A decent sized crowd of skinners (for Jay) fanned out from Stateside Lodge. I opted for Wiggle to Hell’s Crossing to Northway for the ascent. Snow depths varied from bare ground to deep drifts. The wind clearly had its way with Jay as it usually does. Conditions appeared to favor wind sheltered areas. I was thinking about skinning to Can Am but assumed it wouldn’t ski well due to being massively exposed. I started my first descent down Upper Milk Run. If Milk Run skied well, I would skin back up and around to Can Am. If not, I’d head to “greener” pastures.

Turns were very nice on Milk Run but the snow didn’t feel like the foot and a half four day total. Following the flow of the trail, I skied the best that Milk Run had to offer. It was a solid untracked powder run but produced less excitement than anticipated. At the bottom of Upper Milk, I looked up Wiggle and down Taxi and ultimately decided on skiing down Taxi and catching the skin track up Goat.

Goat brought me to Green Mountain Boys, which along with Milk Run make up my two favorite thin coverage early season options. Initial turns on GMB were less than satisfactory due to two thirds of the trail having been picked clean. But after a dozen turns, the coverage opened up and so did my turns. And those turns were amazing. As I descended the final pitch, I hollered with glee experiencing the best powder I’ve skied in over a year and a half.

My right hip joint felt off during the skin up Goat so I was weary of another run. I planned to skin for turns again tomorrow so I didn’t want to over do it. But last year taught me to always appreciate the good days you have; you never know when things will turn bleak for an extended period. So I put the skins back on and went back up for a second glorious run down Green Mountain Boys. Sure enough, I still had plenty in the tank for the next day.