Easter Hunter - 4/1/18

[indiggio]

With Blue being closed and still a desire to ski, a few of the bump heads and @tarponhead were heading up to Hunter and had a few cheap tickets to use up.
Luckily the wife was gracious enough to let me go, so got picked up and made the ride.

The roads on the drive up were virtually empty, probably due to it being Easter, with a few droplets of rain on the windshield.
Unfortunately for one tabby cat, it gave up it's final life under the car in front of us after being harassed by some birds who drove it into the lineup of cars headed to the mountain.
I can say now that I've actually witnessed a dead cat bounce!  Poor kitty.

Arrived in the lot around 8am with temps in the low 40s, but the mountain claiming 30's, but the snow was definitely not set up.
Getting out, there was some spritzing going on but not enough to make it a problem, just annoying on the goggles.  At the top, it was flurrying.

Made a few speed runs first thing down the mains, avoiding some big skid marks here and there just to warm up the legs.
The snow on the groomers was soft and loose, but held an edge which made the long runs a lot of fun.

Decided to give some bump runs a go, but they were less than enjoyable as the temps were just not there to soften up was did set up and there were a few gotchas here and there.
Drizzle changed to sleet and graupel at the top.  Made our way to the West side.  The run down was uneventful, as you still had to watch for skid marks.  Nothing was open over there except the run down and the lift ride up.

By mid morning, clouds were dropping and the top was getting socked in and light was flat.  Decided to take a break.
After the break, the temps were dropping and the wind was picking up, but another run down the West side saw some blue skies peeking through.
Met some locals the bump heads knew, so we made a few runs with them and broke for lunch.

During lunch, skies cleared and sun came out in full which softened the snow even though temps were probably in the low 40s.
The snow turned hero on sun facing aspects and the bumps softened up nicely.
The rest of the day was spent on bump runs until the legs gave out somewhere around 3pm, just in time for parking lot beer and drive home.

Overall a pretty good Easter Sunday!