TR: Out West

[skiatlanta]

Boom. Time to take a road trip out west.



Things are lookin good to be on I-70:





The weather not so much...





Stop at Fazolis...**** yeah





so the bad weather was freezing rain once we got west of St. Louis. It was 27 degrees and raining (got down to 25 at one point too). It put about 3/8" of ice on the car, and a good bit on the skis too



(Yes, I know that is the most ghetto ski rack ever, but there was no space in the car and I dont have an actual ski rack, so zip ties were used) #gaperwatchnc



weather a little better...I-80...things are getting better





Boom, now we're in Ogden!





Except, that's not Ogden, UT, but Ogden, Iowa.



So yeah, after that crappy intro, here is the real trip report of my trip to Iowa (was for family stuff for Christmas, and I made sure I brought my skis to do some skiing on the side.



It snowed about 6" the night we got in. Unfortunately It's Iowa and its flat.





Fortunately, my family lives in one of the hillier areas in the state (besides the NW part of the state). They live in Madison County (southwest of Des Moines), famous for covered bridges:





The hills are not big though. Usually around 100-150 vertical feet. Im sure you could find some from 200-250 if you knew where to look.



So it's time to do some BC Iowa style. I walked to the Winterset City Park (designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead, who also designed Central Park along with Clarence Vaux) to try to find some hills to ski on.



I was lucky to link 2 turns together here





There's a road through the woods to some bigger hills, so I started walking. No one else was around, so it was cool to explore and search for anything steep enough and clear enough to ski





I came up to Clark Tower, a monument for the founder of the county(I think)









It was time to go up it to see if there was anything around to ski

Here you can get an idea of the hills around there.





I found a couple of semi-promising zones, so it was time to go down.



I really wanted to ski these stairs, but the snow was actually really dry, and I didn't want my skis to hate me even more.





The hills around this area were bigger than other places around, and I thought they would be all right.



They all looked like this





and this





It was insanely hard to even ski. There just wasn't enough snow, and there was too much stuff there to grab at your skis.



I made a turn or two and took this pic looking down the CLIFF ZONE. I failed to dig a pit and do the necessary precautions. Sorry





This might be the dumbest thing I've skied in my life. It was like a 2-3' drop, but impossible to turn afterward as you just end up turning on leaves and 6" of snow. Also, unsure of other stuff below the snow that would grab on to my skis and quickly end my season, I opted to just straightline it.





Here's the line highlighted:





I took it switch to the road





Here's another view





highlighted again





I thought this looked nice





I made two more turns. woohoo







I tried to ski down this. It didn't end up well. My skis hate me.





Good thing I brought my pow skis for the trip:





Looking back at my "skin" track







Part II of possibly the lamest (and flattest TR ever) next...

[pagamony]

Nice report. Looks like you need to spend some time there in the summer cleaning out those glades, you know, you gotta really earn those turns.



meanwhile, I can tell you from frequent personal experience that bungee cords work really well for ghetto ski racks, especially on rental cars.



stay safe.

[skiatlanta]

Day after Christmas it was time to go to the closest ski hill for a couple hours of night skiing.



Have you ever wondered if a ski area exists that has less vert than the Mont?



Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you....Sleepy Hollow Sports Park...





Cloudmont has 150 vertical feet





Sleepy Hollow has 120 vertical feet





They had one quad, a rope tow or too, and seemed to get most of their business from tubing and this:



Skibob sledding???

So the people using the skibob sleds used the quad lift along with the skiers and snowboarders...no joke. The quad was running slower than sugar's lifts, with these skibob sledders walking on and off the lift to go down the skibob course. It looks more fun, but more dangerous, especially since the sled has this thing that sticks between your legs, which I dont see how that didn't hurt a bunch of people. I also saw a huge pileup with a bunch of sledders hitting each other.



Taken just as I had gotten on the lift:





The park was not good. They had a super low/short flat rail, a super high corrugated and some other stuff I didn't care about. The did have a nice down rail at the top. They just seemed to put features over the mountain outside their terrain park.







from the top









found some good snow though...sort of





and this give you an idea of their steepest pitch







Things of note about skiing in Iowa



-The lift ticket window price does not include tax. I've never seen this before



-You have to sign a waiver to ski



-To use your season pass, you turn in your season pass ID, and they loan you a lift ticket.



-I never saw ski patrol. Once



-No one there had ever seen a skier hit a rail. Ever.







Part III next

[skiatlanta]

Next day (Friday). Time to ski the BIG vert. Seven Oaks Recreation near Aimes, IA (north of Des Moines).



During the middle of my hour long drive, the hills turned to pretty much complete flatland.





And then after going down the hill, I saw this monster:





It claims 275 vert. feet, but it's just like app claiming 365' when its more like 250' as Seven Oaks has only around 175' and that is still being generous.



It's got two triples (One is from the now closed Fun Valley east of Des Moines that is owned by the same family)

This one had access to the park (which was pretty decent)





Looking over to the other:





Here's their trail map. It gives the old Hawksnest MS Paint/Clip Art trail maps a run for the money





from the top





park





riding up the other triple





















the park from the top













ooooooh, its really steep here...





and after 5 hours and 8000 vertical feet later, it was time to say goodbye to Iowa Skiing





Another funny thing about the skiing here...The ski instructors wear those bright orange construction worker vests that say "Instructor" on them to show whos an instructor. One snowboard instructor didn't bother snowboarding cause the hill is so small. He would just walk and run along with his students.



-Camo isn't the only gaper clothing. Padded snowmobile racing gear was pretty prominent



-Their season passes were literally cut out of construction paper, with pictures pasted on top, names written with sharpie, and then laminated.



-People were jealous of the vertical of NC mountains when I would mention it. Be thankful for the mountains we have.





now, I hope/pray there is more cold and snow in NC coming.

[Ski Bunny]

Awesome TR! I had no idea there was skiing in Iowa. Makes you appreciate the NC mountains. I love the trail map pic. At least you made some turns.

[2slikstix]

Dang....two more places i have not been. I thought I was the only one with a zip tie rack

[WVULINK]

@skiatlanta 295146 wrote:



-People were jealous of the vertical of NC mountains when I would mention it. Be thankful for the mountains we have.





now, I hope/pray there is more cold and snow in NC coming.





I got the same reaction last month in Minnesota. I was in a ski shop in Bloomington, MN and blew an employee's mind when I told him that Sugar Mountain claims 1200 ft of vertical.



Not sure he was too bright as it also appeared to really shock him that most NC ski resorts were open in the summer for mountain biking.

[ROYMERCER]

I Really enjoyed that !

[OldSchool]

That's a fine old school style TR ... Nice job

[swamphox]

Thats a great TR. Seriously. It gave a lot of cool insight into skiing in another part of the country. Would they trade vert for our conditions? We we trade vert for theirs? Life handed us different lemons but we can still make lemonade with the best of them right?





That being said, if a hill like this existed in Winder I would be there religiously and try to be seasonally employed by them in some regard....



God bless us all for trying. We may not be Colorado but a bad day skiing is better than a great day working.