It has been seven years (almost to the day) since my last time skiing Tenney. Despite living less than twenty minutes from the semi-lost area, I have only earned turns at Tenney five times in fourteen seasons. One might think that Tenney would be an ideal mountain to harvest days old untracked powder. But anything more than a few inches of dense snow will stop you in your un-tracks.

Recent snowfall suggested that a few inches of dense was exactly what I could expect. And base depths in the region were finally sufficient. But much to my chagrin, the management had seen fit to groom most of the mountain despite not being open. I was puzzled by this at first. But later, I reasoned that the condo association might help pay for the grooming given the amount of turn earners and the active outdoor community in the village. Maybe?

I made quick work of the first ascent and opted for mellow meadow skipping down Shooting Star, which was ungroomed but tracked up. It wasn’t much to write home about; but it was powder skiing. Near the base area, I applied my skins and pointed my skis straight up Morning Glory, where I briefly used the stiletto position on my heel raisers. Shocking that such a pitch exists at Tenney.

After topping out again, I headed for Forget Me Not. The trail had been mercifully groomed since my last outing, which literally required swimming through ten foot tall saplings. The final pitch was nice but not yet completely filled in. That dumped me into Snap Dragon which was enjoyable, until I found the only part of the mountain not yet opened back up by the new management. It was adventurous skiing, I did not regret it.

After two false starts, I finally managed to skip out of work early. Three days ago, a storm dropped almost a foot on central New Hampshire. I had the prerogative to shut operations down per standard procedure when the University cancels classes. But duty called, we were needed. Despite my recent resentment towards work, I am not resentful for making the call to open. It was the right thing to do. My upbringing would abide nothing less.

My dad and I used to ski together once per season. Our family skied a lot when I was younger. But he didn’t ski much any more and sometimes that one day was his only real day of skiing all year. I really enjoyed those days. And while I wasn’t impressed with my first visit to Tenney when we skied there, I enjoyed skiing Tenney with him. I’d take another run with him anywhere if I could.

Even Okemo.

So the mountain always brings back memories since I only skied Tenney once when it was open, and we skied together that day.

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