Everything dmkahlan said was spot on.Well it was a great day @ Cat. Started out with bluebird skies and fresh courdoroy. Was having an even more awesome time until.......my goggles popped off of my helmet and fell at about the halfway point between the loading of the Double and Mid-unload(First time I have dropped something in the 25+ years I've been skiing/boarding). Was fine getting down to them, but was a little more difficult getting back up than I had anticipated. Left my board up top on the side of Lower OMI, which would have come in handy, but had to pound my boots into the snow to create steps to prohibit me from sliding down to the bottom. As dmkahlan had alluded to, my fat arse is really out of shape and this hike back up just reminded me of the fact. dmkahlan didn't stay unscathed either, as he fell through the crust on skiers far left on the merge of Short N' Sweet/Turkey Trot. He spoted some untouched and thought it looked like $$, but as soon as he went to make his cut he pushed through the crust and landed on his butt in a nice hole. I could NOT stop laughing for about five minutes, and kept reminding him of what happened just as he was of what happened to me. When that was done, it was back to having some fun riding. Upper OMI was a bit chunked up and the newbs were creating some ice patches, but we stayed skiers right until about 2 and found a line we stayed in. There were a few areas where you could get into the trees, between Rock Island/Alley Cat and the entrance to Short N' Sweet, you just had to be really aware of rocks and roots. There were quite a few rollers and a couple little bumps that you could air it out, which were really fun. Once again AlleyCat was $$ on skiers far left with a couple inches of wind loaded. The only issue was that it took them half the day to open the quad(2pm) and they kept putting up the fence at the merge of Upper OMI/Quad-unload. This was an issue because it wouldn't allow you to get to Lower Snowbird or to hit AlleyCat from the top of the run, but it was kind of nice when you could get to them as the runs were pretty much untouched especially on the sides. Cat once again delivered the goods for the folks that were there. Thank you Cataloochee, you guys rock!:>)
Onto the pics.
A few of where my goggles fell and the hike back up. Sorry they aren't very good as I kept trying to get the pics from the lift.
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This was from about the halfway point up the side of the hill.
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Sweet courdoroy for the Captain
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Looking up Rabbit Hill/EasyWay. Just waiting for the fun to begin.
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Snowcat doing its thing in the park. Notice the fence line they put up for seperation from those on Rabbit Hill/ EasyWay as it was all the way up the slope.
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Lift shot on the first ride up.
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Merge of Rock Island/AlleyCat
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The trees inbetween Rock Island/AlleyCat
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A couple pics of AlleyCat looking $$ and waiting to be slayed.
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The entrance to Short N' Sweet and the small glade area. I love lapping the trees for some reason.
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Was trying to get a picture of everything dropped from the lift, little did I know that I would fall victim to the same idiot move in about an hour.
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Rock Island mid-day
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Glade area between AlleyCat/Short N' Sweet. Notice all of the branches sticking out. You could really only enter at the entrance to Short N' Sweet or risk your sticks or board.
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dmkahlan
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To end it off, Have a Very Merry Christmas from me and the Cat.:>):>)
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The End.
:>)
I made 2 passes before he finally made it back up. I even think I heard him praying to God just to get back up to the trail. 
Needless to say he was complaining about how tired he was the rest of the day. 
That was not fun, but can only laugh about it now.
