Perhaps the cold on Saturday kept a few people off the mountain.....either that or there were a lot of skiers using Saturday as a travel day. Record crowds or no, the mountain does a good job of absorbing people. While crowded, the lodges remain manageable, and lift lines just don't materialize, not compared to what you find at other places. We skied Saturday, our family ski day. My wife prefers the empty slopes of non-holiday weekends and she took note of the traffic on the slopes. I did take my kids (6 and 9) up the gondola and down Excelsior. Suffice to say there are a lot of people out there who don't know/live the code and I was careful to run "interference" by skiing upslope of the kids as they made their way down. There were a few times I was almost clipped myself, and at times I was definitely worried for my slower skiing, but capable, kids as people descended from upslope with great speed and little control to turn or stop themselves when necessary to avoid the downhill skier with the right of way. Some people make their way down the greens and blues of Whiteface way too fast, and not necessarily in control. Of course the same is true of almost any resort, unfortunately.
I saw one accident that could have been a disaster, and all the result of downright stupidity, and violation of just about every article of the code. Stupid #1 was the young snowboarder who decided to sit in the middle of Upper Boreen where is skirts around the upper part of Boreen by the mid mountain lodge. Just sitting there, in the middle of the flat. Maybe he fell earlier, but he was just sitting, for several minutes, in the middle of the trail. Stupid #2 was the skier who decides to blast through that flat, through a half a dozen people, at near warp speed. Well, Stupid #1 picks the inopportune time to start crawling, head down, from the middle of the trail to the edge......just as Stupid #2 is breaking the sound barrier right next to Stupid #1. Stupid #2 clips Stupid #1 in the head/neck. Fortunately, Stupid #1 wasn't seriously injured, but a fraction of an inch in a different position and someone could be dead, literally. All beacuse people don't use common sense and obey they code.
Friday was my day to hit it hard....and I'm still sore for having so much fun. Great conditions. I'll post some pics tonight. First tracks in Empire, Cloudsplitter, High Country. Fresh windblown powder turns on Cloudspin (the edges at least) on each successive run in the afternoon. On top of first tracks in the Cloudsplitter Glades, I skied untracked powder lines for two hours in there before I ventured to the summit.....and then found more untracked lines in the afternoon. Oh, and I discovered what a great trail Mackenzie really is. Great pitch, great fall line, great bumps.
I bet today was probably a great day on the mountain. Spring conditions for a day and enough warmth to soften up the hardpack that lied beneath the surface. Alas, for those skiing tomorrow...I hope your edges are sharp.
