Happy New Year!

2008 ended and 2009 started as any skier would dream. Several feet of snow accumulated by January 7th. I skied Lost Trail on New Year's day and the 2nd joining up with Matt Dillon. We scoured out tree runs in the Moose Creek area on both days. New Year's day was very stormy with the area picking up 5 inches of snow over the course of the day with the intensity picking up in the afternoon especially. The snow-line rose to ~5600 feet overnight as the moisture laidened southwestern flow dominated.

The next day another 11 inches had fallen. While it started out a little warm at first a cold front came through mid-morning lowering temps and bringing some pretty long lived snow squals. In a span of about 15 minutes around noon the area experienced a series of crises which led to closing most of the area and all of the chairs except Chair 1. Around that time the area was blasted by a round of wind and snow which may have contributed to a Chair 4 problem involving a wheel on one of the towers locking up and a tree falling on a tower along Chair 3. In addition some skiers reported a loud crack somewhere in the North Face area above femur ridge as if the snow had settled and a kid was hanging for dear life from Chair 1. After sorting it all out (one employee noted that ski patrol was short-staffed and one patroller's voice sounded as if he was beginning to panic) Chair 2 was opened again. Like the day before Chair 4 remained closed all day. Both days were really great soft snow powder ski days with a few face shots obtained along the way.

New Years day skied best because it was classic storm skiing where you could ski the same line in Moose Creek on consecutivce runs and have a hard time noticing your tracks from the previous run. On the 2nd the snow was deeper but it was a little denser and not quite that sort of alive and breathing storm snow. On the way own the pass on the 2nd the clouds had lifted enough to see a couple of huge crowns to the skier's right of Hollywood Bowl not to mention the dudes trying to bring Chair 4 back to life.