3/25 - Afternoon fun

[enjoralas]

Dad had to work Saturday morning, so we tentatively made plans to hit Bear Creek in the afternoon after Blue announced their 3 pm closing. With the rain in the forecast I decided to hit Blue in the AM anyway, and after Pops got off work I called him to see if he was still up for heading to Bear. He was, so we headed out and got there at about 2 pm. I figured even if the rain started at forecast between 3 and 4, with the small mountain and meh conditions, we wouldn't care if we had to bail after just a couple hours.

 

$25 lift tickets later we hit the slopes. The snow was slow and thick, and the coverage was pretty spotty. Some saturated areas showing up, including a good sized puddle forming leading into F lift. I though the pond skim was the next day.

 

Still, we made the most of the weather holding out and made 22 runs. After an opening run down Kodiak (very spotty and solid amount of traffic) we bailed down to the F lift and made runs down Broadway and then Timberline. Timberline was in pretty decent shape, probably owing to the amount of work it took to negotiate the uphill to get to the trailhead. We ended up running it once and then one more time a few runs later, but decided it wasn't worth the effort.

 

The rest of the runs were all variations of Grizzly and Extreme into the various Blue/Green combination routes that would lead back to the F lift. Most of the runs were down Grizzly because it had much better snow coverage than Extreme. The rollover onto the main headwall on Extreme had pretty significant thin cover the entire width of the trail. Ran it about 5 times or so, but eventually gave up on it as it got worse, save one last run down to end the day and cruise back to the lodge.

 

About 10 runs before we packed it in we found a little rampy jump down by the base of Grizz where one of the blues cuts in from the left. Started hitting that on each run, as the skis leaving the snow is one of the next things I want to work on as I develop my skills. It was a nice little place to work on the feeling of landing the skis, not that we were hitting any big air or anything, just some small jumps to get the feet wet, so to speak.

 

All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon, well worth the $25 ticket and definitely glad we made the effort. To think, if Blue hadn't closed at 3 we never would have gone.

[momskeeztoo]

22 runs at Bear is pretty good. I know it's small, but the lifts are slow. I didn't get there once this year.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Wow Enjorales is becoming a jibhonk!!

[enjoralas]

Wow Enjorales is becoming a jibhonk!!

Lol, you'll never find me seeking out rail and boxes, but it would be nice to be semi confident that I can land if on the course of normal skiing I find myself airborne.