Category: February

2008-2009 Season, Black Mountain, February, Powder Day

Ligament Damage at Black

Nothing like a forecast for a big storm to bring the powder hounds out of the wood work. Especially considering how unseasonably dry and warm February has been, beginning with a late “January Thaw” which was followed by two dry weeks. Needless to say, I wanted in on first tracks during a weekend long storm and requested Thursday off from work.

Had I waited until Friday for my day off, I would have skied better snow and probably have survived the weekend injury free. Needless to say, I did not wait and paid a horrible price for my powder anxiety.

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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

A Groomer Day at Jay

Today was a dust on crust special at Jay Peak. All the three inch untracked powder you want with little competition if you did not mind bottoming out on a frozen hard packed base. My feelings predicted that things would be fairly nice this morning with a few inches of fresh. Instead of fluffy blower, we could have used heavy and dense snow. My first three tree runs each got progressively more low angle. Ultimately, I decided today would be a groomer day. While discussing the conditions with some folks, I said “this has been the most groomers I have skied in a day all season, perhaps the most groomers I HAVE skied all season.” That about sums up todays conditions at Jay.

Jet was skiing really nicely throughout the morning. I hammered Jet for several runs before deciding that I was not going to wait for a line longer than a minute or two to ski groomers. Shortly before noon time, I headed back to the Chalet and headed home.

You can tell it is vacation week by the conversations you overhear. I was dumb founded by the amount of times I heard something along the lines of “wow, the conditions are great today!” Which, they were, if you enjoy skiing groomers. But I could have been doing that (more enjoyably) at Cannon on $8 worth of gas instead of $21. This is a big difference in my new location. While living in Vermont, the half hour of additional driving to Jay was always a worth while gamble. Whereas the forty minutes door to door Cannon drive time versus over two hours to Jay is a different story if the woods are not there.

2007-2008 Season, Cannon Mountain, February

Quality Over Quantity: Tight Tree Skiing at Cannon

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While the main mission of this morning’s outing at Cannon was a never-ever learn to ski package for my significant other, I had other objectives in mind during my free skiing time. Despite the cold and windy weather on this second day of the busy February holiday week, my significant other was jonesing to give skiing a second chance after being a ski widow these past four years. Her excitement was admirable but her timing for picking up the skiing bug was less than perfect.

We arrived around 9:30 A.M. along with the hordes of other skiers setting their sights on Cannon. Having last taken a lesson over a dozen years ago and having last rented equipment when I was too young to understand the process, I was feeling somewhat silly walking my significant other through the lesson and rental package. Lines in the Cannon rental shop were out the door and it took almost forty-five minutes to purchase the package, get the equipment, and miss our preferred lesson time. After waiting another half hour, I walked her over to the lesson meeting location and headed up the Peabody Express Quad for mission number one. After checking in post lesson and taking a few bunny slope turns, I ran off to the summit for mission number two.

Both top to bottom runs were stunning in their challenge, pitch, and degree of difficulty. The first run left me breathless and sweating heavily. The second run had me reconsidering what I considered steep and tight tree skiing. After two years of being a season pass holder at Jay, I have gone somewhat soft after cutting my teeth at Cannon for several seasons. The mellow and open powder full glades at Jay are incredible but can make a skier’s ability soften considerably. These two runs humbled me as only a top to bottom tree exodus off Mad River Glen’s Single Chair can. Cannon remains a spiritual home even if the powder falls less copiously than my beloved Northern Greens.

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