Sunday River 12-27-12

Ride Delaware ? · December 29, 2012

What a day!!! We were expected to get 4-6 inches of snow overnight, but when I woke up at 5:15, only an inch or two had fallen at best. I contemplated not going to the mountain early, but with expected daytime snowfall totals of 10-15 inches, I decided to go in, get some freshies, and receive free refills all day. Boy did I make the right call!!!

At the base we had received about 3 inches by 7, and maybe 5 at the top. I decided to go out to the Jordan Bowl, but because of wind, the HSQ there didn't run. They decided to open the Oz lift that runs up the peak next to it, and that services many of the same trails, so I decided to stay there. It's fairly wind sheltered except for the top 100 ft, and with it being so far from the main base area, it stayed fairly slow in terms of skiers all day. The snow was coming down at an inch plus an hour.

I started my day doing a run in Aurora down Airglow. It had ungroomed snowmaking whales with huge powder stashes. I took 3 runs down the Flying Monkey glades after that. Some small stumps and rocks popped up, but the 18" followed by rain we got last week really set up well for an excellent base. I then proceeded up Oz and proceeded to Lost Princess and Eureka. Both trails are wide open with pockets of trees on the sides. There were some super deep wind loaded pockets in the middle of the trails, with knee deep powder in the trees. Eureka had the better coverage and tree lines, so I lapped that several times. I got first, second, and third tracks in the woods on Eureka before heading over to Ruby Palace which is a lift line. Just like everything else, it was waist deep in places and had some technical drops with pillow landings. I went back to Eureka before deciding to hike up Kansas to the top of Jordan Bowl. I then decided to hit Wizards Gulch which is another glade, and let me tell you, it was worth the hike. There were very few tracks in it, and with it being one of the older glades, there are very few obstacles. I ripped through the top section the fastest I have ever gone in glades. What an adrenaline rush.

After hitting up Eureka again, I finally decided to head over to Barker to try out some new terrain. It was about 2 PM. I got to the top just as they dropped the rope on Agony, another lift line, and I was treated to another lift line with some sweet pillow drops and bumps. We then went up and did some off map glades, and at about 3:45, my legs finally gave up on me, and I decided to call it a day. Once I got back to the patrol room and took my board off, I could barely walk. My legs were wobbly and felt like noodles. That was by far the hardest I have ridden for the longest time. 8 hours and forty five minutes without a break of any sort.

I was incredibly hungry, so I stopped at Subway and carry out Chinese on the way home. It continued to snow and we picked up about 10" at the base, and 15" at the top. We picked up another two inches last night. All in all, a great storm. I feel like we got more snow these past two weeks than all of last year, and we already have twice the amount of trails open. This is what I came here for!!! It was snowing like crazy, and I racked up 25 runs mostly on slow lifts, so I didn't have much time for pics. I took most of these early in the AM when very few people were around. Pics are below. I'm glad your all getting your own powder tomorrow!!!

PS: the Blue Mountain race team was in the hizzy today. They were surprised that shit was finally getting open down there... They don't go back until after the new year.

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