Author: Steve

2000-2001 Season, February, Magic Mountain, Powder Day

Magic Mountain, VT

February 5th brought three feet of snow to parts of Western Massachusetts and Southern Vermont. I had been planning a trip to Magic Mountain in Southern Vermont for some time now; the big dump made the decision on where to ski that weekend rather easy. Magic Mountain is most well known for its challenging terrain, lack of snow making, and lack of grooming. It is a Skiers Mountain without any Resort atmosphere or amenities. Some may consider these reasons to avoid the Magic Mountain. But for me, they only add to the appeal.

The alarm clock went off at 4:30AM and I jumped out of bed. Two and a half feet of snow fell during the previous 24 hours and my back still hurt from shoveling the previous evening. After a shower and breakfast, I went out to finish cleaning up the drive way. I was ready to roll at 6:30AM, but was hesitant to go because of the road conditions. I watched the news for an hour and a half before I was satisfied that the drive would be safe. I left home around 7:30AM; I had originally planned to leave two hours earlier so I could get first tracks.

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2000-2001 Season, December, Wildcat

Wildcat, NH

Ski WildcatOn a stormy weekend during a lack luster beginning to one of the Northeast’s biggest seasons, two friends and I packed up the car for a ski trip to Wildcat Mountain in New Hampshire. Despite taking a wrong exit off the highway, trying a “short cut” that made for a long drive, and several white knuckle moments due to poor road conditions, we finally made it up through Pinkham Notch to Wildcat. Due to high winds, only the Bobcat Triple was running without access to the Summit. We lapped the Bobcat slopes many times working on our early season technique on our first day out of the season. Due to a variety of circumstances including leaving a job and being unemployed, I was only to ski four days during the fabled epic season of 2000-2001.

1999-2000 Season, March, Sunday River

Sunday River, ME

During Spring Break of March 2000, I ventured up to Maine for an afternoon of some great skiing at Sunday River. The race season with UMass Lowell Ski Team had concluded the previous month and college graduation was two months away. Having raced for several years, I wanted to get off the groomed terrain and try natural terrain and tree skiing. Thus, my second solo outing to a big mountain taught me some hard lessons about tree skiing and rope ducking.

1999-2000 Season, February, Pico, Powder Day, Racing

Pico, VT

Pico offers up some first rate skiing, without the crowds and McSki atmosphere that plague neighboring Big Brother Killington. UMass Lowell Ski Team descended upon Vermont during the night of a fierce snow storm. When we awoke Saturday morning, many inches of snow had accumulated already. Upon reaching Pico, we found over a foot of fluff at the summit! My first true Powder Day. On our first run, half the team ascended to the summit via both Quads, and we proceeded to fall often in knee deep fluff skiing the Summit Glades. Amazing!

All that fluffy powder was not good at all for racing, though. We had to clear all the powder away from the gates. This took numerous times of the entire 100 person league snow plowing the course before it was racable. After all that snowplowing, the ruts on the race course were huge! It was an unbelievable day to ski, but an abysmal day to race.

Pico has some interesting terrain. Everything off the Summit Quad is gold. There is a relatively flat section on mid-mountain that was hard to deal with. Pico is essentially four mini-peaks. They have a Triple and Double on the Left and Right Wings for access to the smaller peaks. The first quad goes up the gut of the mountain, to mid-mountain where it services intermediate and beginner terrain. And their Summit Quad gets you to the real goods. Unfortunately, this means that top to bottom skiing is not really much of an option. However, there is quality skiing everywhere on the mountain.