Category: Reports by Event

2007-2008 Season, February, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

Foot of Fresh at Mad River Glen

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With an expected “18-30 inches by Thursday morning” as forecasted by many weather prognosticators, including MRG’s own Josh Fox, this storm bonked early but still delivered a foot of fresh to Mad River Glen. While Wednesday was a spectacular day and well worth a vacation day, it was a far cry from a minimum of 18″. While I had hoped for epic, I was willing to settle for just sensational.

By the time I had bought my ticket and geared up, six dozen skiers had queued up for the Single at 8:30 A.M. I quickly did the math. Given how many chairs were on the line, I was just as well skiing right onto the double rather than waiting for the Single for first run. The line would stay strong averaging an acceptable five to ten minute wait throughout the morning but got down to three to five minutes after lunch.

Ticket window folks were warning of no refunds if the mountain went on wind hold but Mad River kept all three lifts spinning all day despite some occasionally harsh winds. The snow was a dry but dense and wind blown variety that was somewhat grabby yet fast. No dusty light powder on top either but rather solid base building stuff which the mountain needed. Occasionally, I could sink down to the rock hard frozen base when cutting a hard turn through the foot of new snow. This storm will provide a sensational base for the Friday evening event to put the fluffy white stuff on top of.

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2007-2008 Season, February, Pats Peak, Racing

Pats Peak: Race Eight

While not a good night for the team, I turned in some decent results and had my highest individual finish at 10th overall. Our team leader pulled five of us together for the race but we were hurting with two of our point scorers skiing out west this week. Said team leader also pulled himself together despite feeling horridly ill which effected his performance and our top point man had a bad night. Despite my great performance, the team will probably drop tonight’s race results as our lowest team score of the season.

Too bad my edges were not sharpened for this race. My race skis have have had at least days use since the last sharpen and tune. Despite two good runs, I never felt connected with my skis. I could have done even better had I really been dialed in with a freshly tuned pair of skis.

I really appreciate the layout and design of the tonight’s course. It was the best course lay out all year, in my opinion. Lots of DNFs and DSQs. The course really punished skiers who were too aggressive and not clean. Some of the turns were probably too aggressive for that type and style of course. Two straight gates out of the start got me going much faster than I had anticipated and I was not quite high enough on some of the gates as a result. Many skiers were not even beginning their turns until getting to the gate resulting in some pretty sensational traverses to save the run. My type of course and the results speak for themselves in that it was not most peoples’ type of course.

Individual Race Results from Pats Peak Monday Week Eight

Team Race Results from Pats Peak Monday Week Eight

2007-2008 Season, February, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Some Cold Holiday Powder at Jay

Jay Peak Trees

Bitter cold and uncomfortable winds had many vacationers holed up inside their condos, townhouses, and rental units for the first day of the holiday week. The slopes were empty well into late morning when some brave vacationers finally decided to leave the comfort and warmth of their condos and townhouses and do what they supposedly drove up to Jay to do. Less crowded than your average Jay weekend with a ski on Flyer and never more than one or two deep in the singles line at the Jet and Bonnie. The tram had what looked to be about a three car wait as many folks opted to wait for the tram rather than brave the chairlifts. I debated doing the wait on my last run to get a run in off the ridge but didn’t have the stomach for the line.

The wind really loaded the powder up creating a tricky wind slab layer on the surface. Boot deep untracked powder was the norm for the morning and I hammered it without much care for competition. Aside from the lack of vacationer traffic, even the regular Jay powder hounds seemed to be AWOL. Pretty laid back morning and I left lots of typical early hits for later. Lots of options.

I made a rare visit to Tramside and poked around over there for three runs before the Freezer sent me shivering back to Stateside. While exploring, I found some new shots (to me) where I suspected there might be some and wished the wind hadn’t been as bad because I was really enjoying the turns on Tramside.

Today was my first full day on a new (used) pair of Fischer Atua skis. They surfed the powder well but were not as agile as my regular Dynastar Legend 8000 skis in tight trees featuring packed powder conditions. Certainly an exceptional ski on powder snow and will be an especially powerful tool on untracked knee to boot deep snow.

Photo Gallery

2007-2008 Season, February, Pats Peak, Racing

Pats Peak: Race Six

Tonight’s course was held on the F.I.S. race trail. The course had larger and more challenging turns than usual, much to my delight, that favored aggressive and clean turns. Showing up late, I snagged the 23 slot but due to half of the racers not making the race start time, my first run was completed in the middle of running order. The course had a good rhythm and the conditions were perfect on my first run which was my better time. Run two was completed in standard running order. Due to being at the end of the pack, conditions were rough on the more aggressive turns. Results turned in a fourth place finish for the team and a personal 22nd out of 53 racers. I opened a gap between my closest competition on the team and closed the gap between the next best skier on the team indicating improvement and a return to better form with a few races down.

2007-2008 Season, February, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

Mad River Glen, VT

It has been just over a month since my last visit to Mad River and that was just over a month too long. Friday skiing rules. Except for having to deal with commuter traffic, school buses, snow plows, and getting up a half hour earlier in order to arrive at the mountain a half hour later. East/West ski commutes in Northern New England are a bitch.

Upon driving into the parking lot and getting a visual on the slopes, I was immediately disappointed. Thursday was the best day for post storm mid-week skiing despite the storm generally flying under the radar due to forecasts calling for mixed precipitation earlier this week. Queuing up for the first lift ride confirmed my suspicions of tracked out conditions. So much for warming up on some of the trails I don’t normally ski. I went straight into the woods on the first run.

A dense powder was found on short but memorable untracked lines. Adjusting to the less than desirable dense snow took a few runs. Not quite the sublime dense powder we saw during much of December. Instead of skiing through the snow, I was tending to land on top of it and let it slide and glide me into the next turn.

Boot to knee deep untracked was found in some of the usual places but I also found lots of tracks in many others. Still managed to find some untracked towards the end of the day around 3pm or so but generally short slots and lines. The cut up and tracked up loose powder snow skied rather well. Bumps were rather forgiving since they were still soft and not frozen. With only one or two inches falling last night and nothing today or tonight, there will be little to no powder at the starting gate tomorrow morning.