Most of my vouchers were blacked out due to the holiday and I desired additional conditioning. So I decided to use my Mad Card despite the holiday weekend. How bad could it be?

Very, actually.

After a harrowing January in which the mountain struggled to even keep the Practice Slope open, the Mad River finally had fabulous mid-week conditions due to a major storm Thursday evening. Hoards of skiers and families descended on Mad River Glen for the holiday weekend. The mass of humanity felt equal to a non-vacation weekend at a major resort. The base area was bananas, the basebox was beyond packed, and both lines for the Single and the Sunnyside were as long as I have ever seen them.

Perhaps the hoards and the lines would have been worth dealing with for a powder day. But the snow started falling on Thursday and ended Friday morning, so the powder at long been plundered. I knew it was going to be bad so I planned to get in a few runs early and leave before the lines got too long.

A few runs turned into only two runs as the Single line exceeded thirty minutes by my second lap. I went straight for the best hole on the mountain where I struggled to make quality turns. I was sore from the day before at Cannon and extremely fatigued from endless hours and stress at work.

I couldn’t hack it and by my second run, I was already skiing sloppy. Conditions were good but the two feet of new base had yet to consolidate and solidify making for odd conditions. I occasionally found an untracked turn or three but it was hardly a powder day and not worth dealing with the chaos and long lines.