Ira Riklis continues:
You see, it’s not just about the lift lines. There are other reasons to be on that first chair.
For one thing, if you are a mountain cruiser as I am, it means that I get first crack at all the fresh snow and freshly groomed slopes. I can’t tell you how many times Mike and I have made the very first tracks on a slope in the morning.
In fact, we have yo-yoed runs, being the only tracks on the slopes two, sometimes three times before some other skier has the temerity to put their ski grooves on our slope. Because the slopes are freshly groomed, especially combined with the limited number of skiers out on the mountain at the same time and the diversity of directions that those few intrepid skiers can go off into, we can cruise at high speed on nicely “corduroyed” snow.
Vail does a remarkable job overnight of repairing, freshening, and smoothing the slopes. During the evening and night hours, if you look up at the mountain, you will see the lights of the Sno-Cats working to prepare the slopes for the next day’s skiing. The Cats are out all night long preparing large swaths of runs for cruising the next day.
However, as the number of skiers swell, each skier carving grooves into the snow, the snow gets chopped up, deep fissures begin to develop, and eventually moguls will form. While there are many that love that type of skiing, such conditions are the antithesis of my mountain cruising. I also have to slow down, both because of the snow conditions as well as to avoid the swelling number of skiers, of varying skill level, that I now have to share the slopes with.