Today featured an unplanned dual visit to Jay and Cannon.
The ski day got off to an unfavorable start. I bypassed Cannon and drove on to Jay thinking that Northern Vermont would do better than Cannon during the storm. As I continued north, the driving got easier and the snow banks got smaller. Clearly, I made the wrong destination selection, but I was committed.
After booting up, I went outside to start my day when I noticed that the ear pads to my helmet had fallen out. Try as I might to reconnect the pads, I couldn’t figure out how to jam them into the helmet. It was far too cold to go without ear pads, and I certainly wasn’t going to buy a replacement helmet. So, I elected to ski with a hat only.
It has been more than twenty years since I last skied without a helmet. I felt exposed and uncomfortable. Despite the half foot of fresh, I opted to stay on open trails only. No woods for me today.
Well, at least until I met a first timer on the lift. The dude had just come back from skiing The Dip, not realizing he was following tracks to Route 242. He obviously had a sense of adventure, and I appreciated his idiosyncrasies. We hit it off and I wanted to show him the best of Jay, off map in the woods. Just one run. 🙂
We had a good time, but he went back in for lunch. Without a partner and without my helmet, I thought I had pushed my luck far enough. The skiing was fun, but not as fun as it could have and should have been. I decided to call it a day. But little did I know at the time, that my ski day was just beginning…