The Final Weekend at Sapphire - Mar 9
Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 8:52 pm
So we packed up the van and took a three hour trip to my wife's parents home in North Carolina to see the family. Usually when we are up that way I take my hiking sticks and go for full day hikes with my father in law along the many trails of the area. Unfortunately, the rain made the ground so soggy it would not be smart to hit the trails. So with an open Saturday, we decided to hit Sapphire Valley. Why not, it is only a ten minute drive from the house? I was bummed that my 4 year old girl wasn't interested in going skiing. She wanted to stay with her Nana, who she hadn't seen in many months. I decided to not push the issue, she enjoyed Cataloochee a few week earlier. I'll just try again next season.
All in all it was a fun four hours. I would have like to ski later in the day but between my niece tiring out and the snow turning to slow slush, we were done right at two. I did meet a bunch of nice people on the quad, many were first timers on any slope. Many people I talked to were from metro Atlanta and it gave us a topic to talk about on the quad because we had plenty of time on our hands to chat. More on that later.
So with my niece and brother-in-law we made it to Sapphire as they were opening. Here are the outhouses from the outhouse race earlier in the year.
There was virtually no line. My BIL and niece hit the bunny slope so she could get her ski legs and I just hopped on the main lift. They were running that lift slooooooooooooooooow. Painfully slow. At one point, an employee hopped on the lift from the top to head down while I was going up, I skied to the bottom and got back on the quad and passed the same person still on the way down! Here is the view of the ride up, not the prettiest scenery.
Looking back down. I snapped this pic because the quad stopped after someone at the bottom yelled, "STOP!" in a panic. I found out later some kid got pushed over trying to get on. The father then picked up the kid and stepped back in front of the chairs and the kid got hit again
A view from the top. The snow started out great, my Ski Tracks app said my max speed was 30.4 MPH in the first hour. By 1:30 I could get above 18 MPH even trying to straight bomb the hill, it was just too warm. I think it was in the low 50s by noon.
By 11:00 it was so warm I shed my hat, fleece, and gloves. I was just down to my base layer.
By far this was the most impressive part of the day. They sat up a terrain park at Sapphire; check out the XTREME jump! I got a pretty good chuckle out of it because by noon the snow was so soft no one could hit the thing with any speed.
Lastly, a couple of souvenir stickers for the beer fridge at home.
All in all it was a fun four hours. I would have like to ski later in the day but between my niece tiring out and the snow turning to slow slush, we were done right at two. I did meet a bunch of nice people on the quad, many were first timers on any slope. Many people I talked to were from metro Atlanta and it gave us a topic to talk about on the quad because we had plenty of time on our hands to chat. More on that later.
So with my niece and brother-in-law we made it to Sapphire as they were opening. Here are the outhouses from the outhouse race earlier in the year.
There was virtually no line. My BIL and niece hit the bunny slope so she could get her ski legs and I just hopped on the main lift. They were running that lift slooooooooooooooooow. Painfully slow. At one point, an employee hopped on the lift from the top to head down while I was going up, I skied to the bottom and got back on the quad and passed the same person still on the way down! Here is the view of the ride up, not the prettiest scenery.
Looking back down. I snapped this pic because the quad stopped after someone at the bottom yelled, "STOP!" in a panic. I found out later some kid got pushed over trying to get on. The father then picked up the kid and stepped back in front of the chairs and the kid got hit again
A view from the top. The snow started out great, my Ski Tracks app said my max speed was 30.4 MPH in the first hour. By 1:30 I could get above 18 MPH even trying to straight bomb the hill, it was just too warm. I think it was in the low 50s by noon.
By 11:00 it was so warm I shed my hat, fleece, and gloves. I was just down to my base layer.
By far this was the most impressive part of the day. They sat up a terrain park at Sapphire; check out the XTREME jump! I got a pretty good chuckle out of it because by noon the snow was so soft no one could hit the thing with any speed.
Lastly, a couple of souvenir stickers for the beer fridge at home.
