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Monday, March 17, 2014

Big Sky, March 4-9


Day 1: We gawked at the massive mountain and wonderful simplicity of ski in/ski out accommodations.  I prereleased once on Marx (45+ degree slope), and Brett caught my ski.  Later in the same run after the Gullies, I prereleased on hardpack, bend my pole and severely knocked the wind out of myself.

Day 2: I picked up my fixed binding, and got my confidence back on a great powder day of 6 inches of fresh.  Awesome untracked and lightly tracked runs, including a foggy run down Liberty Bowl late in the day.  Great runs down Headwaters, including my favorite in that area, Cold Springs.  I gouged my ski pretty bad there.

Day 3:  Got my ski fixed yet again, and then enjoyed an amazing powder day.  I had one of my best runs ever down the bowl near Lone Peak Triple where I dropped a 15 foot cliff.  More untracked powder than I can remember...surreal and beautiful.

Day 4:  Bluebird and a weekend day - more crowds than the empty past three days.  My friends living in Bozeman came and visited, and we all had a great time in warm conditions.



Sunday, March 2, 2014

South Lake Tahoe Skiing, Feb 21-23

Ben, Cori and I went to South Lake for a long weekend.  Ben lives in New Jersey, and was out for a conference, so it was a natural choice that we had to get some time in the mountains.  Ben and I skied Heavenly the first day while Cori worked.  I hadn't been at the mountain since 2008, and I wasn't a huge fan.  The runs aren't that interesting, and the lift/layout is crappy.  Cori also couldn't find a nice place with wifi to do work that looked at the mountain since the ski village is tucked away at a lower elevation.  Never the less, Ben and I got good turns in, and we all got tipsy at altitude off a few drinks afterward.

The second day, the three of us went to Kirkwood.  Again, it was warm and sunny, and the skiing was best in the morning.  Cori hadn't been skiing since last year, but by the end of the day, she was doing great.  That night, we cooked a feast of veggies and fish.

We skied Kirkwood again on Sunday, spending a good chunk of time on Cornice Express.  Cori got more comfortable with the steeper terrain, and we did a bunch of laps on Sentinel Bowl, which isn't as sidecountry feeling as it used to be since I believe they are thinking of putting a lift in.  We had to leave mid afternoon so we could get back to the city for Ben to make his red eye back to the East Coast.  We had a quick stop in Jackson, a small and sleepy old mining town, to get some dinner.