There was no huge storm forecast for last weekend, but the Bitterroots were
under a winter weather advisory for 3-5 inches of snow with locally up to 8
inches on Friday night.  I wasn’t all that excited about the weekend’s
skiing after a pretty dry week (I certainly would have gone out at least one
day) but the winter weather advisory raised my hopes for a powder day.  The
early report from Lost Trail on Saturday morning was 2 inches and still
snowing.  Down in the valley it was just cloudy, but I looked up into the
mountains and it certainly looked like something was coming down.

E took the first shift of skiing, and reported back over the radio that the
few inches of new snow were nice, although it was well packed underneath.  I
used my time in the lodge with Ty to check up on prices for a group ski trip
I was organizing in March, as well as look into the helmets available for
sale in the ski shop.  Lost Trail has received ski helmets (hundreds it
seems) from St. Patrick’s hospital in Missoula for $10 apiece, and they are
selling them off to their patrons at cost.  They don’t seem to be brand name
helmets, but they look adequate for protection, and the price can’t be beat.
  I’ve recently been sizing up different models of helmets at the local
store in anticipation of getting one, and found that Giro’s helmets fit my
head great.  I eventually want to get a Giro Fuse (the venting is great) but
at less than one tenth the price, the St. Patrick’s model will definitely do
for now.  E and I agreed that the size S (small) fit great, so we bought
three in black, with one of them for Tyler to grow into some day.  So, after
a few years of having a bunch of the official SkiVT-L stickers, I’ve finally
got a place to put one!

We’d bought our helmets during the mom/dad ski/babysitting transition, so
when I went out for my turn on the slopes, I naturally took the chance to
try out my new headgear.  Everyone talks about how warm and comfortable
helmets are, and although this seemed to be true for the most part, my
temples froze while I cruised my way over to chair 4.  On the sides of my
head, there was nothing between the top of my goggles and the bottom of the
helmet.  My ears were nice and warm, since they were covered by flaps from
the helmet, but there is still an area that needs attention.   I may have to
wear a thin hat or something to take care of this problem.

All my runs for the day were basically off the Hollywood Bowl face, where I
did some exploring, both for fun, and in preparation for my friends that
will be coming out in a couple of weeks.  I found the snow on the skier’s
right side of Hollywood Bowl to be in great shape, and I worked on hitting
some of the natural kickers in the area.  In one instance, I hit two jumps
back to back, although the landing off the first one caused me to take a
different trajectory off the second one.  This turned a planned 5 footer
into a 15 footer.  After landing in a flat spot, I double ejected and dove
head first into the snow.  It was almost a repeat of a situation I
encountered last week, although I think my helmet helped to keep me a bit
less snowy.

After each run in Hollywood Bowl, I cut hard left and explored the Hollywood
Trees.  The snow was still fantastic in there, with very few tracks.  I
wasn’t sinking deep like last weekend, but it was still bottomless.  There
were lines in there just begging to be nailed.  I had to be careful in a few
areas where the snowpack has not covered all the rocks yet, but I would say
that in general the area is ready to be skied.  I think the settling of the
snow has helped since last weekend to make some of the rocks less
accessible.  I decided I would venture into the area of the Hollywood Chutes
and see how the coverage looked.  As long as I stayed away from the rocky
spines (and stayed in the chutes in between) I didn’t encounter a single
rock.  Below the rocky chute areas, the big snowfield was in awesome shape.
I couldn’t help but lay out some huge arcs in the powder.  I waited for
about 10 minutes while I scoped out the general lay of the land, tried to
commit it to memory, and waited for the sun to come out for photos.  I
didn’t see a soul the whole time.  I hope everything stays in good shape for
when the guys come out to visit.  Greg and Dave have yet to ski chair 4, and
I plan to give everyone a good tour with my newfound knowledge.

For some reason, Chair 3 was closed when I decided to take my last run, so I
took the Oreo route back to the main base.  I hit some of the trees off the
south side of the Bear Claw Ridge, and found that the snow was in excellent
shape there as well.  We haven’t had any major precipitation yet this week,
but we may get a bit for next weekend.  It doesn’t look to be a major
system, but hopefully enough to freshen things up.  The base is currently at
90 inches (on the main mountain), so aside from a few scoured areas that are
slow to fill in on Saddle Mountain, things are looking good.

I got a few scenery pictures as usual, they can be found at:

http://www.JandEproductions.com/2004/07FEB04.html

J.Spin

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