Snowbowl - Preseason

I did a little preseason skiing up at Snowbowl, as I work on getting 'the sickness' back.

Actually it was pretty good day.

Pretty good snow on the groomers, but beware the off piste stuff has NO BASE.

It was really cold up there. Shoot, my camelback (with insulated hose) froze within 5 minutes of leaving my car. I had to tuck it into my shirt in order for it to thaw out.

I moved pretty slowly, as I started at the Sunset Chair and topped out at Agassiz Chair (11,500 vf). Both laps took about 2 hours.

The first lap, I came down Upper Ridge, and the second I came down the Spur Catwalk.

There were plenty of people up there doing what I was doing, and there was plenty of talk up on top of hitting the ungroomed stuff on the new runs. I didn't interject, but I did object, cuz I knew there was nothing in between the fluff and the rocks under it. I pretty much stuck to the groomers, and when I did flow threw the freshies on the side, I hit rocks. I actually hit ate it kinda hard when my ski hit a rock, smashing my knuckle on a boulder. That smarts. At the bottom, I heard over and over how the off piste skiing the utters had done was so not worth it.

I fear for the fools who try to get good turns in backcountry on terrain that has no base.