On Jan 10, 3:29*pm, Richard Henry wrote:
Drove up yesterday. *Stopped for luch at the Ranch House in Olancha -
still good food like you would get if you dropped in on relatives.

I am staying at the Econo Lodge (formerly Wildwood Inn, formerly
International Inn) because it is cheap. *I used to like this place in
its II days, because the rooms included full kitchens and two full
king beds, and you could get two interconnected rooms for large
parties. *I guess that style of accommodation lost out to full-up
condos, because the rooms have been partitioned in half, and thte
klitchen is reduced to a minifridge and microwave. *Well, I wanted
cheap.

The Mountain, on the other hand, is first class. *Today was mostly
windless, sun going in an out of clouds, and chilly. *When I stopped
midday I put on the extra shirt in my backpack. *Many of the popular
black runs (Cornice, Face of 3, some others I don't know the names of)
were groomed smooth with a *dusting of overnight wind drift. *My only
complaint was the backside which apparently missed the big dump (or it
all blew over the ridge). *Where there was adequate coverage, it
consisted of melted-then-refrozen bumps partially filled in with
melted-then-refrozen wind slab. *I conquered that with a couple of
long traverses and perfect kickturns, and only one small portion of
"Holy ****!!!" out of control downhill.

Tomorrow is predicted to be light snow, and I will try out the resort
free shuttle bus system, since one of the stops is right in front of
the hotel.

Today I decided to start later and skip the cold first hour, then ski
longer in the afternoon. That worked out, especially since I took the
shuttle instead of driving in the fresh ice/snow/mud mix on the
roads. I saw a shuttle pass the hotel while I was dressing (my room
window faces the road) so I dawdle enough on the Internet so that I
managed to get down to the bus stop just before the next bus arrived.

Small storm came in as predicted, so the only lift open to the ridge
line was Chair 12, one of the antiques from the 70's. But no lift
line, and the snow was blowing in fresh over the ridge, so I made a
dozen or so loops there. Got to be on first-name basis with the
lifities.

Earlier, I had worked my way clockwise from the Main Lodge to Chair
15. The bottom of 15 was almost tropical, but the wind at the top of
Chairs 9 and 10 was brutal, and the visibility was down to ski-tip but
not much further due to the flat light and blowing snow. There were a
couple of incidents where I could feel my feet were in something soft,
but I couldn't tell what it was or what I was heading into, so I
sitzmarked out, something my new boarder pants are designed to do
regularly.

I found out that there is free wi-fi in the main lodge. Since this
little web-book would fit pretty easily into my backpack, I'm glad I
didn't know that earlier - Iwould never have made it out tpo the
slopes.

Tonight I am off to the local theatre (cheap Tuesdays) to see True
Grit..