I took the day off of work and hit Elk Mountain in Union Dale, PA for a planned mogul day. They had 4 bump runs, which is about as many as you will get anywhere in PA, so I planned on a few warm-up runs on groomers and then bumps all day. That plan didn't quite work out. The moguls were pretty much played out - lots of areas of yellowish snow, quite a bit of ice in the troughs, grass showing through in some areas and a glaze on many of the bumps. I was considering options during my warm-up runs and the point became moot as a steady freezing rain started at 9am and continued until about 12:30pm putting an increasingly thick glaze on everything. What to do with a pile of lemons? Make some lemonade!
The groomers were wall-to-wall beautiful corduroy that even as the glaze built up had enough grip. I decided to do sideslip, directed drifting and "zero momentum" turn drills that I learned at Bumps for Boomers in Aspen in January and make good use of my day on the slopes. I ended up skiing nearly entire runs doing the drills and had a blast! The best skiing like this I had done all year in some very challenging conditions. The weather was so miserable that at one point I was 1 of only 4 people skiing on the half of the mountain serviced by the quad. The lifty on the quad didn't even bother to come out of the lifty hut most of the time - you were on your own at the chair. When the rain stopped, the fog rolled in very heavily at the top of the mountain. Some of the worst visibility I had seen there.
Can't quite figure out how to post multiple photos so here is one that will give you an idea of the conditions:
The groomers were wall-to-wall beautiful corduroy that even as the glaze built up had enough grip. I decided to do sideslip, directed drifting and "zero momentum" turn drills that I learned at Bumps for Boomers in Aspen in January and make good use of my day on the slopes. I ended up skiing nearly entire runs doing the drills and had a blast! The best skiing like this I had done all year in some very challenging conditions. The weather was so miserable that at one point I was 1 of only 4 people skiing on the half of the mountain serviced by the quad. The lifty on the quad didn't even bother to come out of the lifty hut most of the time - you were on your own at the chair. When the rain stopped, the fog rolled in very heavily at the top of the mountain. Some of the worst visibility I had seen there.
Can't quite figure out how to post multiple photos so here is one that will give you an idea of the conditions:
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