January 8 marked the first day this season with an above median snowpack water equivalent at the Snowbird SNOTEL. Hooray. LCC is back, at least temporarily. The recovery from the storms over the past week in upper Little Cottonwood Canyon has been remarkable. The skiing yesterday for a non-powder day was really great, with great groomers you could carve the hell out of and an open and well covered (or as covered as it ever gets) High-T providing access once again to "real skiing."
Although deep powder is the pinnacle of skiing, I always pinch myself on sunny groomer days like yesterday because I didn't know weather and snow like that were even possible when I was a kid in upstate New York.
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| Looking down Mambo and remember my roots |
Sadly the forecasts are dismal. I don't know if I've ever seen the Utah Snow Ensemble completely flatlined for a 10-day period, but it is.
Actually there may be a couple of members in there that produce a skiff of snow here or there as I see a couple of whiskers poking up just a bit in the middle panels, but for all intents and purposes it's over for at least the next week. The good news is that it's January and between the low sun angle and cool forecast wet-bulb temperatures, Mother Nature won't be spoiling the snow on upper-elevation aspects on the north half of the compass. The skiing should hold up about as well as it can without a refresh.
And, given the conditions this year and my plans to be in Austria in a few weeks, I'm looking for a front-side all-mountain ski for groomers and off-piste skiing when it isn't deep. Although I'm a reasonably proficient technical skier, given my advancing age, I appreciate a ski that doesn't require huge energy input. If you have suggestions, add to the comments.
I have a K2 mindbender 89Ti as my frontside ski and it's wonderful- skis groomers almost as well as a dedicated carver but is much less demanding and can still be taken off-piste. They also make a 99Ti if you want more off-piste performance. If you don't already definitely check out Blister review, they're the best ski reviewers in the business and their full reviews are free to read.
ReplyDeleteElan Ripstick 96 black edition is exactly what you are looking for. Carves like a dream, handles off piste competently, and is the most intuitive and fun do it all ski I have ever had (20+ pairs of skis owned)
ReplyDelete60+ YO commenter…. 90 underfoot (+/-) with 16m radius. Trying the Dynastar MCross 88 186cm in the next few days so cannot report on that ski specifically- yet. But should be close.
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