Post by patrick on Mar 11, 2009 17:34:28 GMT -9
I went up Pyramid after work and while it was better than I expected - it was not great either. Tomorrow I think I'll try skate skiing on the corn ice a top the local lakes. Anyway, at Pyramid it was isothermic corn snow up to about 800 feet and then above that it was patches of wind packed powder on rime and hard crust. It changed remarkably fast from bottomless corn to powder on ice too - only about 300 feet vertical of transition.
On my way up I was convinced the skiing was going to be really bad. It was windy and the plateau at 2000 feet was wind blown rime. It looked terrible. I was thinking, 'I bet the North Bowl has some blown in powder'. But i did not have the time to ski the North Bowl. So down I went into the South Bowl. And immediately after dropping in it was good skiing. Not so great visibility but actual powder on a soft crust. So I bet the North Bowl is good. And the three tree run was good too.
So way better than expected, but still not great (to be great you need good vis). Also, while we do not have anywhere near the amount of snow we had last year - we do have a good snowpack. And we usually get most of our snow in March and April! So keep your fingers crossed. Patrick