Burke, VT: 01/16/06 (Dawn Patrol)

riverc0il

New member
was it worth it? totally. was it powder? not even close. burke reported in with varying amounts yesterday from 8-10". that seems about accurate with no additional accumulation since yesterday. it was snowing lightly all early morning, but no accumulation to speak of.

first ever dawn patrol, good times. set the clock for 3:30am but could have gotten away with 4:00am. lady at the gas station asks "what are we up to this morning?" to which i replied i was grabbing a quick run at burke before heading into work.

*blank stare*

:lol: :D

wasn't sure how i wanted to skin, but after seeing the groomers were rather icy, i opted for the natural snow trails. i went straight up dougs drop since that was the trail i was planning on skiing. lower dougs went by quickly, upper dougs is steeper but still doable. snow guns blowing on upper warrens were putting a lot of moisture into the air. i found conditions on dougs good enough to drop it on the descent. rounding out the ascent on toll road was fast and sweet, didn't see any one up there, not a groomer or snow making dude to be seen.

had to wait about 20 minutes at the summit for more light before i started going down. this was also when i realized i forgot to pack clear goggles instead of tinted. oops. after 20, the light was still barely there but good enough to go and i was getting cold. headed down upper dougs and had a hard time of it. the moisture in the air from the guns made visiblity quick hard. on dougs proper, i started to find my turns and really opened it up on lower dougs which was sweet.

snow conditions were moist snow under crust topped by dust. generally speaking, the crust was rather thick and made for tough going in the poor visibility.no powder to speak of. BUT most of burke's natural non-gladed trails have enough base for skiing thin cover style even though they are not open. this is fantastic base building stuff. with a one foot dump, burke should be 100% open except for glades if they do not loose anything.

got back to the college in time for a quick shower and still got in 5 minutes early, swweeeeet. since i open the place up and am the manager, i really can't afford to be late. :shock:
 
riverc0il":33rps810 said:
first ever dawn patrol, good times. set the clock for 3:30am but could have gotten away with 4:00am.(...)
*blank stare*
Blank stare like :shock:

=D>

WOW!!! I'm speechless.
 
Nicely done river, way to earn 'em on dawn patrol. I'm aspiring to get to some pre-dawn starts for my Bolton trips, but I haven't managed it yet. Hopefully you can catch a dawn patrol powder day in the future, you more than deserve it when you get up at that hour. I look forward to hearing about it. :)

J.Spin
 
Riverc0il is God!
Think what he could be doing in the Northwest this season. Larry Schick has been killing it in the Crystal backcountry every week since Thanksgiving.

At his age Riverc0il must be thinking about it when he's done with college. A perfect cultural fit with the Turns All Year crowd IMHO.
 
Tony Crocker":qwlonzv1 said:
At his age Riverc0il must be thinking about it when he's done with college. A perfect cultural fit with the Turns All Year crowd IMHO.
lol. i have been done with college for seven years now. i work at a college, i don't go to one ;) i am currently satisfied with turns october through july. august through september are rather expensive to obtain from my neck of the woods.
 
jamesdeluxe":3u3darxa said:
Dawn patrol on a lift-served mountain with no powder... that's pretty core.
i had read a monday trip report claiming a powder day. i was pretty skeptical, what i guessed had occurred was a few inches of pow feel before the NCP moved in and consolidated things putting a firm crust on top which is exactly what i discovered. still, i remained optimistic i would find a few inches of pow up high. interestingly enough, the worst icing and crust was near the summit. dawn patroling had been on the to do list for a while, this year obviously lowered the bar for what i considered worth while. but interestingly enough, i had an awesome time despite the lack of pow and would probably readily do it again for less than ideal conditions. it was a very energizing experience.
 
Tony Crocker":8489abmy said:
Riverc0il is God!
Riverc0il (...) A perfect cultural fit with the Turns All Year crowd IMHO.

Riverc0il":8489abmy said:
i am currently satisfied with turns october through july. august through september are rather expensive to obtain from my neck of the woods.
(...)
this year obviously lowered the bar for what i considered worth while.

Tony is right, by lowering he bar, river is a prime candidat for a turns-all-year in the EAST!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

It's been done before...and if it can be done again, River will find a way. :lol:

I applaud your dedication. :P
 
sszycher":itk37b8m said:
Riverc0il is God!
you wouldn't be saying that if you saw my feeble attempts at low visibility crust turns on upper dougs :lol: :shock:

google earth providing the track treatment on the recent resolution upgraded northeast kingdom part of the map. T, you'll get a heads up if i get any more stupid ideas this season ;) once the snow starts flying, i am likely going to try and catch up. :twisted:
 

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august through september are rather expensive to obtain from my neck of the woods.
That's one reason why you need to change your neck of the woods. The quality of the other months is a better reason.

Do it while you're young enough, before you get locked in by career, family or real estate considerations. Like admin.
 
Tony Crocker":6gdvpg5s said:
Do it while you're young enough, before you get locked in by career, family or real estate considerations. Like admin.
At least Riverc0il moved to Vermont not Florida like ... :wink:

I'm sure that the skiing is better in Vermont than Florida.
 
Patrick":36m75mkm said:
At least Riverc0il moved to Vermont not Florida like ... :wink:

The ballbusting that admin gets on his own board...

Even in a sub-par Utah, he's laughing at us ECers right now though.
 
I've been tracking admin's subpar Utah season, and so far it's roughly equivalent to my skiing during the record early season of 2004-05 in California.

So far this season I'd take Larry Schick's skiing in Seattle over admin's, but Larry had close to a total loss season 2 years ago.
 
RC take the "before you get locked up" advice. I wish someone told me before I ................................. Well my son is 17 months and all are bills are under control, so the 3 of us will start our ski/hiking lives together next year in full force. After a two year absence I'm looking forward to it. Kepp up all the great efforts, your repotrs and this site are keeping me sane. Believe me when I tell you, I visualize every step up and every turn down. Cheers, John
 
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