I made it to Bald Mountain, Idaho, back in January, only to find the area had lost power. The road there was much of the adventure. The club-run hill is only open weekends -- and the road is only plowed occasionally. A guy a the bottom of the road motioned me over. 'Might as well put her in four wheel drive," he said.
The ski area is one t-bar and 800 vertical and 14 trails; enough for a full day. I skinned it.
In the afternoon I called Snowhaven; they were open at night.
Snowhaven is one t-bar, two rope tows and 350 vertical. It's small but high and has nice, dry snow. It's run by the city of Grangeville Parks and Recreation Department.
The next day I was over to Cottonwood Butte, a volunteer-run area.
It had one t-bar, one rope tow, 700 vertical, and a very cute girl loading the T.
The mountain was low on snow, though, and anything not groomed was impossible to ski.
A few weeks later we were on the other side of the Divide, at Snowdown. Showdown actually has four chairs and a moving carpet, but almost the entire mountain can be skied from one lift.
We camped at Freezeout Lake that night and woke to a blizzard.
We made the very long drive to Teton Pass, a recently reopened area with a chair, a new poma, and a magic carpet. There's about 1100 vertical and plenty of steep skiing. It's really a first class mountain, with a lot of potential.
We were lucky enough to ski it in a foot of new snow.
Last week I was on my own up to Canada.
First up was Pass Powderkeg, on the Alberta-BC border. Two t-bars, a rope, 1000 vertical, and a terrain park with amazing freestylers.
The area has a phenomenal amount of snow, and two feet new when I was there. Unfortunately, the mountain also has a lot of flat spots. It's run by the town.
Last up was lovely Wapiti, a town run mountain in Elkford, BC. Wapiti has one T, 1,000 vertical, and a lot of run, wide open cruisers. What a great mountain!
The End of an Era...We are Shutting Down the Messageboard
The messageboard is now in read-only mode and no new posts or topics can be created. We will leave the messageboard up for historical purposes, but you will not be able to make new posts or comment on existing ones.
We have started a Discord server and hope that you all will join us on there. Technology has changed over the years and maintaining the messageboard has become somewhat of a pain in the butt and Discord offers many features for users, the main one being a very polished mobile app.
We really hope you all will join us on Discord and think you will like the platform. Use the invite link below to join.
https://discord.gg/skisoutheast
The messageboard is now in read-only mode and no new posts or topics can be created. We will leave the messageboard up for historical purposes, but you will not be able to make new posts or comment on existing ones.
We have started a Discord server and hope that you all will join us on there. Technology has changed over the years and maintaining the messageboard has become somewhat of a pain in the butt and Discord offers many features for users, the main one being a very polished mobile app.
We really hope you all will join us on Discord and think you will like the platform. Use the invite link below to join.
https://discord.gg/skisoutheast
TR: One(and two) lift wonders
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dreamnofpow
- Expert
- Posts: 3447
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 4:35 pm
- Has thanked: 1 time
Long live the T-bar! I rode the T-bar at Breck in your honor. Great stuff Porter.
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NCSkiFanatic15
- Advanced
- Posts: 1436
- Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:48 pm
- Contact:
Bumping it up...
