Ekat, they groom them and then get 20+ overnight!! It's heaven. ;) when I was at Mammoth we were waiting for them to open the gondola after a big dump one day. After awhile I asked a lifty what was up? He said "one of the cats Is having issues and we're waiting for it to finish grooming its run. "We're waiting because they're grooming perfectly good powder!?" I couldn't f&ucking believe it!!! ;)
By the way, 9 times out of ten there's a perfectly good reason to let the cat finish whatever they're doing. If it makes it any easier just imagine that whatever they are doing is whats necessary to avoid getting their asses' sued into bankruptcy, which dosn't serve anybodies interest much. The same thing happens all the time up on Blackcomb Whistler. Often the lift dosn't load until well after AC is finished due to cat work or lift work or trail work. Or vice versa. Either way just take a valium or two.
I remember once having a long time local come up to me and start ragging quite aggressively about how we "ruined all the skiing" by knocking down too many avalanches. A moronically slavish corporate devotion to customer service was this big deal then so I gave him a free hot chocolatte coupon and assured him from then on we'd only throw rocks and snowballs to keep all that pristine powder perched in place because we wouldn't want to ruin his day.
Ekat it was awesome! It was puking all night almost all the way back to the valley. It was a bit busy but it's a weekend, so to be expected..
I hear ya on the liability thing. I understand too, I think it was more the thought of flattening pow which is not the norm around here. Every effort is made to preserve the nice snow by grooming things early as possible, but some key routes are always manicured and I'm sure the same thing was in effect that day, but I was impatient of course ;) I've learned a lot since then too.. :)
Here's another shot of Jersey Cream lift
I met up with Woody and Rick for a couple laps and then they went home and I went for lunch.
After a snack I saw Harmony Chair on Whistler was open on the light board, so I jumped on the eat to eat. Harmony was a huge line if course since it was Saturday and it was the only alpine chair open. I was alone so I found a three and jumped in. When I got to the top, I decided to head up to excitation, a sweet chute into glacier bowl.
When I got there a bunch of people were standing around watching one guy trying to hack a hole in the cornice. I waited for a bit and when he gave up I slid over to his hole to have a look and dropped the whole tab....
Spider senses kicked in immediately and I buried my fists behind me when I landed to stay in place and watched the snow fall away.
I had a pretty sweet run after that but it was low vis... I guess I was little gungho because I'm familiar with the terrain but i really need to stop pushing my luck...
I got a picture of some kitty kats for the un-blinny from the top of Red chair.
This is the Whistler Mountain alpine shop.
A N D . . . nicely groomed with freshies on top can be pretty cool. . .but dood, I can't tell ya how funkmo DustOnCrust can be. . . when there's just enough to trick you into thinkin' it's good. . . or that perfect kind where the only edge you can find IS THE WRONG ONE!
He said "one of the cats Is having issues and we're waiting for it to finish grooming its run. "We're waiting because they're grooming perfectly good powder!?" I couldn't f&ucking believe it!!! ;)
That's Mammoth. . . where I was pretty much born and raised. . . Maritime snow pack and a fleet of PISTEN BULLIES!
I'm soooo jealous! I'm currently finishing up a 14 page paper analyzing Intuit inc for a service management class....Gotta love mondays...I want to climb or board
That fog comes in and freeze to everything and even if it doesn't snow, there is fresh hoar frost on the groomers and it ROCKS! It also encases the trees. . . that are called SnowGhosts - the place is famous for them.
Let us know!