Pico, VT 1/22/00

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/24/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>The bad thing about having a really great long weekend is that the following short weekend will most likely never come close to matching the previous one. Especially is you drive less and, more importantly,pay more for less snow. Determined to avert that disappointment, I set my sights low and set out to use up a couple of those Youth corps tickets that have been clouding my pack since Thanksgiving. <BR> <BR>After tossing around ideas of Ascutney, Killington, or Bromley.. Komrade Jason came to the rescue with a suggestion to go to Pico. Erin was along too and Pico has a $20 college ticket so she'd be able to ski on the cheap too. There was a sort of Tele demo day on tap as well so the plan was set. <BR> <BR>As it turned out the tele demos were a bit of a hassle. You were supposed to take a $35 clinic and with that you get "free" demos. After some haggling as to the idea that I didnt want a clinic, just free new gear, the guy at the counter relented and said the only way was if I waited around till all the stuff had been picked through by the "paying customers". I was feeling cold and lazy so I ended up passing on it. Later on, Jay effectively feigned "paying customer" status and tried some new K2 tele boards, which he loved. <BR> <BR>Anyway, the skiing. It was actually good despite the fact that neither the summit Quad nor Little Pico was running. From what we could see the upper trails were blasted clean of new snow. Summit Glade and Poma Line would have been fun to ski but they'll have to wait for another day. Outpost was open and that's where we spent most of our time. <BR> <BR>All of the natural snow trails off Outpost had been closed all week and remain reserved for our amusements. For the first part of the day the Jay Josh Jerm trio effectively ate up a good portion of what had been saved for us. It was yummy, 6 to 10 inches of old but still light powder on some fun rolling terrain. The bottom of Pipeline had two big knolls where we took turn launching and spinning ourselves into the stratosphere. <BR> <BR>Erin had never skied powder, after teaching her the proper rope ducking form I led her down an assortment of reserved terrain. Such high class treatment for a mere $20! We marveled at the amount of untracked terrain available from this tiny 500' lift. We marvled more at the fact that nobody was skiing it, instead limiting themselves to frostbitten punishment on the adjacent McTrails. Fools! <BR> <BR>Some lady in red on the lift yelled "that's a good way to lose your ticket!" to Erin. She felt guilty but I explained to her that the woman was probably just commenting on the way that she had affixed her ticket to her jacket. Next time she should take more care to sheild the ticket from branches and puckerbrush that could rip it from her, and result in a lost ticket. Such friendly staff! <BR> <BR>Sometime in the afternoon the reserved trails were opened to the general public and we were forced into the trees to find good snow. We didnt have to look far and found bliss in an untracked line right off the top of the lift. It began with a sweet set of 10 foot ledges that knocked us out of our powder potato laziness. The line was right next to the lift but, unless you were skiing it, it looked like dense unskiable underbush. It was well disguised enough that we were the only ones to <BR>ski it all day. <BR> <BR>The sun set, it got cold, we left. Hit Mother Shapiros on the way home for free wings and fries during happy hour. Jay claims to have had four bowls of wings the previous night, split between four people. And all they bought was one $1.50 Gnatty Lite to go between them. How's that for thrifty? I'm still learning I guess -- still havent figured the right ratio of ketchup, salt, and pepper to hot water for that "tomato soup" he always raves about.. <BR>Free food for the poor!