We spent the morning lapping Sunshine and Sundown lifts.
The prior day's warm temps and nighttime chill had reduced the mountain to a hardened white crust. You can see the shiny glaze of ice along the sides of a trail:
We endured the rough riding until late morning, when things began to soften up.
My wide skis served me well after the first couple of nasty runs. At 169 cm, they are barely longer than FIS slalom skis, but the 117 mm waist kills it in most conditions, and they swivel like a belly dancer in the bumps.
After lunch on the hill (Steamboat chili, which was spicy hot!) I headed back over to the double black trails on Mount Werner, wanting to chip away at my project of skiing as many of those trails as I could before leaving town.
First I skied Christmas Tree Bowl, then Christmas Tree Gully, which had a twisty, steep drop-in right after the gate:
Then it was Chute 1, which I had wimped out on the last time. Actually, it just didn't seem that fun to me, being a steep featureless slab, but having skied other trails nearby now, I viewed it with a bit more confidence and just skied it.
Looking back up Chute 1 from below. Ha!
When the Bar-UE lift closed, I headed back to rejoin the group for the finale of the trip. We skied a few final runs, and Tim and I skied some great soft bump runs. I think we did Three O'Clock and Concentration, maybe one other.
Distance was 36.59 miles, time 6:32 (moving 4:06), elevation gain/loss 21,560 feet, avg. speed 5.6 mph, and max speed 42.6 mph.
A great last ski day on a fun trip.
Later we tried to eat everything in the fridge so we wouldn't toss anything out. As the only person not flying home, I took the leftovers. I wonder if I'll eat that grapefruit?
