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On to last Saturday. There was no avalanhce danger sans a few ice chunks falling off of the Headwall. What was most important was The SKIING. Brilliant bluebird skies and there was a freeze the prior night. The new snow in The Bowl from the prior week had not set up and I was gonna' ski it, but...

John and River, thanx for your defense. <BR> <BR>At the same time, after re-reading my post a few times, I could perhaps see where "anonymous" (whoever he/she is) is coming from and how my post might be interpreted as "I told you so". If you look down towards the bottom, you could see where I...

As I drove up Route 16 past Dana Place Inn after 3 hours of driving in heavy rains, snow started to fall! Like hell it ain't ski season! <BR> <BR> At Huntington Ravine Fire Road, the Tucks Trail became a pleasant hike on the <BR>smooth foot+ deep snowpack. <BR> <BR> After getting...

Huntington Ravine was a great cauldron of wind, clouds and spindrift glowing in the brilliant morning sun high up on The Rockpile as I drove up Route 16. It was as if the Presidential Range was flipping Spring the bird. <BR> When I got to Hermit Lake, there were gusty winds under brilliant...

Skies were bright, but cold downdrafts slapped us. Up at Hermit Lake, the avalanche danger was rated as low for Hillman's Highway and moderate for the Bowl. The message that we were to send to the public was that the Left Gully had the most stable (borderline low-to-moderate) snowpack. We...

Patience, Marc, patience .... I had to get pics developed, today: <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1616.jpg" ALT="The Bowl ... note the crevasses at the top and the chunks of ice from the Headwall at the bottom"> <BR> <BR><IMG...

I hustled up the Tucks Trail bright 'n early with gear on my back on Saturday. The hike was exhilirating as I set a tremendous pace. Somehow, I just felt very fresh and full of life - just glad to be back on the Rockpile, I guess. Hiking got treacherous in the slippery snow past the...

On Saturday morning, we were informed that Dylan won the Vertical Challenge and the <BR>Triple Crown for the second year in a row. Oh, and during the V.C., he did do his trademark <BR>helis-on-tellys - I don't think that Olympian Doug Lewis did that when he won the V.C. a few years ago. Since...

The PD warned us of lousy conditions as Saturday was shaping up to be another standard issue Year 2002 Death Crust kind of day. With the mountain cutting back on Pro Patroller time, we volunteers became even more important and the PD thanked all of us for coming out to patrol. Up The Single I...

Temps were very balmy under brilliant skies on Saturday morning. Up the Double I went and I took on Upper-Lower Panther. Snow was sloppy and heavy and not corn. My heart sank as bare spots were rearing their ugly heads. I had to go to the Practice Slope to check Eaton's Run and made a return...

We had our Patrol Refresher at Hermit Lake, NH on Saturday. It was great getting back to see the many faces from last year and it was a beautiful day. A long fracture line was observed running from between Left Gully-Chute to Right Gully. Hillman's Highway is filled in but Duchess is not and...

"Very technical Mad River skiing out there" was the announcement made by John the PD for our morning briefing on Saturday. It was to be another weekend of crust and ice, typical of this lousy February. <BR> Up The Single I went to help set up a bump course on Chute. At the top, great...

Given the forecast, I anticipated some snow on Friday night. Instead, it was another forecast that fizzled. I was surprised at the evidence of warmer weather during the prior week. But, on Saturday morning, temps were warm, the sun was out and the snow coverage was great. <BR> For...

That date should be 2/10/2002.

For me, it was a trip to Jay Peak for a Senior Toboggan clinic with several other MRG Patrollers in addition to others from Jay, Smuggs and Whiteface. After a high speed warm up run down the groomed Haynes (soft corduroy with bullet proof patches), we spent the day doing toboggan practice down...

Grabbed a beer at the Hyde Away on Friday night where I swear some people were still celebrating the Supibowl. <BR> Next morning, a whole 1/4" fell and the Chute had indeed been groomed below and above the ledges. That left us Patrollers to stomp on the ledges to break up the death crust...

With the forecast of crusty conditions, I headed up in anticipation of having much patrol work to do including marathon boot-packing. High winds hammered my pickup on I-89 and I kept my speed under 60. <BR> On Saturday morning, the PD announced "in the words of Boomer, we got f***ed". A...

Decent coverage but no snow for a few days. The groomed runs are getting a bit hardpack. Some more friendly stuff off of the groomed especially on the tree chutes off of Larch. Cold this morning - minus 10F as I type. On my way to Revelstoke BC in 20 minutes. I sense some "good" weather may...

After shovelling, I hopped on The Double for trail <BR>checks. Partridge was a bit tricky. Slalom Hill was sweet with the 1-2" of new and coverage was at its best of the season thus far. We did some bamboo work down below and then I headed up for more. The steeeep Gazelle Headwall was...

Went to Wachusett to practice earning turns at SME. Snow was falling at a moderate rate when I got there at 7PM. I skinned up Ralph's which was closed for brutal grooming. About 2/3 of the way up, the rope was dropped and a herd descended. The descent was nice with damp snow falling on the...