David Metsky
Well-known member
OK, so this wasn't the wisest of trips, but what is?
I'm recovering from Whooping Cough and have been essentially unable to ski or hike or walk up stairs for about a month. I'm no where near 100% but I really needed to get on skis. The forecasts weren't clear, but there was the possibility of snow on the tail end of this latest rain event and Jay was forecasting up to a foot. So Seeker, Mike and I piled into my car (me sleeping the in back seat) on Saturday afternoon and headed north.
The temps hovered at 55 as we drove north, fog coming off the ponds, slight rain coming down. Very little traffic headed north with skis on.
North of Franconia Notch things started to turn to a snowlike substance, and by the time we hit VT it was some real snow. The climb over Jay and down to Montgomery Center was a bit unnerving but that's why I have a Subaru (backwards it spells U R a bus). We found our hosts Rob and Nic at the bar across the street and we watch a lackluster Pats game before retiring for the night in anticipation of nature's snowy bounty.
Which may have come, but was transported by nature's other bounty, the wind. It was bitter cold and windswept when we woke up, and retired next door for a breakfast at Bernies. We got the to mountain around 10:00 and it was -3 and most of the lifts were on wind hold. But, the tickets were discounted to $38. And no bugs. We geared up for the worst and headed up Jet for the first run of the year for me.
Conditions were, um, firm. In most places we were able to set and edge, but there were sections of pure ice. The lower angle woods were skiable, and quite fun, but you had to contend with frozen crud, breakable crust, and deposits of deep snow. There were frequent faceplants and slides for life, but we had fun. 3 or 4 runs in the morning, the same in the afternoon, and we were done for the day.
Link to short Video
We drove back to Montgomery and Rob prepared a find dinner of prime rib, rice, salad, and squash for us. I believe some wine was consumed as well.
Did I mention Sonoma, the rug with an appetite?
The next day we headed up to the Catamount trail where it crosses the pass in search of some better snow. It was -3 when we started again, but the skinning warmed us quickly. There are some glades off the trail that Rob had skied many times, so we searched for some stash of snow. It was mildly successful, we had 3 good yo-yo runs and no one got hurt.
Sonoma in non-rug mode:
Rob doing the poleless thing:
Nicola showing how cold and icy it was:
Seeker ripping it up on her new Schi Devils:
Action Shot:
A fun, cold, windy, well-fed weekend.
-dave-
I'm recovering from Whooping Cough and have been essentially unable to ski or hike or walk up stairs for about a month. I'm no where near 100% but I really needed to get on skis. The forecasts weren't clear, but there was the possibility of snow on the tail end of this latest rain event and Jay was forecasting up to a foot. So Seeker, Mike and I piled into my car (me sleeping the in back seat) on Saturday afternoon and headed north.
The temps hovered at 55 as we drove north, fog coming off the ponds, slight rain coming down. Very little traffic headed north with skis on.
North of Franconia Notch things started to turn to a snowlike substance, and by the time we hit VT it was some real snow. The climb over Jay and down to Montgomery Center was a bit unnerving but that's why I have a Subaru (backwards it spells U R a bus). We found our hosts Rob and Nic at the bar across the street and we watch a lackluster Pats game before retiring for the night in anticipation of nature's snowy bounty.
Which may have come, but was transported by nature's other bounty, the wind. It was bitter cold and windswept when we woke up, and retired next door for a breakfast at Bernies. We got the to mountain around 10:00 and it was -3 and most of the lifts were on wind hold. But, the tickets were discounted to $38. And no bugs. We geared up for the worst and headed up Jet for the first run of the year for me.
Conditions were, um, firm. In most places we were able to set and edge, but there were sections of pure ice. The lower angle woods were skiable, and quite fun, but you had to contend with frozen crud, breakable crust, and deposits of deep snow. There were frequent faceplants and slides for life, but we had fun. 3 or 4 runs in the morning, the same in the afternoon, and we were done for the day.
Link to short Video
We drove back to Montgomery and Rob prepared a find dinner of prime rib, rice, salad, and squash for us. I believe some wine was consumed as well.
Did I mention Sonoma, the rug with an appetite?
The next day we headed up to the Catamount trail where it crosses the pass in search of some better snow. It was -3 when we started again, but the skinning warmed us quickly. There are some glades off the trail that Rob had skied many times, so we searched for some stash of snow. It was mildly successful, we had 3 good yo-yo runs and no one got hurt.
Sonoma in non-rug mode:
Rob doing the poleless thing:
Nicola showing how cold and icy it was:
Seeker ripping it up on her new Schi Devils:
Action Shot:
A fun, cold, windy, well-fed weekend.
-dave-
