Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2009 4:57 pm
The day kind of started cursed. Got up at 4am and couldn't find my memory card. Left around 5. It was uneventful on the way up til I got a friendly greeting from the NC State Patrol, lots of them out that morning. What on earth could have them so enthused at 7am? They must've known it was a big skiing weekend. I saw 4 between Franklin and Dillsboro (counting the fellow who got me) and 2 more between Dillsboro and Cat. All save one, were NC State Patrol.
Got there at around 0815 and met Mikebopp in the parking lot on my way down the hill. Handed over my 10 cans of pork and beans from ALDI and got my ticket. The guns were going full force. This was a problem as it pretty much blinded you without goggles, and would simply cover you goggles in water (rather than snow or ice) when you wore them. Trying to wipe them off further obscured vision and eventually I just decided to take them off, man-up, and heavily blink my way through tough spots. Mike and I had the pleasure of experiencing their snowguns from a very close standpoint as the quad stopped while we were being blasted at near point blank range. Later, a ski patroller mused that someone really needed to move that gun.
I also got introduced to dreamnofpow and his awesome custom graphics.
Snow conditions were fine, Alley cat had some rough patches and lower snowbird wasn't opened as promised, all things considered it wasnt bad at all. It doesn't look like Upper Omigosh is going to be open for a while as they havent bothered to mow it yet. Maybe they leave the grass unmowed so they have good depth indicators:).
Crowds were rediculous. You'd stand in line for 20 minutes. Ride the quad up, and get in line becasue snow boarders were clogging up the route to rock island run, but what'd I expect for nearly free (minus cans and speeding ticket) skiing. Thank God for Alley Cat. I spent a good bit of the day on Alley Cat. Snowboarders outnumbered skiers again but only by about 2:1 which is better than recent weeks.
I do have a couple of gripes about the day.
1. Why say Lower Snowbird is open on the website only to come up and find out it's closed? That bottle neck at rock island could've been prevented. Just bulldoze some snow to the sketchy patch at the end of lower snowbird and problem solved. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying.
2. Why was the double lift not running? I got three different answers. The sign said maintenence, a liftie said it was an executive decision, and the ski patrollers (I asked about 3) said it was because the top of the mtn wasnt open. If the final answer is correct I'd love to know the logic behind it. The top wasn't open on saturday, yet they ran the double. It's have helped with added lift capacity and wouldve helped the bottle neck where the quad unloads. Cat had to have known how insanely busy it was going to be (the NC state patrol certainly did).
I think they should've opened the lift if for no other reason than this: I left at about noon and didn't grab any lunch or snacks, nor did I grab a beer and catch some football at the bar. I probably would have had lift line conditions been more encouraging. So, one burger and a couple beers later, and Cat could've had 15 bucks that I'd have been glad to give them. Ski patrol told me they estimated around 3k people to show up. If one out of every 100 people left a little early for the same reason I did then thats almost 500 bucks of revenue they lost out on, would that 500 bucks been enough to power and staff the lift for the day?
Don't take that last section the wrong way. I still had a great time and really enjoyed myself. The staff was also very courteous (as always), and readily answered any questions asked of them. They also put forth a herculean effort to control the leviathan that was the lift line. I'll be at can-u-ski again next year all things permitting.
Now for the pics
The view this morning.
On the lift this morning
Looking up at lower omigosh this morning
The double lift looked so lonely
It was that crowded at about 930, backing up into Wolf Creek Hollow
The top of the quad. Everyone headed left except me most of the day. This meant I pretty much had alley cat to myself.
Looking down Alley Cat. I shoulda brought my sling blade mmm hmmm
Thank God for Alley Cat
Looking up at Alley Cat
The lift line started taking up about a third of wolf creek hollow
Got there at around 0815 and met Mikebopp in the parking lot on my way down the hill. Handed over my 10 cans of pork and beans from ALDI and got my ticket. The guns were going full force. This was a problem as it pretty much blinded you without goggles, and would simply cover you goggles in water (rather than snow or ice) when you wore them. Trying to wipe them off further obscured vision and eventually I just decided to take them off, man-up, and heavily blink my way through tough spots. Mike and I had the pleasure of experiencing their snowguns from a very close standpoint as the quad stopped while we were being blasted at near point blank range. Later, a ski patroller mused that someone really needed to move that gun.
I also got introduced to dreamnofpow and his awesome custom graphics.
Snow conditions were fine, Alley cat had some rough patches and lower snowbird wasn't opened as promised, all things considered it wasnt bad at all. It doesn't look like Upper Omigosh is going to be open for a while as they havent bothered to mow it yet. Maybe they leave the grass unmowed so they have good depth indicators:).
Crowds were rediculous. You'd stand in line for 20 minutes. Ride the quad up, and get in line becasue snow boarders were clogging up the route to rock island run, but what'd I expect for nearly free (minus cans and speeding ticket) skiing. Thank God for Alley Cat. I spent a good bit of the day on Alley Cat. Snowboarders outnumbered skiers again but only by about 2:1 which is better than recent weeks.
I do have a couple of gripes about the day.
1. Why say Lower Snowbird is open on the website only to come up and find out it's closed? That bottle neck at rock island could've been prevented. Just bulldoze some snow to the sketchy patch at the end of lower snowbird and problem solved. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying.
2. Why was the double lift not running? I got three different answers. The sign said maintenence, a liftie said it was an executive decision, and the ski patrollers (I asked about 3) said it was because the top of the mtn wasnt open. If the final answer is correct I'd love to know the logic behind it. The top wasn't open on saturday, yet they ran the double. It's have helped with added lift capacity and wouldve helped the bottle neck where the quad unloads. Cat had to have known how insanely busy it was going to be (the NC state patrol certainly did).
I think they should've opened the lift if for no other reason than this: I left at about noon and didn't grab any lunch or snacks, nor did I grab a beer and catch some football at the bar. I probably would have had lift line conditions been more encouraging. So, one burger and a couple beers later, and Cat could've had 15 bucks that I'd have been glad to give them. Ski patrol told me they estimated around 3k people to show up. If one out of every 100 people left a little early for the same reason I did then thats almost 500 bucks of revenue they lost out on, would that 500 bucks been enough to power and staff the lift for the day?
Don't take that last section the wrong way. I still had a great time and really enjoyed myself. The staff was also very courteous (as always), and readily answered any questions asked of them. They also put forth a herculean effort to control the leviathan that was the lift line. I'll be at can-u-ski again next year all things permitting.
Now for the pics
The view this morning.
On the lift this morning
Looking up at lower omigosh this morning
The double lift looked so lonely
It was that crowded at about 930, backing up into Wolf Creek Hollow
The top of the quad. Everyone headed left except me most of the day. This meant I pretty much had alley cat to myself.
Looking down Alley Cat. I shoulda brought my sling blade mmm hmmm
Thank God for Alley Cat
Looking up at Alley Cat
The lift line started taking up about a third of wolf creek hollow
He did enjoy hanging with the guys, but only for about five minutes because he just wanted to ride. I was finally able to get him off the hill after asking him for 30 minutes, he didn't want to leave. He was able to ride down his last five runs without falling. Here's a little video I took of him with my phone around 12. Sorry for the shaking, as this is only the second time I have shot video while riding behind someone. It's also just raw video, no edit.