Dan Barron
New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/2/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Friday morning I wasn't sure where to go from my Burlingtn hotel base. Back to J? Tempting, but I didn't want all that drive before the New Year's festivities (Barb hates it when I snore at the dinner table). MRG? Reports I'd heard sounded like pretty sketchy conditions. Stowe? Could be crowded on a Holiday day but their report on the hotel bulletin board said 10" of new and 90% open. Sounded Good. And all day yesterday I'd been wondering what Jerm would of found on the day I stayed stuck on Sunnyside. <BR> <BR>Arrived at Stowe. Tons of cars. Is Big Spruce open? I think so, said the lot attendant. Park there, ask a Mountain Hostess type person and it turns out, no, Big Spruce is not open and no, Nosedive is not open, nor any other front 4, I think, and frankly, how they arrived at a 90% trail count is a ski mystery I cannot yet fathom. Turned around and drove to MRG. <BR> <BR>Good move. Incredibly light crowds. Much good snow. (Some ice, a lot of bare spots in places, but all in all, way on the good side). Not tons of trails open but more than enough. <BR> <BR>Highlights? Overall Peaceful Feeling. Exploring woods below Bunny (including a great, for me, 5-6 foot ledge jump). Exploring/poaching (which is it if you arrive on a closed trail via woods and without ducking rope?) and getting first tracks on Upper Glades. Snow was a crunchy crust with a layer of powder over it ranging from 6" down to 0" where there were icy windblown "bald" patches to ski over. It was surprisingly skiable. Crust would "give" more than "break." Did wonderful S-turns all the way down. <BR> <BR>And the highlight of highlights: being in just the right place at just the right time when they dropped the rope on lower Canyon. A crowd of about twenty formed and it was interesting to note that me and two other telemarkers were the ones who figured out which end of the rope was going to be opened first and position ourselves to be the first over the line. What a blast as everyone takes off in wild swoops down a wide face of untracked (okay--not counting two patrollers' lines). Snow was crunchy like Upper Glades, but again, totally skiable. <BR> <BR>Afternoon I took a tele lesson and started standing taller, taking my turns with more confidence and less effort. It's gonna be interesting working on that. <BR> <BR>Last run I cruised down skier's right and checked out the entrance to 20th. Saw many tracks in (question: how many of those were Nick's?) and was sorely tempted, but the hour was late, the muscles weary and the chances of no one else coming in this day behind my solo run were pretty high. Discretion made an unaccustomed visit to my snow-addled brain and <BR>I continued down the marked trails, standing tall and feeling like a tired but happy minor god.