White Out!

Technically the title could be considered hyperbole, but there were a few moments on the drive up where visibility neared zero. A rather unnerving experience that generated a lot of excitement on my part. Not because of the driving, but because of what was ahead at the mountain.

Conditions did not disappoint. The ski report said 8"; it was more like 14"-24" depending on where you found yourself at any given moment.

Baby it's cold outside!

We start on the easy stuff on the frontside.

Woah, what's this? Park features!

Frequent visitors may recall published rants about the, uh, management, and their seeming ignorance of the whole concept of customer service. According to Jamier L. Scott. (2002)

“Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation."

Ok, that seems straightforward enough. I'm still pondering why such a simple concept in theory is apparently so difficult to put into practice.

The presence of park features at the beginning of the holiday break is a welcome addition. Could it be a new approach?

Nah.

Dylan and I rode up with the park maintenance dude (who shall remain unnamed, but has been around long enough to know Kayla). He was giving us some line about only 15" of base and not enough snow to put features in, blah, blah, diddy, blah, blah. We weren't buying any of it. Even if the 80" of snow this season had consolidated down to 15" of base, there was still two feet of fresh on top of that. Plenty of snow to build features or to stick in the four rails that are leaning on a tree down at Sleepy Hollow. If you can even call a 10' rail a rail.

Word is there will be no straight box this year; the cat operator drove over it. Mad skills I tell ya.

In the absence of manmade park features, Dylan seeks out natural features. Do the stump launch!

You can't tell it from some of the previous shots, but it snowed...hard...all...day.

Nice tips.

Snowplosion!

The trees are finally getting to a point where it is less scary. There's still gators and snow snakes and various critters lurking in there, but the snow is starting to get the best of them.

Indy grab.

SDN lived up to both its name and reputation today. Dylan catches a fresh line through the woods.

The above picture validates my choice of fatty skis. They are a real kick on stuff like that. They turn like butter, float, and are generally a joy to ride. I never knew riding 2' of fresh could be so easy.

Dylan shows off the spoils of victory.

What a great day--especially considering it is December 18th. It is really shaping up to be a good season.