It's finally happening--the storms started last week and dumped 3' of snow in the last five days. Willy opened for full operations Friday. It snowed 13" Friday night but I couldn't go because we are experimenting with extended curriculum at the beginning of the term for Workshop this year. It was killing be to be in class right when I should have been jumping on the lift. I tried to convince myself it wasn't going to be that great since there's only a 40" base. People I rode up with didn't really support that hypothesis.
As always, I try to be out of the house by 7:15 on a powder day. I left a few minutes after 7 and got there about 8:35. I barely beat the rush at the ticket counter - it started backing up a little while after I got in the queue. Word was that it was 40 minutes long at one point. Sounds like a Willy move.
9:04am Waiting for rope drop. In typical Willy fashion, they were warming up the chair when we should have been loading. At one point someone said it was going to be an hour. I didn't believe that, but I figured it would be a while.
Then this happened.
I.
II.
Having two chairs stacked that close to each other is something new. Fifty-two years of skiing and I've never seen that one before. At that point I bailed the line with Nick and Rebecca and we went over and took a ride on Twilight. EPA was open by the time we got to the bottom.
Conditions were pretty darn good when I finally got to the top. I got a couple of rippers on High Lead and Timburr and then headed for the trees. I caught up with Nick and Rebecca in line after a while and Nick and hit Eagle's trees. They were pretty much untouched and really nice. Then the rope dropped on the backside and we headed over there. The Northern Exposure trees were the run of the day for me--knee deep floating through the trees on a 45 degree hill. Can't beat it. What I could beat was the line that had piled up at the Peak II lift. They were loading every second or third chair and had some story about weight. Willy's giving me lots of confidence about the safety of the lifts this year.
I underdressed and was pretty cold by the time we got back. Nick was supposed to meet Rebecca in the bar so I went to the car and revived my dead phone and got some new hand warmers.
The Willy slogan.
The afternoon was all trees. Great stuff.
The author.
An unspecified location in the woods. It's much steeper than it looks.
The snow be piling up.
It was a full on blizzard when I got back to the car. There was 3" of new snow that I had to clear off and lots of snow was getting in while I took my boots off and got ready to leave.
The forecast calls for more snow all week and a winter storm warning through Wednesday morning. Feet of snow are called for. I plan on playing hooky from work Wednesday. Looks like it might be amazing--and better than today.
Willy's back!
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