Morning Challenger Runs

Our first run of the day was down Tippy's Tumble.  I knew this would be a good test of the snow and it wouldn't require a long runout to get back to the lift (Time is precious on days like this!!!!).  The snow was moderately heavy and slow here.  Colin could practically go straight down the run and be in complete control.  

Based on this first run evaluation, I decided that we should head to the Challenger Lift for some steeper runs and possibly some lighter snow up higher on the mountain.  Tom and Lori decided to head to the Shedhorn/Dakota side of the mountain and we'd meet up later for lunch.  

The run from Swifty to Challenger was sweet.  I had no qualms about passing by the Lone Peak Triple because the visibility would be nil up there and there was no way I wanted to be skiing by Braille on a day like this.  Our usual route to Challenger was a bit slow since it doesn't have much pitch.  While I was skiing down the normal "powder" section, a guy next to me on tele skis did a cartwheel due to the deep snow.  His buddy howled with laughter and I too had to chuckle to myself when I saw that he was okay and laughing also.

This photo of Colin was taken less than 1/3 of the way up the lift.  Check out the snow accumulating on his jacket!!  It was snowing hard and it didn't show any signs of letting up!

Our first run on Challenger was Moonlight.  I always have confidence that this run will be good. Here's Colin showing some good form on the skier's left side of the run:

I hugged the treeline to get the deepest snow (not that I needed to really).  Colin got a nice photo here.  I like the color and look of the trees next to me.

On our second run, we skied in the Zucchini Patch.  Colin had a big fall in the steepest section of the run.  Luckily he was able to find his ski but he had to climb uphill quite a ways to retrieve it.  Then putting the ski on was quite a challenge since it was so steep and deep.

Just before we got on the Challenger lift for the third time, there seemed to be a mechanical problem with the lift and it was running super slowly.  Despite this, they were still loading skiers so we hopped aboard.  They only loaded six more chairs before they closed the lift for mechanical work.  We had to ride the entire way up at less than 1/2 speed!!!  It was cool, snowing hard and a bit breezy.  By the time we reached the top, everyone was quite chilled.

That was the big bummer of the day.  Oh well.  We made the most of the empty slopes and headed toward the open bowl above Midnight.  I knew we could still get to the base of the resort easily after skiing Midnight/Moonlight and NO ONE was over there.

This was the run of the day so far.  Deep, untracked powder at the top yielded to soft, powder bumps on the lower section of the trail.  I took a few video clips with the video camera and Colin used the still cam to capture some short video and lots of still shots too.

Now, it was back to the lower mountain for lunch...or was it?