It had been another dry week in the Bitterroot, but a little moisture
arrived just in time for the weekend.  Although the temperature in town was
well above freezing Friday night, we woke up to a skiff of snow on the
ground.  Lost Trail reported an inch of new snow and a temperature of 18
degrees F.

Last weekend, the delaminated tails of my Volants finally split so much that
they were washing out on turns.  It was definitely time to get some new
skis.  After a bit of research, I decided to check out the Salomon Scream 10
Pilot Hots (110/75/100) with the built in bindings.  I stopped in at Bob
Ward’s sports and the salesman suggested I demo before I bought anything.
He didn’t have any Scream Pilots available for demo, but he did have the
Scream Limited, the “a la carte” version of the ski to which you can add
your own bindings.  Although they’re not exactly the same skis, he said they
would give me a good feel for the Scream Hots because they are very similar.
  I picked up the skis (170 cm) on Friday, and brought them to the hill on
Saturday for some test runs.

Even though it was just an inch of new snow, it was great to see people
making tracks on South Face when I arrived at the hill.  I naturally started
out going groomed, hoping to catch a few runs with the new untracked snow
over a nice flat surface.  As Meadow Run started to get steeper, I got my
first real feel for the Limiteds.  Being shorter, they naturally felt
turnier than my Volants, but they also had more snap in them.  This wasn’t
surprising, since the Volants tend to have more smoothness than snap in my
experience.  I worked a few runs on Far Out and Southern Comfort.  Some high
traffic areas were getting worked down to the hard base, but I was still
able to get fresh snow each run by heading to the sides.  I ventured into
the ungroomed terrain off to the right of Upper Far Out, and this is where I
first felt the length of the skis.  They skied fine, but they were thrown
around a little more by the terrain changes than my longer pairs of skis.

I wanted to use the skis in as many conditions as possible while I had them
for demo, so I next headed over to Slides, a steep (35-40 degrees)
tree-lined chute on the north side of the main area.  Typically, I’d avoid
it on a day like this with only an inch of new snow over a firm base, but I
wanted to see how the Limiteds would handle such conditions.  With their
nice sharp edges, they of course stuck to any firm patches well.  There were
a few bumps in the chute, and I was easily able to maneuver like I wanted
through the troughs.  Overall they did a nice job on what was some pretty
challenging terrain.  I did notice their short size when I got towards the
bottom of the chute and picked up speed in more irregular terrain, but they
were still manageable.

At the bottom of Slides I cut right to head toward Femur Ridge.  I wanted to
see how the skis handled a landing off a jump.  With the firm conditions, I
didn’t want to drop more than a few feet, but the skis felt normal on the
landing.  I was pleasantly surprised to find the bowl below Femur Ridge
virtually untracked and quite smooth.  It would have been fun to do a couple
more runs in there, but I knew I could find better snow in other places, and
I had to continue my test.

I kept heading north, this time taking North Bowl to get to Chair 5.  On the
steeper section of North Bowl, I decided to see how the skis handled in and
out of the trees along the skier’s right of the trail.  The snow was
actually the best I’d encountered so far, with a few inches of powder along
much of the trail edge.  Nobody had skied it in who knows how long, probably
in more than a week.  The skis felt very nimble, so I brought them through
some of the tighter spots to see how it went.  They performed great, which
was good, since this is something they’ll probably used for a lot.

A next took a couple runs on Chair 5, first heading down Lynx (Bobcat had a
race course set up, although it didn’t seem to be closed).  The skier’s
right of Lynx was ungroomed and untracked.  I hit my deepest snow of the
day, about 3-4 inches, over a base of sun-protected snow.  The Limiteds
loved this terrain, and made quick work of it.  On the next run, I headed to
the other side of the lift and took the bottom of the Bear Claw Ridge trail.
  I found a similar consistency of untracked snow, but a more irregular
base, probably since they don’t groom it as often.  As I’d found before, I
had to work a little harder to keep the skis on track with the terrain
changes, but it was still a blast.

I continued my tour by heading to the Chair 3 area.  I cut through the trees
from Main Street to Side Street, and found firmer conditions due to the more
southern exposure.  The only powder available was the latest inch, possibly
because the other few inches had been baked by the sun at some point.
Cutting to the right of Side Street, I found deeper snow, and proceeded to
slice it up with the Limiteds.  I hit a slick patch under the powder at one
point, which was the first time that the edge grip of the skis really failed
me.  It caught me by surprise, but fortunately I was able to stay up.

Finally it was time for some long runs off Chair 4.  Most of the terrain is
open to skiers, except for the middle of the top face and the Hollywood Bowl
area.  While riding the chair, I noticed that there was a lot of untracked
snow in the Two Dot/Odyssey area so I planned to head there.  I also got to
check out the new mid station.  From what I’ve heard, the mid station (which
is about 400 vertical feet shy of the summit) is for unloading only at this
point.  It will hopefully allow the mountain to open up Chair 4 earlier in
the season, before the steep open areas at the top have had time to fill in
with snow.  It will also allow people to unload and ski only the lower
intermediate slopes of Saddle Mountain if the steep stuff up top is over
their head.  Actually, I know many people who would like to see the mid
station as a loading area, which would let you lap the steep upper slopes of
the mountain.  This would be great on deep days, when the lower mountain
terrain is just too slow because of its milder pitch.  For my run, I headed
down the top of Sacajewea, which was steep and groomed.  I was again pleased
with the edge hold of Limiteds.  After the first pitch, I cut right and was
able to ski some trees, which had great snow.  The good snow continued all
the way down onto the trails and I really let the skis ride.

Although it wasn’t really a powder day, I figured the best shot at testing
the Limiteds in powder would be to head over to the north-facing terrain of
Elk Basin.  With Chair 4 running, this area was actually lift-serviced, so I
figured it would be more tracked than usual.  Still, it was the best option
for lengthy powder lines in which to test the skis.  The trip over on Oreo
even provided some fresh turns outside of the main groomed area.  I arrived
at the top of Elk Basin, and couldn’t believe my eyes.  It was well after
noon, and there were only two tracks on the slope.  Heck, they could have
been from the patrol for all I knew.  Fortunately, with Elk Basin’s
sheltered northern exposure, there was a nice 3-4 inch layer of powder,
which was on top of a much softer base than most other areas.  Somewhere
further down the trail, in the region of Dog Leg, I found myself flying
through the powder with a silly grin on my face.  I think I may have even
laughed out loud at one point.

I did a couple more runs off Chair 4, one of them on Super G, for some good
high speed cruising.  The snow was excellent until the trail turned to the
south, where it became quite firm.  Actually the very bottom pitch was roped
off and traffic was forced onto Bob’s Run.  It’s a little hard to imagine
that the issue was a total lack of coverage, but maybe there were some
dangerous objects sticking out of the snowpack due to southern exposure.
For my last run, I had to return to Elk Basin for powder.  Believe it or
not, there had been no tracks since my earlier run.

On my way back to the base on Chair 3, I noticed a couple of snowboarders
walking up the Sneaker trail, and I wondered what was going on.  To my
surprise, I saw some rails set up on the trail, and as I looked up the trail
further, I could see that there were several rails and hits scattered
around.  There was no other way to explain it…  Lost Trail had built a
terrain park.  I know that’s something that the local kids have been wanting
for years, so I’m sure they’re quite happy about the situation, even if
there isn’t a dedicated lift and they have to walk for the quickest laps.

So, overall it was a surprisingly good day on the hill, and I’m very happy
with the test of the Salomon Scream Limiteds.

A few pictures from the day can be seen at:

http://www.JandEproductions.com/2005/05FEB05.html

A current Lost Trail map can be found at:

http://JandEproductions.com/2005/LTmap0405.jpg

J.Spin

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