Mt. Snow, VT 12/18/99

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 12/20/99. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>I had originally planned to head up to Okemo on Saturday to meet with Peter Salts and anyone else who may have cared to join in. Alas, after conferring with our weekend guests from Georgia upon their arrival at LGA, it was made clear to me that trekking 45 min. each way to ski a full day at Okemo while my guests' time here was limited would not be conducive to the "social fabric" in the ski house for the weekend. I decided to meet her half way and ski a half day at Mt. Sneaux - a scant 5 minutes away (sorry Pete and assorted members of clan Malcyk). While one has to be senstive to the needs of weekend guests travelling from afar, this is ski season, and my priorities are not to be trifled with. <BR> <BR>As it turns out, I was in no condition to wake up early and make the drive to Okemo, so the compromise was a good thing. Got to the mountain around noon and was on the Canyon HSQ 15 minutes later. The day had already started with a good omen. I wa able to slide in to my new Rossi Course KS boots with no trouble whatsoever. This was in stark contrast to the previous weekend at Stratton where I struggled for a good 5 minutes. The feet felt as comfortable and snug as they ever have in a ski boot. Combine that with my first use of the X-Screams this year, and I had every reason to be confident. <BR> <BR>Anywho, despite the inflated trail count of 25, there were basically 2 ways down the north face, four on the upper half of the main face, and two at the bottom. The doesn't include Long John and Deer Run I s'pose, but hwy bother? Just a waste of snowmaking IMHO. The first run was a quick cruise down Standard. As it was one of only two main routes on the bottom half of the mountain, it was very hard and almost bereft of loose snow except as the extreme edges. That was folloed by a trek up the Summit Expres over to the North Face where I found Fallen Timbers and Chute were open. Everyone seemed to headed to Chute, so I naturally took Fallen Timbers and literally had the trail to myself. It was wall to wall firm, but edgable. My factory tuned X-Screams lit that trial up as I swooped from one side to the other. What a feeling - I actually hollered about half way down. I had never felt so in control, absolutely lightning in a bottle. I made it to the bottom of the 1050' vert north face in about 30 seconds (or so it seemed). The next ride up, I ran into a cool guy from Morristown, NJ who happened to be good friends with a buddy of mine from school. We ended up skiing the rest of the day together and ducked into the 4:20 glades a time or three. <BR> <BR>Conditions pretty much deteriorated the rest of the day, with most trails, especially those on the lower mountain, getting dangerously scraped off. It was a great feeling to power through these icy spots while most of the masss were relegated to flailing helplessly. Mt. snow was blowing the man made all over the bottom 400' verts on the mountain to try and build base depths when they could. I could also see guns going on Carinthia, and Snowdance - a monumental waste of water, nergy, and money IMHO. Contrary to the official snow report I received via e-mail, Yard Sale, the only "expert" trail on the main face, was not open.