1st day @ Squaw + 1st day on Spatulas = Honc is forever changed for the better
Powered by a foot of fresh, I skied Squaw for the first time on Sunday which coincided with my first day on the Spats that I bought in July. I've been working my tail off and have missed every big storm that has come through Tahoe this winter. Saturday night's storm was certainly no epic dump but was enough to provide my best day all season on Sunday.
Skiing with 3 friends, 1 of whom spent a season at Squaw a few years back, we started the day with 2 quick laps on Red Dog. Every Squaw local reading this thread will probably cringe in horror as I don't know the name of anything I skied, but I'll do my best to do it justice.
My first turns in the trees were life-changing. I skied as fast as I've ever been able to go in the pow, transitioning nearly every turn in mid-air. I've skied plenty of powder in my life but skiing the Spatchy's is a different sport. The trees opened up to a huge gully and I nuked huge GS turns all the way to the bottom. The only trouble was on the short cat track back to the chair when I tried to lay an edge down on the groomer and (because of the reverse shape...good thinking bonehead) my downhill ski took off in the other direction leaving me with a partially-torn gooch.
After 2 laps there we hopped over to the KT-22. The first trip down brought us right through the fingers. Skied the second spine from the left, stomped the landing and blasted to the bottom. The thing about these skis that I underestimated was their ability to stomp everything. Firstly, they're fuggin enormous and super-stable on landings. Secondly, I'm pretty sure that the reverse camber pitches you back to the middle of the ski whether you land in the front or back. And they're noodles.
After that we traversed out under the Olympic Lady chair and lapped the bowl 3 times. All 3 runs were amazing. Soft bumps and massive piles provided endless entertainment.
After a quick stop for gatorade and the free clif bars that were handed out in the parking lot we decided to go further up the mountain since we hadn't heard much blasting in the last 20 minutes. After 1 lap on the Shirley (I think that's the name) chair we arrived at the bottom right as they dropped the rope on Granite Chief. This is where we played for most of the afternoon. Came straight down the gut right under the chair on the first run, blowing huge turns and whooping like a madman. Mine were probably the 30th set of tracks down. Amazing. Took a few laps to skier's right, there are some gnarly lines in there and plenty of fun stuff to throw yourself off of. I think the best lines of the day were to skier's left though. Traverse too far and you lose too much vert, but there's defintiely a happy medium in there. Nicely-spaced trees that open up in parts. Tons of little natural terrain features and even some small chutes and cliffs.
The line was long for the first lap or two but then evened out and we lapped 7 times (I think). Huge smiles all around, tons of knucks and "holy sh*t, that was awesome!"s. We made it back for a few more runs on KT before they shut the lifts down on us.
I am a changed man. Squaw is the happiest place on earth and I'm not sure that I want to ski anywhere else ever again. That said, I heard that Kirkwood got a foot on Sunday night and was retarded on Monday. Crap.
Thanks are due to Squaw Valley for being there, Shane McConkey for designing my skis and Volant for going out of business producing them. Sorry for the verbal diharrea (does anyone know how to spell that?).
:)
