With my legs still burning from skiing Smuggs the day before, I continued my mad dash to use the rest of my prepaid vouchers today at Mad River Glen. The faithful were out in force today to enjoy the last of this long week full of perfect spring skiing days. Despite the sun disappearing shortly after lunch time and being replaced by clouds and a mild breeze, the snow was stellar and well corned in places though just a tad mushy occasionally as well. Lines were long for the Single but tolerable, especially considering the shaky status of my legs by mid-day.

First run was off the Sunnyside Double down Slalom Hill where the bumps were simply to die for. I then headed over to Lower Gazelle for some low angle bumps and found occasionally thin coverage and finished out my first run on One Way which was direly thin. Next was a ride up the Single to Fall Line where I found sublime bumps until I reached Creamery which was about as terrible as it usually is. And then on to Canyon where bumps were perfect size and well corned though thin coverage abound, especially in many of the troughs.

Next up was Gazelle top to bottom where I found the entrance around the cliffs barely passable but provided a great excuse to show off under the chair. After some more exhausting bumps on Lower Gazelle, I finished out on Waterfall and opted for an early lunch on the deck to give my legs a break.

Finally, after lunch I had two more runs in me and started things off with a Chute/Liftline combo yielding awesome bumps but I had to work really hard to keep my legs moving. Entering Liftline below the mid-station, I knew I had some cliff jumping to do but had no idea how I was going to force my legs to get things done.

Tower Ten cliffs were pretty boney and I spied a two jump line off skier’s right that was just right for my style. I executed the first jump down to a ledge with a 120 degree clockwise turn to near perfection. But I bailed on stringing the two jumps together in one action, came to a stop, reassessed, and then finished out the series with the second drop. Not for lack of trying but I normally do that cliff drop with a lot more style.

Finally, with legs sufficiently burning for a last run, I took Cat Bowl from the men’s tee through the woods on skier’s right since the headwall was blown out. Bumps were of great quality for Cat Bowl but my legs did them no justice. With Lynx to Beaver on my brain, I opted for a quick excursion into the small bumps of narrow Catamount and dropped into Lynx where bumps continued to be excellent (and for once, coverage was ample).

The trees of Lynx yielded to the openness of Beaver where I found a killer line and howled a loud “YEAHH!” as I took the first half of Beaver’s excellent bumps non-stop. The second half had me feeling the burn more than ever and becoming progressively more sloppy as I rounded each corner. I have never been so happy to see Bunny.

Coverage at Mad River should continue to be barely sufficient on all runs through this weekend. However, without additional snow, I would estimate at least one third of Mad River’s terrain is done for the season as we enter into April. The fat lady is not singing quite yet but she is certainly warming up her vocal chords. Let’s all hope that mother nature slugs the fat lady something hard in these next two weeks so that we can prolong the season to its rightful and appropriate ending time in mid- to late April.