Mark Renson
New member
After dealing with some Reservation issues the prior evening at the HSC, I was ready for an MRG day. At our morning talk, the Flight Commander placed an emphasis on us practicing our sled skills as well as first aid. <BR> <BR> Trail check for me was the mighty green Fox. Surface was PPP - Perfect Packed Powder. Later I found soft bumps on Quacky, but also found a few slick spots in the troughs. <BR> <BR> Later that morning, I looked for some other patrollers to do sled training as I wanna' pass my Senior S&T this year. In a display of Girl Power, Lu and Margie showed up. I suggested starting with a relatively easy one down Cat Bowl, but Margie responded 3 times with and incredulous "Cat Bowl?" to that. So, she persuaded us down Fall Line and we leapfrogged down it. I took the 2nd shift and I struggled which left me discouraged. Margie took over and turned down an offer for a Tag Line and she smoothly roared down through the bumps. For a short stretch, I took on some Tag Line experience to the top of Creamery and then I got back in between the handles. Without a Tag Line, I found a great line and kicked arse, regaining my sledding confidence and then some!! Sweet snow helped in some way, but also got in the way. I then took on an empty sled drill through Ferret, Tom joined us and pulled a sled down Upper Glade and Margie took over on Lower Glade with me riding; right after dropping into the heavily bumped Lower Glade, she turned around to me and cooly mentioned that she was much better at sledding than first aid. I think she actually loves pulling sleds and the fact that she cooly and smoothly roared down the bumps of Lower Glade with my in the sled proved that. <BR> <BR> After a few more chores and a chairlift ride with Dickie Hall who told me abouts some experiences he had as a Killington Patroller, mid afternoon arrived. Temperatures warmed and snow softened as much as PPP could without turning to corn or slush/wet snow. I then got into a wonderful like "Zen", like ya' know .... like wow, totally un-bummer. Skiing became maga-fun. Soft, fun user-friendly bumps were everywhere and I felt great doing 'em, especially on Gazelle, One Way, Cat Bowl and Lift Line. There was am axial running water bar on Cat Bowl which only made things more interesting and Lift Line was especially fun. Oddly, I frequently overlook the latter for who-knows-what reason which is a bad thing as that trail ROCKS with it's rolls and ledges and hoo-haas and user friendly bumps which makes for a super-cool roller coaster ride. <BR> <BR> Sweep was late due to the crowds and the early sunset. The skies turned beautiful with the pinks/oranges/purples of sunset and the moon in the sky and the alpenglow on the mountains and the white capped Presidentials in the distance. It got so late, that I lost my depth perception a bit on my assigned trail sweep run, Gazelle. It was still way fun and capped off a great day.