My daughter and I enjoyed skiing at Mad River today. Last weekend’s storm brought MRG 24 inches of snow that started as heavy and wet and dried out as the storm progressed and took the mountain from mostly closed to mostly open. By today, however, conditions were . . . variable.
On one hand, there was hardly any ice, which is unusual for this time of year. Lower-angled terrain, even in some of the more accessible trees, skied very nicely.
On the other hand, cover on the steeper stuff was thin to the point that most other NE areas likely would have had it closed. However, MRG’S core skiers are a bit of a different breed. My daughter and I agreed that the majority of skiers on the hill today were dodging the rocks and bare spots on MRG’s narrow, old-school New England trails at speed with aplomb and grace.
Lifts were ski on all day, and the vibe all around the hill was excellent. The coop is clearly taking good care of the place with noticeable improvements in ticket sales, grooming, and food service, and significant sprucing up of the Basebox.
I’m in the middle of a gnarly chest cold (my money is on RSV), so we got a late start today. Nonetheless, even on MRG’s slow fixed grips, we managed 18.5 vertical feet before closing at 3:30. Today was my first day of the season, and the legs held up surprisingly well. The rest of me is feeling pretty wiped out tonight.
It was also a real pleasure to get my daughter all to myself for the day. She’s almost 17 now, so we have less of these kinds of days together than we used to. As always, for both of us, it was nice to be back on General Stark Mountain.
It‘s gorgeous at the house right now with 28 degrees and gentle snow. For skiing, it is a real bummer it will be warming up and raining tomorrow. However, the bigger concern may turn out to be widespread Christmas power outages with the high winds and cold temps that are predicted to arrive at the end of the storm.
On one hand, there was hardly any ice, which is unusual for this time of year. Lower-angled terrain, even in some of the more accessible trees, skied very nicely.
On the other hand, cover on the steeper stuff was thin to the point that most other NE areas likely would have had it closed. However, MRG’S core skiers are a bit of a different breed. My daughter and I agreed that the majority of skiers on the hill today were dodging the rocks and bare spots on MRG’s narrow, old-school New England trails at speed with aplomb and grace.
Lifts were ski on all day, and the vibe all around the hill was excellent. The coop is clearly taking good care of the place with noticeable improvements in ticket sales, grooming, and food service, and significant sprucing up of the Basebox.
I’m in the middle of a gnarly chest cold (my money is on RSV), so we got a late start today. Nonetheless, even on MRG’s slow fixed grips, we managed 18.5 vertical feet before closing at 3:30. Today was my first day of the season, and the legs held up surprisingly well. The rest of me is feeling pretty wiped out tonight.
It was also a real pleasure to get my daughter all to myself for the day. She’s almost 17 now, so we have less of these kinds of days together than we used to. As always, for both of us, it was nice to be back on General Stark Mountain.
It‘s gorgeous at the house right now with 28 degrees and gentle snow. For skiing, it is a real bummer it will be warming up and raining tomorrow. However, the bigger concern may turn out to be widespread Christmas power outages with the high winds and cold temps that are predicted to arrive at the end of the storm.