Skiing the Front Side of Discovery.gif)
 |
| Georgetown
Lake and the Anaconda-Pintlar Mountains seen from
the Summit |
The
downhill skiing and snowboarding at Discovery Ski Area,
as mentioned, is excellent. Few ski areas of similar size
can boast of such a huge network of diverse skiing terrain.
The rest of this ski guide will cover this wonderful terrain
in more detail.
Discovery Ski Area is built on Rumsey Mountain. There are
two sides to Rumsey Mountain, the front side and back side.
So,
let’s begin by looking at these two different
sides of Discovery Ski Area.
Skiing The Front Side
The
front side of Discovery Ski
Area consists of the terrain
on the front of the mountain, obviously. By this, I mean
the terrain that is seen when standing in the base area.
The front side of Discovery is where all of the beginner
and most of the intermediate ski trails are located. As the
front side of Discovery has a southern exposure, this part
of the mountain gets more sun and is warmer than the back
side. While some advanced (single black-diamond) level ski
trails are found on the front side of Discovery, the bulk
of the
advanced and expert
(double black-diamond) terrain
is
found elsewhere on the mountain. Additionally, most of the
ski trails on the front side of Discovery are also groomed.
Click
to See Front Side Trail Map (88K).
There
are two distinct sections on the front side of Discovery,
the main mountain (Rumsey Mountain) and a recent expansion
on a smaller peak called Jubilee Peak. The ski trails on
the front side of Rumsey Mountain are a mix of beginner,
intermediate and advanced level ski trails while the ski
trails found off of Jubilee Peak are primarily for beginners.
These
two section on the front side of Discovery Ski Area (Rumsey
Mountain and Jubilee Peak) are described below.
Skiing
Rumsey Mountain
The
ski trails on the front side of Rumsey Mountain are accessed
from the base area by the Anaconda Triple Chair,
which runs parallel to an older chairlift that may or may
not be used during busy periods. All the intermediate trails
on the front side of Rumsey Mountain are very well groomed.
The trails are wide, have a nice gradient, some curves and
the occasional “bump” in them as well. In short,
if you like to cruise down well-groomed ski trails, the front
side of Rumsey Mountain is for you. Good intermediate ski
trails on the front side include Berkeley, Southern Cross and Platinum.
 |
| Front
Side of Rumsey Mountain, with the base lodge seen
below |
Beginners can also ski down from the top of Rumsey Mountain too,
making for a very nice, long run. Technically speaking,
there
is no beginner marked trail from the summit. However, don’t
let the trail map fool you. The intermediate trail that leads
to the “designated” beginner runs from the summit
(Claimjumper) has a very gentle gradient and is quite wide.
The Claimjumper trail then turns into a beginner run called
Red Lion, which is an excellent ski trail for beginners.
Advanced
skiers will
also find some ski trails on the front side of Rumsey Mountain.
The Sluice Box trail is a steep, usually
groomed trail that closely follows the chairlift down the
mountain. Another trail, Silver Bow, also has a
steep gradient and is frequently bumped up as well. Still,
if you like to
ski the steeps, the trees or the bumps, you will find much
better skiing on the other two sides of Discovery (discussed
on the next page.
Skiing
Jubilee Peak
As mentioned,
there are two sections on the front side of Discovery – Rumsey Mountain (described above) – and
Jubilee Peak. The Jubilee Peak section is some new terrain
that was recently opened up. Jubilee Peak is served by a
double chair and has a vertical of 800 feet.
 |
| The
Gold Bug Ski Trail at Discovery - a great beginner
run |
One
can tell when looking up Jubilee Peak from the base area
that the terrain is primarily for beginners. Technically,
there are three ski trails on Jubilee Peak – one advanced,
one intermediate and one beginner. Truthfully, though, the
intermediate trail is really more a “steeper” beginner
trail while the advanced level trail on Jubilee Peak, Northern
Lights, is horribly flat for almost all of its length until
near its end – where the trail has an intermediate
level gradient but is heavily bumped up.
Beginner
skiers will love Jubilee Peak, even though intermediate
and advanced skiers will probably want to
stay off it.
You see, Jubilee Peak has, at least in my own opinion, one
of the finest beginner ski runs to be found anywhere. The
ski trail Gold Bug is a beautiful beginner run.
The trail has a beginner level gradient and is very wide – like
all beginner ski trails always are.
However,
what makes the Gold Bug trail unique is
that there is a nice scattering of widely
spaced trees in the trail. Beginner skiers will have a
great time winding their way around these trees – without
having to worry about speed control (due to the flat gradient),
bumps (the trail is heavily groomed) or running into a
tree (the trees are very widely spaced apart). In short, Gold
Bug is a ski run any beginner skier will have lots
of fun skiing on over and over again. Additionally, all
the
trees
in the trail just make Gold Bug “attractive” if
a ski trail can be such a thing.
Summary : Skiing the Front of Discovery Ski Area
The front side of Discovery ski area contains the best intermediate
and beginner ski terrain on the mountain. Most of the trails
are well groomed and are generally quite wide. Beginners
will especially enjoy the terrain found off of Jubilee Peak.
And while expert skiers will find some nice terrain on the
front side of the mountain, the best expert and advanced
ski terrain is located on the two backsides of Rumsey Mountain,
which is covered on the next page.
 
Next Page : Skiing
the Backside of Discovery Ski Area
Page : 1 |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6
Top
of Page
|
