Mark Renson
New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/9/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Inspired by the advice of Ironman Duffy ....... <BR> <BR>I got up Gawd awfully early Saturday morning and headed north on I-93. I became woozy at around Lincoln NH and pulled into a 24hr general store where I catnapped for 5 min. I really questioned if it was worth it, but I was too far in my journey to turn back. After grabbing a cookie and Surge, I was back on the road where I ran into a snow squall heading into Franconia Notch - I was became wide awake and excited now that I had run <BR>into the "good" weather. Snow, treacherous driving, salt and sand all over my truck - yeah, Yeah, YEAH, bring it on, baby!!! <BR>At Jay, I picked up my ticket at the special MRG rate of $24 and waited in line behind about 5-6 others at the new McQuad, foaming at the mouth for that reported 7-10" of new fluff. I had yet to find a trail report, so I was to base some decision making on the prior day report. <BR>Riding the new McQuad in blustery snowy conditions, I arrived at the top of Exhibition (no other way down was open) and pointed 'em towards Expo Glade. Found 1 set of tracks and hopped onto some tricky wind packed and <BR>finally into some sweet fluff. Roared out of the woods and over to Deer Run - a fun green novice that is almost always left ungroomed on the right side (novices, take note if you are interested in experiencing some natural <BR>conditions!). Here, I made 1st tracks and also scraped bottom. For the second run, I went for some sweet seconds, the only deviation being <BR>descending via Flash (I wish they didn't groom that). I then hit the Tram (no line) and headed for Ullr's where I noticed some more virgin candy on Poma Line. I dove in and had a fantastic run; at the bottom, I paused to <BR>look back at my tracks - some of the nicest tracks I ever made!! So for dessert, I headed for Beaver Pond Glade and got some pow, icy spots, water bars and stumps - a blast! On Ullr's, there was brutal grooming and brutal <BR>ice floes. <BR>Next run was off of the new McQuad, again. I stopped a Host for some beta and he informed me of which glades were open - I now had the essential data. I celebrated this with a run down North Glade which had nice fluff, <BR>stumps and nubbins. I celebrated this with another Expo Glade shot followed by Flash (got fluff in the trees here) and into the just-opened Bushwacker Glade. <BR>It was time for new terrain, so I figured that a strong possibility existed for wind-blown fluff at the top of Northway, and some overlooked fluff on Show-Off Glade. I negotiated a huge ice floe at the top of <BR>Northway followed by - Score ! - nice chowder fluff. I hopped into Milk Run where I found edgeable frozen granular, fluff and rocks, roared onto Taxi and found great hardly touched candy in Show-Off Glade, letting out some ecstatic whooops on the way - BOOM! . I took the old Quad up and repeated the same run - it was soooo good. Next was Bonaventure Glade <BR>which was nice, but not as sweet as Show-Off. <BR>Next stop - Jet Triple lift. Kitzbuehel was closed, but Kitz Woods were <BR>open !! Conditions were rough on top and I took a rough tumble when I caught a 'nubbin (this happened a number of times throughout the day - it was kinda' gnarly) and got a horrendous bruise extending from my elbow to <BR>about 2/3 of the way to my hand. The run improved afterwards. At the bottom, I saw that Hells Woods were closed, but I put my hand in the cookie jar by sneaking in through the side off of Hell's Crosing and I actually swore that I got knee deep - sweetest snow of the day !!! <BR>I did some more things that I forgot about and had another Expo Glade run and then it was time for Lunch at Tramside - I was getting a bit fried from the great morning ! BUT, I saw a box coming in for a landing and a woman in the short line with stretch pants that looked like they were spray painted on her, so lunch was postponed. I was disappointed when I <BR>discovered that Ullr's/Poma Line was closed, so I headed past the new McQuad down the icy hardpack. I was consoled when I saw that the top of the non-Mc Northwest Passage was opened where I found sweet bumps and roller-coaster ride skiing before I was led back onto the brutally groomed Green Mountain Boys. I believe in safety first, so I quickly departed this trail (I am afraid of McSkiing, intimidated by the spectre of long,uncontrolled slides) and went for another North Glade/Deer Run trip. <BR>I had to be realistic, so I grabbed a 15 min lunch and roared back to life on my exciting ski adventure!! Made another Milk Run (I think I did about 5 for the day) and headed for the Triple. At the top, I headed for <BR>Derrick's, but was seduced by Timbuktu where I found great cover and made some exciting quick turns. I finished off with Willard's, hopped on the Jet chair and resumed my mission to explore Derrick's - yuck, that trail sucked; icy and treacherous. So, I traversed across Haynes, climbed up a bit so that I could traverse to Stateside Glade where I found some tricky stump filled powder. Another run down Hell's Woods proved that I was not <BR>imagining things before on this glade - I got some knee deep again, proved when at the bottom, I looked down at my pants and found residuals up to my knees. <BR>Found some more tracked powder (not chowder) on Lower CanAm. Took on some <BR>frightening frozen McSludge on Exhibition .... hit Milk Run .... did some mellow crusing on some nice snow on Goat Run ... did other things I forgot about ... had some memorable views of the distant Presidential Range. <BR>Phew !!! A GREAT DAY!!! Granted, there was ice, rocks and stumps as <BR>evidenced by my shredded ski bottoms - looks like a wood chipper hit 'em - but I had a red letter day of Old School Eastern Guerilla skiing. The 2 Jay Peak elAs at the end of day tasted so-o-o-o good. Was treated to some <BR>beautiful stars and a crescent moon on the ride down to Waitsfield - skies so clear, that I saw the faintly visible dark side of the moon.