by Skizoo » Fri Mar 12, 2010 11:23 am
I skied Pico this morning, (Friday Mar 12) so here's the report..
Temps at the base about 38, broken clouds, upper mountain above 3000 FT in the clouds, summit temp around freezing.
First lift up around 9:30, skied a warm up run under the Golden Express lift, the snow was extremely wet.. so I'm thinking it likely rained at Pico yesterday.. the snow was incredibly sticky in places.. (Not enough pink wax apparently)
after that I headed to the summit.. the groomers from the top were 49er and Pike, which is pretty typical.. visibility was extremely poor, maybe 10-20 feet between 3500-4000 feet and then maybe 40 feet till about 3000 were it broke, it was also quite windy... the snow was better up top, but still wet.. but not really sticky, but it was 'clumpy'.
With the poor visibility most people were skiing slowly and along the tree lines, 49er was decent, though, far from optimal, but carveable.. as you got down to about 2700 feet you had to again deal with some sticky snow.
I next skied Upper Pike from the top, Pike is wider and the visibility at the top was really poor.. It's steeper than 49er, the trail is split groomed, moguls on skiers right on Upper Pike, skiers left is groomed.. Clumpy moguls were forming on the groomed side but they were very hard to see, so skiing Upper Pike was far from ideal.. that was my only run on Upper Pike today.. On Middle and Lower Pike, earlier in the week they had let nice small to mid size moguls build up on skiers right, today they had flattened them out but the grooming was a bit uneven so the best snow was in the middle or skiers left..
I then did 49er again and cut under the quad and hit Birch Glades which earlier in the week had some really fun mid size bumps and great snow.. I was expecting some nice soft spring bumps... that's not what I got.. today, it was like skiing a glue factory, it literally felt like there was super glue on the snow, (I know, more wax, but I really didn't expect the snow to be this wet) it was damn near impossible to turn the skis comfortably, Every transition was like someone slamming on the brakes.. also, when you planted your poles on a mogul the pole sunk in like 2 feet, it was just really funky snow the whole way down and absolutely no fun at all..(but partly my fault)
I spent the rest of the morning hitting 49er from the top, it skied the best and though visibility stayed poor above 3K, 49er was fun... far from perfect and maybe not even average.. but OK..If the visibility would have improved Upper Pike and 49er would have been a lot better,
I would expect they will groom Upper KA from the top as well as 49er and Pike on Saturday, Upper KA was great last Monday, it had some nice small bumps, it is really a fun trail with lots of character..But I didn't hit it today..
So as long as they don't get any more rain they'll be OK, if the clouds lift it will be decent..I'm hoping the snow may dry out a bit overnight but it's so damp out, and above freezing top to bottom that I don't know if that's going to happen, also, there was a bit of goggle icing in the clouds but not severe..
Skier traffic was light, maybe 200 people on the mountain if that.. with heavier skier traffic it will get chewed up really quickly, we need some colder air.. but none in the forecast..
Dave