I spent about 3-4 hours waxing three of my boards yesterday afternoon and evening... cold-temp wax, of course... it was the first waxing for the LibTech BoxKnife & Gnu Money and an overdue wax for the LibTech Orca...
It wasn't easy to commit to a colder than average day on the mountain but it ended up being well worth the effort today... with the polar vortex in full effect and several fresh inches of snow all over the Greater Seattle area, the roads were pretty terrible to drive on early this morning. Even with AWD, the snow was so deep on the highway that it was tough to plow through in my sportomobile... once I hit the mountain roads it was much more manageable, as they are prepared for this type of weather all throughout winter.
I got to Stevens Pass around 9 am but the parking lots were still pretty empty... most people from the west didn't bother trying to make it out today and it left the resort feeling pretty empty, which was just what we needed on such a perfect day to ride! Beside the arduous drive out of the city, there were very high wind speeds on Highway 2 and the temperature at the mountain was 8F... which is well below my tolerance threshold of around 15F.
I put on my warmest gloves and even an extra top layer and head out to explore with the BoxKnife... it took a few laps to get warm but then it was completely manageable, especially since it heated up several degrees throughout the morning. After a couple runs near Kehr's chair through steep moguls and trees, the Double Diamond lift started running and opened up the backside.
The snow today was magical...we normally don't get this type of cold weather at Stevens and it made the snow very light and dusty. Accidental face shots were in full effect, which left me with a numb face and a headache...but it was hard to complain with such a great surface to ride on.... Almost everywhere was covered in about a foot of this soft stuff and every run this morning was dreamy... unfortunately, my GoPro Hero9 is quite awful in cold weather. The buttons freeze up and make it impossible to turn on or off or start recording without a remote control or the phone app... then, once it turned on, it would spontaneously turn off a few seconds later, presumably because it was too cold... whatever; I charged hard all morning and with such short lines, got a bunch of laps in and had completely exhausted my self by lunchtime...
As it had warmed up a little by noon, I was able to get the GoPro back on and recording, but I had to store it in my jacket when not in use (to keep it just warm enough with body heat). I was pretty worked by this time but was still eager to rip as much as I could ... managing to get a few runs recorded in the process. The day ended with a pretty sweet ride down Wildcat (a trail that has been closed for much of the season)... experts only, they say... which was a very steep ride throughout and provided access to some of the tree runs I found last weekend...except this time around, the snow was like a cloud - soft and fluffy... ^-^
The wax job really paid off today and provided a very consistent and reliable feel under foot along with adequate glide.... so much so... that I went back to the car, grabbed the Orca and went back to Wildcat for a victory lap...as I really needed to see what this fresh wax felt like on it... and it didn't disappoint!! ... just another reminder to always head out with the right wax and not let the base dry out (no Phantom treatment on the Orca). Thankfully, I avoided the curse of the last run and went home safely although somewhat reluctantly...it was too nice of a day to just leave the mountain, even though I was exhausted.
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