TR: Goldmine Canyon

[AntiSoCalSkier]

Sometimes fun and adventure are a given (like driving up LCC on a bluebird day when a storm just dropped 30" the day before). Other times they sneak up on you (like discovering the resort you were planning to ski is closed, and finding out that the little place down the road is actually a "little area that rocks") This is a story about the second type of fun and adventure.

It was another hot and sunny weekend at Bear Mountain. The snow was melting quickly, and there wasn't a run on the mountain that wasn't covered in six inches of cut-up slush. I had just reported to the 1:00 ski school line-up to find a bunch of fellow instructors standing around with no students in sight (this wasn't surprising since most of our customers were taking advantage of the nice weather at the beach or on the golf course). We were let go and told to report back for the 2:00 line-up. Most of the instructors headed for the deck to relax, but B and I decided to see if we could find any good snow on the hill, and maybe hit a few jumps in the park (slush bumps would have been on the menu too if management hadn't groomed out all the bumps so they could build yet another giant kicker for the 10 pros that occasionally visit our mountain).

Heading up Big Bear Express, we were discussing the unseasonably warm weather when we caught site of a favorite face in Goldmine Canyon. This particular face has a nice pitch, and despite being visible from the chair, is rarely skied due to the 100 yard hike required. Earlier in the season, there had been enough snow to open the canyons for the first time in three seasons, so there was still plenty of snow on the face, but there were also plenty of bare patches. We started talking about heading to the face, and speculating on what the conditions might be like, since it didn't look like anyone had skied that area in a few weeks.

We agreed that if there wasn't a closed sign, we would head up to this face to see if we could find some good turns. Fortunately patrol had taken down all of the signage (assuming that no one would be dumb enough to try to ski the dirt road leading to the face), so we were in the clear. A quick walk along the road, followed by a somewhat sketchy walk across the face (rock covered by 6 inches of slush is REALLY slippery), and we were right where we wanted to be. We had at least ten turns of skiing below us, an audience on the chair, and we were ready to have some fun.

Midway through the first turn, we realized that we had stumbled on the last patch of good snow on the hill. There was a thin layer of slush on top of a firm laywer of snow. As everyone else on the hill was dealing with a difficult slushy mixture, we had found some perfect corn just waiting to be harvested. The turns came easily as we left our marks on the hill. We were the only people who had skied the area in at least a week, so there was plenty of fresh corn for the two of us. Far too soon we were at the bottom of the face, looking back up at our turns. We then turned to look down the gully that would normally be used to ski out of this area.

A quick aside on "the canyons" at Bear. The canyons, as the natural areas are called, consist of very nicely spaced trees, with decent pitch, but each canyon has a deep gully that will invariably suck you in. The gully has a special affinity for snowboarders, and sucks them in early, for runs that are "the shiznit, yo!". This leaves the gullies tracked out and icy, while you can still find untracked runs deep in the trees even a week after a storm. No matter how high you stay, every run eventually ends in a gully, which is usually scraped clean by the aforementioned boarders. When there's plenty of snow, this isn't a big issue, since you can dodge the occasional, rock, stump, or boarder, but by this time of year, there just wans't much snow left in there.

After the sublime turns above, we had reached one of the gullies. At first, there was enough snow to sideslip, but even that little strip soon ran out, and we began what was to become a fmailiar ritual: pop the skis off, throw them over the shoulder, hike 50 yards to the next snow, pop the skis back on, ski 50 yards, pop the skis off, etc. After repeating this a few times, we decided it was easier just to leave the skis off and walk. Walking through the warm, quiet forest, I contemplated our run. My initial assesment was that the turns were probably worth the hike out. After thinking some more though, I realized that hiking in the woods is at least as much fun as skiing slush, and that in this case getting there is half the adventure. In other words, not only were the turns worth the hike out, but the hike out was worth the turns.

So, what was "just another run" at my local mountain turned into a surprisingly fun adventure. The next time you're out skiing your local hill and things are getting stale, remember that there is always fun and adventure waiting to be found, it's just that some times you have to look a little bit harder.

[Flash]

Sweet.

Nice writeup - good stuff.

[FreakofSnow]

God, I miss soCal

[AntiSoCalSkier]

Originally posted by FreakofSnow
God, I miss soCal

Two words: bikini tops.

[Ubersheist]

Very cool little TR, Anti! It definately reminds me of skiing little patches of corn here and there during late season at Baldy.

[skier0178]

nice TR. You coming to Mammy this weekend?

[AntiSoCalSkier]

No mammy for me until I buy a pass. I screwed up and didn't buy one last season. I then skied enough to hit the break-even point by the second weekend in Dec, so I pretty much stopped skiing there. I'll be up a bunch in May and June though.

Are you the skierXXXX that's married(?) to asandygal, or is that someone else?

[grrrr]

Take it where you can get it.

[powstash]

Had a similar (not quite as asthetic) experience today at The Canyons when I slipped into a nice N. facing run that hadn't seen a track in days with perfect corn on top of a solid base while the adjacent run was a slush fest.

Nice write up.

[skier0178]

Originally posted by AntiSoCalSkier
No mammy for me until I buy a pass. I screwed up and didn't buy one last season. I then skied enough to hit the break-even point by the second weekend in Dec, so I pretty much stopped skiing there. I'll be up a bunch in May and June though.

Are you the skierXXXX that's married(?) to asandygal, or is that someone else?

different, we met when we skied with Bullet in Feb., day he did Balls.