Greek PeakTeletuesday 1/11/05

Sharon

New member
It snowed all day here. Reports were for 3-5", 4-7" or 2-4", depending on what weather report you got. No one seemed to know for sure.

Well, it wasn't 20" of powder and it wasn't out west. No snorkel required, nor did you need chains to get there.

Some were on phat skis.I had hoped to try out my phatties today, but being that there was only 2" of powder it hardly seemed worth it. My phatties are mounted with AT bindings, and since it was tele-tuesday and all the pinheads were out, I had to go with the free heel on the semi-phat Super Stinx, or I'd be skiing alone. The Super Stinx rock in all kinds of conditions. Todays powdery surfaces made any ski a hero ski. It may not have been deep, but it was really good. No ice, just loose powder on a beautiful night.

I peeled out of work early and got to Greek Peak at 3:30 and parked in the first bay, 50' from the base lodge. My friend pulled up at the same time. We booted up and up Chair 1 we went, as the snow continued to fly.

There were hardly any people there at that time, though the school buses were beginning to pull into the parking lot. We had Chair 1 to ourselves for about 2 hours before the kids were let out of their lessons. During that time we tracked up the untouched snow on the right side of Eleysian Fields and on Christy's. Once those were tracked we skied near the snow guns on fresh manmade on Iliad. Odyssey gave us some pitch but we had to share with the race training. Lap after lap on Chair 1, we picked up pinheads along the way, from Binghamton to Ithaca. There were probably over 25 pinheads riding Chair 1 this evening, and as a group, we were by far the oldest people there, though there was no doubt that we were having just as much fun as the school kids that dominated the mountain. As my legs got tired, I had to stop more often. Swarms of kids on snowboards and skiboards wizzed by me, narrowly averting collisions with each other. It actually got a little busy and a lift line of about 10 people started to form from 5-7pm. By 7:30, my legs were toast and my stomach was roaring. The snow was tapering off anyway, and we had tracked out everything that was skiable. The woods are not quite ready, and trying them at night was not something our group was wanting to do, especially with a pinhead ski patroller out that night. It seems that a lot of puckerbrush with thorns (raspberry) had grown in the woods, so more snow will be required. We did try to flatten some of this puckerbrush near the trailedge. There is a crunchy breakable layer beneath the 2" of new snow, and beneath the 3" of snow that had fallen on saturday, so it is close and will need some inspection at another time. On telemark skis I certainly am not confident enough to try the woods in the dark, though if I had been on my phatties, I probably would have encouraged it. I hung in there pretty well with a group of kick-ass telemarkers. I think skiing with such a group made me a better skier. It is starting to become a little more natural.

Of all the people I know who ski at Greek Peak, this night, all of them were on telemark skis. Had I chosen the phatties, I would have been skiing alone. It always strikes me funny how telemarkers are so much more friendly if you are also telemarking. Had I been on alpine skis, I would have been ignored by the group (except my real friends of this group would have skied with me anyway). It is somewhat elitist, I'll agree, but there definitely is a comraderie that telemarkers have that is unmatched by other snowsliders.

It was a lovely night of quality central New York skiing.
 
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