I knew it had to end eventually. Since Smuggs is my home mountain for the 2013-2014 season, I knew that I’d finally get to see the mountain in its entirety, warts and all. Which isn’t to say that my expectations were high for opening day featuring 1.5 routes off Sterling. But my expectations were decidedly higher than “some of the worst frozen man made that I have ever skied”.

It was a race/cheater ski day at Smuggs today. Too bad I didn’t bring mine. Even some skiers with race skis were struggling on the exceptionally icy Treasure Run. Turns were less about direction control than speed control. Point em’ sideways and dig in those edges!

The “best” snow on the mountain was on Smuggler’s Alley which was still whaled. Despite having to cross through a “gate” marked experts only, I found the snow on Smuggler’s Alley significantly easier to turn on and safer than Upper Rumrunner. Which isn’t to say the turns were more fun, just less dangerous and teeth rattling.

After a few runs, I was gradually improving my posture, knee angle, and forward lean… adjusting away from natural snow positioning and dialing in icy hard pack technique. But the skiing was still jarring and desperate. After seeing an out of control skier slide off the trail and take a head first dive into the woods, I decided it was time to call it a day after only four runs.

Not worth the five hour round trip drive even for a free ticket on my bash badge. But at least it can’t get any worse than that. And if I’m going to have a bad day, it might as well be at Smuggs. And it is nothing that a few inches of natural tonight can’t fix. I still love it there, even if the skiing today was abysmal. <3