Category: Powder Day

2010-2011 Season, January, Powder Day, Saddleback

Saddleback: The Perfect Plan

Casablanca Entrance 2

Or perhaps the title should be The Perfect Weather Pattern. Seven inches since Thursday and double that since last weekend with the coldest weather since 2009 moving in for the weekend. Crowds stay home and I ski untracked all day at Saddleback: home to the best on map soft wood glade skiing in New England.

Saddleback already had some damn fine glade skiing. But the recent addition of Casablanca solidifies Saddleback’s position as the New England leader in the soft wood glade category. Casablanca is just as expansive as it looks on the map. Virtually the entire area is thinned out and skiable. But the cutting was inspired–still retaining a few uncut sections to give the glade some definition rather than just one big sprawling big box glade. Very few on map glades in New England have been so well planned and cut.

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2010-2011 Season, Earned Turns, January, Powder Day, Tenney Mountain

Meadow Skipping at Tenney

Skinning up Venus Fly Trap at Tenney

Hair of the Dog style leg rehabilitation continued today at Tenney. While ski areas were fully tracked out and busy with the holiday crowds, there was still uncrowded slopes and untracked powder to be found. I began skinning under a bluebird sky hot on the track of the only other soul on the mountain.

The skin track was just as flat and meandering as most of Tenney’s trails. The snow was fluffy in nature with no base to speak of. Snow depths were significantly less than at my house just a few miles away as the crow flies. Lack of trail mowing was evident but no worse than could be expected.

My original plan called for inspection and subsequent descent of Snap Dragon: Tenney’s steepest trail. But base depths and snow density clearly suggested meadow skipping would be the safest and most enjoyable option. On the descent, I scratched up my boards skiing a trail used as an access road. Low angle grassy trails were best!

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2010-2011 Season, January, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

Cautious Exuberance at Mad River Glen

Lynx: Second Run of the Day

My calves were still throbbing from Thursday’s powder romp. So I cured them–Hair of the Dog style–by dropping into FallDice to Glade for a warm up run. My previous pain suddenly seemed so much less than my current state of agony. It worked! The light powder was exquisite and I yelled my approval loudly. The shock eventually numbed the pain but my performance and stamina were severely taxed. On the next run, I found delicious chopped up powder with occasional untracked on Upper Antelope to Lynx to Beaver.

Tree lines of all varieties and elevations were safely skiable using cautious exuberance. More of the former is safer but more of the latter is a heck of a lot more fun. Almost everything was in play from upper elevation tight softwood corridors to low angle thwack jungles. Mid-mountain birch options skied the best and retained the most untracked lines. My third run selection was stupendous: barely tracked to untracked to single tracked. I returned to this location on my fifth and final run to claim second tracks and close my eights. Untracked snow depth varied depending upon the last time each line were hit. Anything from a few inches to knee deep. Hell yea.

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2010-2011 Season, January, Pico, Powder Day

Pico: A Slope for the Win

Outpost Double Chair Offline

There are many lessons to be learned from this past storm. And even more lessons to be learned from my decisions and reactions—in many ways sound but yet still lacking. One of my key management tenets is to “assume your assumptions are wrong”. But I failed to apply this to my storm chasing decision making process. I had the perfect plan if only my assumptions were correct. But they were mistaken in many ways.

Formulations for the powder day decision began with the fact that Magic Mountain and Pico Mountain would both be closed on Wednesday and open on Thursday with a full component of untracked powder. Targeting Thursday instead of Wednesday presupposed Northern New England wouldn’t get much snow, that the storm would start late morning, and untracked would never amount to more than a few inches due to being constantly skied in. This season of all seasons, I should have known not to bet against Cannon.

Another unforeseen monkey wrench in the plan was Killington Season Passholders pillaging Pico the day after their powder day at Killington. I relied upon memories of my last day at Pico, a two foot weekend dump in which I got uncontested first tracks down Summit Glade with no line at the chair. But I forgot about the situational context. I forgot that everyone else knew what I knew about Pico opening Thursday. I forgot there would be absolutely no surprises with this storm.

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2010-2011 Season, Cannon Mountain, December, Powder Day

Every Turn a Face Shot: Cannon

Understanding a mountain’s subtitles pays immense dividends. Last January, I missed out on Cannon’s biggest dump of the year and learned the hard way about Cannon’s weather patterns. The same pattern has repeated itself multiple times this December, yielding significantly more snow than average for December at Cannon. After many quality smaller powder days, Cannon got a jackpot of epic proportions.

The snow report this morning modestly understated eighteen inches overnight. By the end of the day, Cannon corrected that understated report to more properly reflect reality: 28-31″ in the past 24 hours. I can vouch for the accuracy of this measurement and by the time this storm is done tonight, the grand total will likely be at least three feet.

After catching the first tram, I quickly determined that “steep and deep” was the best option. The only other choices involved straight lining blue squares if a track was available or suffering from the misery of poling and stepping your skis straight down the marginal fall line.

I quickly found my way to the party on the Front Five. Tearing down Paulie’s Folly yielded a face shot on every turn (no exaggeration). A snorkel would have been helpful. Everytime I opened my mouth to hoot, holler, or huzzah, a glob of powder snow was lodged into my orifice. This was knee deep explosive powder at its finest. Drifts and troughs were waist deep.

The runs off the Zoomer Triple came fast and furious. Paulie’s, Zoomer, Paulie’s, Echo, Echo, Banshee. All runs excepting Banshee tossed snow into my face on every turn. Taking trips into the Powder Room on Paulie’s was divine. Its much more adventurous and concerning when the Powder Room opens its doors in Echo Glade.

After less fruitful labors, I would later return to Zoomer where I found deep untracked under the snow guns on Avalanche. At first I was incredulous that Cannon would be blowing snow on a massive powder day. My incredulous feelings became those of gratitude as snow gun spray created a powder hound deterrence and a massive powder stash. Late in the day, I was still able to find in bounds knee deep untracked powder. Avalanche, Avalanche, Avalanche, Avalanche, Banshee.

Other options were explored thoroughly once I believed enough tracks had been laid down on more moderate pitched slopes. First tracks were deadly on anything less than steep. I choose my favorite line in New England for my last run where I claimed second tracks; which were likely even better than the first.

Today was not the best ski day of my life, but it does rank quite high. I had more face shots in one run today than all other runs in my life combined. And that face shot filled run kept repeating itself. The powder snow was amazingly explosive and stunningly deep. I lacked only for want of some of Cannon’s most choice lines which were still not in play due to lack of base.