With trepidation, I headed down through the moguls. After suffering through a bullet-proof run, where my edges had no bite, I wasn’t eager to repeat the experience. To my delight, I found them to be soft and forgiving. Nirvana! I’d found the sweet spot. But only suffering through some scary skiing for two hours.
Such are the highs and lows of spring skiing. Skiing in March and April brings all kinds of weather. One day it can be dumping snow with powder under your skis. Swoosh!
Two days later, you’ll find firm, fast and death-defying conditions. All that glorious powder thawed under the strong rays of a March sun, then re-froze overnight. The groomed runs are fast, but can be navigated. But the moguls, once they’ve thawed and refrozen are truly frightening.
Riding the chair one March, a fellow skier described it perfectly. “They are like frozen chicken heads.”
The mushy snow from previous afternoon gets whipped up into peaks like mountains of mashed potatoes. Then they freeze overnight, with their little peaks of of snow frozen into place, just like the heads of chickens.
Let me tell you, there is no joy in Snowville, when you are trying to ski bumps like that. It’s a true test of skier survival, filled with cuss words.
You might be thinking right now ”why would I want to go skiing at all? What’s the fun in that?”
But then you find the perfect run of corn snow. It’s thawed enough to form a surface of “corn” kernels — snow that is forgiving, but not slush. It feels like silk beneath your ski, and turns come effortlessly. There’s nothing like skiing under a brilliant blue sky down that type of surface.
So how to you find this? You have to work your way up the hill during the day.
Tip number one — sleep in. No need to hit the slopes right at 9 a.m. You’ll just find those frozen bumps mentioned earlier.
No, you can wait until at least 10 a.m. Start low on the slopes in the morning, the lower altitudes will soften up first. Start on south-facing slopes and work your way over to north-facing slopes.
While everyone else takes a lunch break, work your way up to summit. At 11 or 12,000 feet, things will be perfect from 12-2 p.m. Take a late lunch at 2 p.m., and head home.
But wait! Because it’s light until 7:30 p.m., you have time to go for a bike ride, play a game of tennis, or just do some gardening. The other bonus of spring skiing is that you have time to combine it with your other favorite pursuits.
This year is going to be a banner year for schussing down the slopes. With 156% of normal snowpack, there will be lots of corn snow to enjoy for another two months or more.
