After what feels like weeks of cloudy darkness, it was wonderful to see the sun today. Despite the general lack of snow, I kinda felt that the sunny day was needed more than a powder day.
Conditions were not bad all around. A bit firm, but not hard pack or scraped. The undercast was beautiful and the weather was pleasant. Given the stillness in the air, I even rode the freezer today! A rare day, indeed.
While driving home from Jay, after only a few hours of lackluster skiing, I was replaying my helmet issue in my head. Why wouldn’t the ear pads fit into my helmet? What made them pop out without warning?
As I approached Franconia, I recalled that I had two helmets. Perhaps they had different ear pads and I had jammed the wrong set into my helmet? While driving, I rummaged through the pockets in my boot bag. And, sure enough, I found another set of ear pads. What a fucking idiot.
I started the approach to Franconia Notch and Cannon loomed large. By now, I had compared snow reports on my phone, and I knew Cannon had received more than three times the few inches that Jay had received. It was almost two o’clock, not much time left for the lifts. But, I had the sudden urge to stop at Cannon and resume my ski day, with my helmet and with leftovers from a foot of fresh.
I was glad I stopped! The skiing at Cannon was phenomenal. While I was many hours late to first tracks, I used my knowledge of the mountain to find the best snow and enough untracked to justify a powder day tag. It was only the second day I have ever skied two areas on the same day, and certainly the first time I had done so without planning it that way.
Today featured an unplanned dual visit to Jay and Cannon.
The ski day got off to an unfavorable start. I bypassed Cannon and drove on to Jay thinking that Northern Vermont would do better than Cannon during the storm. As I continued north, the driving got easier and the snow banks got smaller. Clearly, I made the wrong destination selection, but I was committed.
After booting up, I went outside to start my day when I noticed that the ear pads to my helmet had fallen out. Try as I might to reconnect the pads, I couldn’t figure out how to jam them into the helmet. It was far too cold to go without ear pads, and I certainly wasn’t going to buy a replacement helmet. So, I elected to ski with a hat only.
It has been more than twenty years since I last skied without a helmet. I felt exposed and uncomfortable. Despite the half foot of fresh, I opted to stay on open trails only. No woods for me today.
Well, at least until I met a first timer on the lift. The dude had just come back from skiing The Dip, not realizing he was following tracks to Route 242. He obviously had a sense of adventure, and I appreciated his idiosyncrasies. We hit it off and I wanted to show him the best of Jay, off map in the woods. Just one run. 🙂
We had a good time, but he went back in for lunch. Without a partner and without my helmet, I thought I had pushed my luck far enough. The skiing was fun, but not as fun as it could have and should have been. I decided to call it a day. But little did I know at the time, that my ski day was just beginning…
Mad River Glen finally received enough snow to put quality lines on the table. Still thin coverage, still rocks and roots to hit and slide over. But at least the skiing was full on.
At least, it was on many parts of the mountain. Paradise and Fall Line remained closed while neighboring off map woods skied quite well. Lower elevation was low tide and scary on or off map. But some of my favorite mid-mountain lines skied quite well and were even powdery in places. It was a satisfying day. But it shows how much the mountain has struggled with snowfall that today would probably rate a top five day of the year at MRG.
With a big storm predicted, I made plans for Cannon. But, as with many storms this season, the storm fizzled and impacted areas south of the notch more than the notch itself. I had a disheartening feeling as road conditions improved the further north that I drove.
I knew that would be the case. But I had hoped for at least a half a foot or more at Cannon. But, it was a total bust. Groomers with a light dusting skied better than natural snow, still recovering from the latest rain-freeze event.
As a positive, at least this storm didn’t turn to rain?