Season Report, Crested Butte, Long?

Like the song goes :" It was a very good year..." Right after the area
opened on man made snow (just before Thanksgiving) we got a goodly dump
that made it possible to open most of the mountain. Snow accumulated at
a decent rate and then at the end of December, start of January we got
the first of this season epic snow falls. In a week from 80" to 100" hit
the ground. After lots of hard work by the patrol and both controlled
and natural avalanches the area was really open, even the extreme
limits. Eventually you could ski terrain from Sunset Ridge on the front
side through Third Bowl on the North Face. The new owners managed to get
permission to open Teocali Bowl for the first time in years. There was
enough snow fall that the area closed April 10 with a 72" base at
midway. It was a snow year you shoulda seen.

I managed to ski 123 days this season -- a benefit of being so old that
no one will give me a job. My skis, and Mr. Truckee won't like the
lengths, we Fischer Scenio 500, 170cm.; Head Monster i.M 75 Super
Railflex II; 163cm: Head World Cup Slalom, Race Stock, 156cm; and I took
some demo runs on Head i.XRC 1100 in both 163 and 170cm. The Monsters
were purchased this year, the others have been around awhile. All the
skis have Tyrolia Bindings. My boots are way old Tecnicas with custom
inserts that are "adjusted" at the start of the season.

A lot of days in all kinds of weather on skis I really like. Skied most
every kind of terrain and conditions, even did a bunch of timed runs on
our Nastar course. Surprisingly maybe, the Head Slaloms handle most any
kind of snow very nicely, for me. Even powder up to 7"s or so.

Things were so good here this season I had no reason to ski elsewhere.
Was it boring? Not for me. What if was a proctologist? That would be
boring, but some people do it.

I'm looking forward to the next ski season, hope you are too.

Jack

Jack Nixon wrote:
Like the song goes :" It was a very good year..." Right after the area
opened on man made snow (just before Thanksgiving) we got a goodly dump
that made it possible to open most of the mountain. Snow accumulated at
a decent rate and then at the end of December, start of January we got
the first of this season epic snow falls. In a week from 80" to 100" hit
the ground. After lots of hard work by the patrol and both controlled
and natural avalanches the area was really open, even the extreme
limits. Eventually you could ski terrain from Sunset Ridge on the front
side through Third Bowl on the North Face. The new owners managed to get
permission to open Teocali Bowl for the first time in years. There was
enough snow fall that the area closed April 10 with a 72" base at
midway. It was a snow year you shoulda seen.

Bite me, oh, wait, I got a bunch of day in the Sierra as well
as on my "normal" LoudPowder(tm).

I managed to ski 123 days this season -- a benefit of being so old that
no one will give me a job.

Well, no wonder we didn't see you around here very much.
I'm also TFO (too old) for somebody else to give me a job,
so I have to be self employed so I only got in about 50
days total this year. My boss is sometimes kind and sometimes
a hard taskmaster.

My skis, and Mr. Truckee won't like the
lengths, we Fischer Scenio 500, 170cm.; Head Monster i.M 75 Super
Railflex II; 163cm: Head World Cup Slalom, Race Stock, 156cm; and I took
some demo runs on Head i.XRC 1100 in both 163 and 170cm. The Monsters
were purchased this year, the others have been around awhile. All the
skis have Tyrolia Bindings. My boots are way old Tecnicas with custom
inserts that are "adjusted" at the start of the season.

Mr. Truckee (having skied with him, I feel I can call him
LAL) skis on what he likes, as do you and I. He skis very
well on them I might add.

A lot of days in all kinds of weather on skis I really like. Skied most
every kind of terrain and conditions, even did a bunch of timed runs on
our Nastar course. Surprisingly maybe, the Head Slaloms handle most any
kind of snow very nicely, for me. Even powder up to 7"s or so.

Amazing things, modern skis. My most usual pair were some
Fischer MountainX, probably a rip of of XMountains. Skied
well, had a hard time on "real" ice, but did everything
else pretty well. My "fun" skis (the fischers were for
"work") are a pair of Volkl 6stars 166cm. NICE skis. Hold
well, but crud admirably and even handled slush much
better than expected. No chance to try them in any kind
of powder, however, so no report there. I have a couple of
other skis rigged as AT skis and my best boots are 3 year
old Salomon XWave with the Lowa Structuras coming in second.
I'm trying a pair of Rossi Soft/Light from last season
to see if they will be adequate for "work" as they are
supremely comfortable but have some performance issues,
which even the softer Lowas don't have.

Things were so good here this season I had no reason to ski elsewhere.
Was it boring? Not for me. What if was a proctologist? That would be
boring, but some people do it.

Most of the season here in central Vermont was fairly short
on natural snow. We didn't get any appreciable storms until
the first of March. It's been great ever since. Up 'til then
we had to rely on man-made, which tends to form ice/boiler
plate much faster/sooner than does the "real" thing. After
March 1, when I got back from a couple of days in the Sierras
two of them with LAL, the conditions were superb (for the east).

Lately it's been wonderful spring conditions, which I happen
to like a lot, probably due to my favorite skiing partner of
years past, sadly not skiing much lately due to injury.

I'm looking forward to the next ski season, hope you are too.

Sure am, but I'm not giving up completely on this season. I
figure three more weeks to closing with this weekend being
quite good and falling off later in the month.

Jack, great thread to start. I hope other pick up on it and
give quick overviews of their personal ski seasons.

VtSkier