Got to Montage about 8:55 for 9 AM opening, there weren't too many cars in the lot. In the house were me and my dad and no one else because it wasn't Blue. Parked second row back fro. The Phoebe Snow lift and headed down to the lodge to trade our Sweet deals vouchers for tickets. Decided to ski down to the Iron Horse lift and head to the top to see what the coverage looked like up there.
Took the agonizingly slow lift to the top and skied down Whistler which had all the features removed except for one roller near the bottom. Coverage was fine, a few narrow spots but nothing particularly thin. Still, I decided we were done with the top so we continued down Lower Runaway.
The snow both below and above was hard, frozen cord. Fast but edgeable, it was really no problem skiing and improved by the run, first as it got ground out into a frozen granular by the patrons and later as it softened in the sun. We repeated Lower Runaway one more times and then Pops had to break for a boot adjustment and I moved over to Cannonball. This was probably run of the day, definitely if you ask Pops. It was in great shape, the middle third had a nice layer of granular from previous skiers while both edges sustained frozen cord through the morning. The bottom half was kind of groomed in two different pitches with a ridge down the middle, but no big deal.
After one run Pops rejoined me and we did Cannonball again. Next time up I decided to move on to try out Smoke while dad ran Cannonball one more time. He didn't like the look of Smoke from the lift and after running it I confirmed he probably would not have enjoyed it. I barely enjoyed it, lol. It was a little rowdier than I was expecting, and I was probably skiing on the edge of being in control. The grooming was really weird, with ridges and dips and swales and holes to keep you on your toes. There were even some patches of glaze ice showing through. No complaints, I'm sure they didn't want to push snow around too much to risk exposure.
We ran Connonball again and then did Lower Runaway one more time. That trail was starting to soften up more than just the scraped granular, which was nice to see. Dad was ready for a break and I decided lunch sounded good, their Facebook had mentioned some food specials. I decided to run Smoke again to see how it was with a better expectation of the trail, and I had a really enjoyable run the second time around. So enjoyable that I decided one more run needed to happen before lunch, so I checked out Boomer.
Boomer was probably run of the day for me. Nice and smooth, just softened up enough to be perfect. Bumps down skiers right on the middle part of the trail, but plenty of room for a Jerry like me to avoid them. I rode the Phoebe lift back up and skated around to the lodge to meet Pops. We first went in to the cafeteria, and I realized that the specials (and better food all around) were going to be had in the Slocum Hollow resraurant, so we went in there and grabbed table.
We ordered fried mozzarella, pretzel sticks and Reuben eggrolls as they were all half price, and each got a cheesesteak with house chips. I had a cocktail and pops had a Boddington's. Total was $45. Not bad at all, granted due to specials. Vibe blows away Slopeside, IMO.
We went back out on the snow and Pops wanted to do Cannonball again. It had gotten even more soft and was starting to get pushed around quite a bit. It was an absolute blast to ski, cutting turns wherever you wanted to and blasting over and through soft piles of mashed taters with no consequences. Dad didn't agree, he doesn't like the slop as much as I do when it's right like it was today. On the ride up he decided he was done for the day, and decided it was time to tag in the Monsters.
The Monsters at 108 are the widest, beefiest ski I have been on, besting a previous couple of demo runs on a Rossi Sky 7 which I think is 98 underfoot and considerably lighter. I might have demo'd something around 100 underfoot at last year's demo day at Blue, I can't remember. It's a lot of ski, maybe too much for me at this point, and I felt it in the legs from the first run I took on them. I'm really not a very good skier, and I know that I tend to smear most of my turns, at the very least at the back end of the turn. With the lack of tail rocker these skis aren't really making that sort of skiing easy, unlike my Rossi Experience 88s.
After swapping skis I headed back down Cannonball for an apples to apples comparison. I was probably skiing a little too hesitantly and not pushing the ski, the legs were taking a much stronger workout than the run before. Still, I enjoyed it and it was very stable and certainly held up to it's reputation as a crud crusher.
On the way back up the lift I had the above exchange with Steeze about White Lightning, which I had hoped to ski after checking it out from the base and seeing it was groomed. The hard conditions, and my overall lack of skill and confidence in steeps had me thinking that today wasn't the best idea.
Headed back down Smoke to see how the new skis handled what I found to be the most challenging terrain I had found that day. It had softened considerably, and between that and the damper skis had the best run of the day down it. I was trying to be more conscious of driving the ski. On the way up I decided to help with it, things had softened and White Lightning still didn't look very bumped up, so I would give it a go.
Sadly a GoPro malfunction means I don't have any footage of it, but it was nothing to be proud of anyway. The final headwall was just a bunch of linked sideslipping turns with some traverses thrown in. The skis didn't point down the fall line very much, and it was a hell of a leg burner. Having done it once and surviving, I would have gone back for another try on my other skis, but wasn't down for it on the Monsters so I decided to run Boomer again.
After a great run down Boomer which was much more cut up than before lunch but was handled just fine, I decided to make my last run of the day down Cannonball and try to really trust the skis and press it and I think it was pretty successful. Just pointed em wherever I felt like and they handled it all.
Took the lift back up and rejoined Pops in the lot. Headed to Revello's in Old Forge and picked up a couple par-baked trays for dinner, one plain one with onions. Just got back from dinner at my parents house to relax for a bit then a little prep for the final Sausage Sunday of the 2017-18 ski season tomorrow.
