Owl's Head - February 3, 2018

The morning started out not as early as the last road trip. The destination today was Owl's Head. On the road by 7am and arrived at the mountain for 8, with a temperature of -24 and no breeze at the base. 45/52 trails announced open along with 6 chairlifts. The 5-10 cms of snow they received during the week helped out a little. The conditions were of groomed, packed powder over a hard base. There were some little powder stashes that had been tracked along the side of some trails.

The first runs of the day were up the Main Quad to Lilly's Leap, Centennial to the Kamikaze, and then over to the Lower Standard via the Crossover. The coverage was pretty good to start. It's well known that the upper trails here can get scraped down pretty quickly depending on the crowd. Today the crowd was moderate and no waiting at any of the chairs.

Lilly's Leap:

Centennial:

Then it was on to a few laps on the Blue Chair and down the Lower Standard. Under the Blue on the Shady Lady, the ski team was setting up for practice. 

Going up the Blue with the Shady Lady and Lower Standard:

There was a breeze riding up the Main Quad to go along with the already frigid temperature, so a break was in order to head in the chalet to warm up and to catch up with some old friends that I hadn't seen in awhile. People that I had worked with when I was at the mountain years ago. Then it was back out and down to the Black and Lake Quads. The conditions over there were nice, with the upper part of the Chouette that hadn't been groomed, but the loose powder was already traced out. The Upward Trail, and the Lakeview/Couloir combo was a nice choice. There was the slightest breeze on the Lakeside that made it chilly as well riding the chairs. Once you were on the ground it was fine. You still needed to be well bundled to keep warm though. 

The Chouette:

The Upward Trail:

The Lakeview:

The day ended with one last ride up the Main Quad, after a second warm up, down Centennial on to the lower section of the Colorado, down the Chouette to the bottom of the Black Quad and a ride up the Quad and then back over to the chalet. 

Lower Colorado:

Overall it was a nice outing. By noon there were some icy patches starting to appear in the usual places, and you could hear the scraping being done by the other skiers, so it gave you an idea on where they were, and take it easy to go around those spots if you were following. The day ended at 1:00 after 18 runs. I have always had a soft spot for Owl's Head over the years, but to be honest, unfortunately the mountain is showing its age and is in need of some love and updating. Hopefully she will get some of that soon.