaand, internet is out again #comcastfail6 hours ago
@furiouslyalex haha. games on linux?! yes, i should get my lazy self out riding though. maybe tomorrow since i won't be waiting for comcast 7 hours ago
inexplicably, my internet has returned. 8 hours ago
Took the puppy to the lake for a swim. Now to finish cleaning for having people over tonight! http://twitpic.com/2ad6fx8 hours ago
