Embracing the Mellow
It has been seven years (almost to the day) since my last time skiing Tenney. Despite living less than twenty minutes from the semi-lost area, I have only earned turns at Tenney five times in fourteen seasons. One might think that Tenney would be an ideal mountain to harvest days old untracked powder. But anything more than a few inches of dense snow will stop you in your un-tracks.
Recent snowfall suggested that a few inches of dense was exactly what I could expect. And base depths in the region were finally sufficient. But much to my chagrin, the management had seen fit to groom most of the mountain despite not being open. I was puzzled by this at first. But later, I reasoned that the condo association might help pay for the grooming given the amount of turn earners and the active outdoor community in the village. Maybe?
I made quick work of the first ascent and opted for mellow meadow skipping down Shooting Star, which was ungroomed but tracked up. It wasn’t much to write home about; but it was powder skiing. Near the base area, I applied my skins and pointed my skis straight up Morning Glory, where I briefly used the stiletto position on my heel raisers. Shocking that such a pitch exists at Tenney.
After topping out again, I headed for Forget Me Not. The trail had been mercifully groomed since my last outing, which literally required swimming through ten foot tall saplings. The final pitch was nice but not yet completely filled in. That dumped me into Snap Dragon which was enjoyable, until I found the only part of the mountain not yet opened back up by the new management. It was adventurous skiing, I did not regret it.
