Snoe Shoe Day Four

Thursday was even more beautiful than Wednesday. We had bright sunshine and packed powder.
In order to save our energy for the long day ahead, we waited until after 11:00 before heading over to Silver Creek. We really grew to prefer Silver Creek to the main basin, since it was less crowded and the easier slopes were good for beginners and warms ups. We decided that next time we might just stay over there.

As had become our routine, we got the feel of our skis by working down Cubb Run a few times. Here is Susie gliding gently to a stop at the bottom of the trail.

After hitting Cubb run a few times we moved on to a trail we had missed earlier. Robertson's Run (Trail Map) is described as having a "consistent grade with nice wide turns," which is true, but that consistent grade is a steeper one, and due to the snow making the day before, it was filled with some pretty big hills. Once we got a feel for it we were able to pick up some speed and even get a little air off the last bump. Here is a view of some snow boarders starting to head down Robertson's Run.

We had a blast shredding Robertson's Run for a good hour or so. The Cascade lift at the bottom of the run also took us a lot further up on the mountain than Cubb Lift did. We got to ski all of Knife Blade and Cant Hook before dropping in to Robertson's. Here is a picture of Rachel at the top of Knife Blade. We really could have stayed there all day, but we knew we were running out of time and decided to hit the main basin once more on our way back to our condo.

After catching the shuttle back to the main basin of Snowshoe Mountain, we hopped on Heisler's way. (This is going to be a long trip that you can follow on the Snowshoe section of the Trail Map if you want a visual). Here is a nice shot of the top of Heisler's Way.

From there we headed down Log Slide all the way to the bottom of the basin. Long Slide was much more pleasant than it had been earlier in the week, and Rachel got a little full of herself. At one point she told Will and Susie that she was the Sensei and this mountain was her Dojo. Well the Sensei tried to take one of the snow piles at full speed and while she did get the big air she had been hoping for, she didn't get the landing she had intended, and busted her butt pretty solidly, losing one of her skis and both of her poles in the process. Luckily nothing was injured, except maybe her ego. Here is a picture of the Sensei showing her good form. While she is not actually skiing in this picture, that is the position she was in when she hit the jump.

From the bottom of Log Slide we rode the Powder Ridge lift back up. We were getting tired so we decided to start skiing our way back towards our condo, which was a long journey. We took Powder Ridge into Powdermonkey, both of which were green trails that led us toward the middle of the basin. Here is a shot of the bottom half of Powdermonkey. It was really a stunning view on such a beautiful day. You can even see the lake glistening at the bottom of the mountain.

From Powdermonkey we cut over onto Wiffletree, which wanders the rest of the way down through some increasingly dense forest to the base of the Ballhooter Lift, which is a high speed quad lift. It was a nice change from the slower lifts we'd been riding most of the time. It felt like we were flying up the mountain. Here are a few lift pictures. I'm not sure all of them are from the quad, some of them are probably from the slower Powder Ridge lift.

At the top of the mountain Rach decided to run to the village to pick up her tickets for a snow cat tour later that evening, and Susie and Will took a few minutes to catch their breath and snap a few pictures from the top looking down over the main basin.

Above is a picture of the high speed Ballhooter lift and below are some views from the top.

From the top of the mountain we rode the Hootenanny trail all the way down to the bottom of the Soaring Eagle Express Lift, which had just opened. The trail was long and cut through some very dense forest. The scenery could not have been more beautiful, but to be honest, by that point were were exhausted and just happy that the lift dropped us off right at the back door of our condo complex.