Tim blasts through a stacked “Stop Sign” on Sunday. It seemed the snow was refilling old tracks wherever we went.
If you weren’t around this past weekend you missed out on a special offering at Highlands– free refills from Saturday to Tuesday– and not the type that come from the soda fountain at the Merry Go Round.
Through the entire extended weekend it seemed like every lap in Highland Bowl was stacked with new powder, that each time we clicked into our skis and readied to drop in, all the old tracks had been filled in. We can thank several factors– the storm that kept snowing, the winds that kept loading, the limited number of skiers the hike up the bowl allows and the periodic gate closures and openings– all one needed was some smart, tactical decision making, i.e. thinking outside the “pack mentality” box, and you could avoid the herds and/or time the openings of certain areas and find untracked lines all weekend.
So here’s a few more pics:
Master bowl strategizer and former Highlands patroller, Tim’s contrarian call of Whip’s Veneration surprised us all. I think Whip Jones would have been proud to see us catch this much snow late in the afternoon of a very busy weekend. Good call, Tim. Click any pic to enlarge.
When the rope finally dropped on the bowl after control work Sunday morning, everyone rushed towards the top. A trained eye might have noticed that the lower “Ballroom” gully had just opened– possibly for the first time this season. We ended up lapping the lower bowl four times Sunday rather than get in the slow moving queue to the bowl summit. Christy, seen here, was OK with the decision.
Another pic from another filled in lap in “Ballroom.” Because the Northwoods didn’t open, the abundance of people and limited ski choices off the summit caused runs like Ozone and Full Curl to get skied out early.
And Tim downs another full cup. When the weather finally broke, there was still plenty of untracked amongst the fairly skied-out main runs(seen behind). This location isn’t particularly hard to get to, but still hadn’t been hit until we arrived.
It was awesome. Cheers to free refills!
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