TR Massanutten February 2014

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Quite a varied time at Massanutten this month. I missed the 11+ inches of powder by a few days, but had a good time with friends and their kids for the holiday long weekend Feb. 14-17. Felt like winter, but not all cold with temps in the 30s. I was back a few days later, skiing Thu, Feb. 20 and the weekend. By then it was spring skiing with temps in the high 50s.

Thursday is the day there is a Ladies Clinic in the morning and the Silver Clinic (over 50) in the afternoon. This time I decided to do both.

Jeanette did the Ladies Clinic and there were three other women, two local and another older resort guest. Found that it's useful to fill in skills and ideas that help intermediates because I didn't take lessons when I was an adult intermediate. One of the locals only started this season. She's skied every week and been taking lessons regularly. It shows. She's skis very well for the first season. We did the clinic mostly off Lift 6 on the black runs.

Walter did the Silver Clinic. The other participants are instructors. We spent most of the time on the soft bumps. Not trying to do zipper line, but working on "flowing like water." I'll do another Silver Clinic with Walter on Sunday.

Showed Walter the SkiA Sweetspot. He even tried them out. He thinks it's a pretty useful training aid.

 

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Sunday, Feb. 9 when it did not rain. There are often times that it rains in the valleys on either side but not on the mountain.

10:30am


1:30pm


Upper MacAttack bumps

 

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Feb. 15 was a few days after Mnut got 11+ inches of powder in about 30 hours. Plenty of tracks in the trees.

 

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Thu, Feb. 20, at 2:30pm . . . empty on top


Sat, Feb. 22, per usual no one around before 9:30 or so. Not much snow left away from the slopes. Average depth on the slopes was listed as 46 inches on the snow conditions webpage. More than enough to handle the warm spell. Waits for the lifts at the base were under 5 min even during the few busy hours midday.


Paradice stays in the shade until mid-morning

Bottom of Paradice, DJ (far right), with the cross over from Lift 5 coming in from the left

Mnut race teams were training on DJ in the morning, then NASTAR was set up for a couple hours. Left side of DJ stays open and in the shade for a bit.

bumps on Paradice


Lift 3 at the base at 4:00pm (for green runs or to reach Lift 5)

 

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A bit too warm today at Mnut. Never got below 44 on the mountain overnight. But I had a good time with friends who came for a day trip. They came with another family. Those kids had a good time learning the basics of skiing (ski school) or boarding (teen boys on their own). No lift lines to speak of anywhere.

Looking forward to heading back on Wed after the cold comes back.

 

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Had quite a fun time Feb. 27-28 at Mnut. Conditions were very good and the place was empty since it was midweek and after Pres. Day. I was on my own so could ski whatever was of interest. Spent a fair amount of time observing the PSIA-E clinics. Especially fun to watch the Level 3 instructors in the DCL clinic learn more subtle points from an Examiner. My coach was in that group. The Children's Specialist group was a mix of alpine, telemark, and snowboarders. They had a lot of fun thinking like kids. There were also clinics for Level 1 and 2 folks.

Didn't take many pics. Here are a few of the humps on MakAttack.