Mark Renson
New member
With high hopes, I was on the road Friday night headed for the Holy Land. Let's see, with snow showers in the forecast, I figured 2-4" would fall on Stark Mountain that night and another 2-3" on Sunday, thus giving a 2 day total of 6-12" prior to the 2 foot dump that would surely fall on Sunday - wow, that comes out to 4 feet of snow, don't it?
Arriving in the Holy Land, I could see that it was warmer there than in Massachusetts - all I can think of is that film clip of Vince Lombardi where he bellows out "what the h*ll is going on here".
OK, there would be snow in the higher elevations, I though as I slapped on the skins in the Base Area. The Practice Slope would be opening, so I checked in in case I would be needed for anything (I was not - enough manpower was there). I cursed as I shuffled up the unskiably (well, unskiable for me but not Justin) thin Bunny. But, spirits heightened when I shuffled past Lower Slower Glade and found acceptable coverage. Snow was heavy and I neglected skin wax (brining it and applying it). This created some huge blobs of snow on my skins. It probably explained why it was my slowest time to the summit ever. Once in the Stark's Nest, I kicked back as I was by myself (first one to summit for the day, too). One thing I deducted was that the shelters at the top can cause one to slow down and kick back a bit too much - no Teutonic Madman bellowing in your ear "MARK, voht are you do-ink, vatchink ski moof-fees? hur-r-r-r-r-ry up". Antelope was a sweet run and I ran into fellow Patroller Brennan and his legion of 3 on the way up. A leisurely skin up Fox and I found great coverage in the Cool Green World of Vixen. Up to the top of the Double again and I took a nap inside. Real lazy day. I took more turns down VIxen and headed down Bunny. At around Lower Slower Glade, things got sketchy and when I reached Bunny-Beaver cache, I carried my boards on my new BD Revelation pack. The pack carries skis suprisingly well, I discovered. That night at the bar, I started to overhear some ski biz b.s. about layoffs, etc which I shut out as I discovered that the TV was on with something much more interesting like Dwight Freeney and Steve McNair. Later on, something even more interesting showed up as Brian Mohr and Emily came in and gave a nice slide show on skiing in Iceland.
Sunday, like WOW, it was really snowing ...... no dry heaves, no sleety crap and mixed fecal matter from the sky - it was really snowing. Checked in the Patrol Shack and headed up Bunny, this time at a blistering 1300+ VPH. Nothing like a good sleep, some refueling on Single Chair Ales the prior night and good inspirational snow. I forced myself not to get too comfy in the Stark's Nest and off I went for a nice descent (duh, I forgot if it was Antelope or Catamount). Found nice descent down Quacky twice and went back up to the summit and had a beaut of a run down Cat Bowl where I was astounded at how deep the snow was getting (wow, all the way up to my boot top ......ummm, it has been a rough season ya' know) and then flew down the Antelope corkscrew and headed for one more off of the Double. At the top, I had run into Josh Tower who was taking his kids for earned turns ..... in fact, Jeff's kid from the bunkhouse was making curious inquiries about earning turns that morning - the wave of the future!!! I had an Upper Canyon somewhere in there which was very nice and at the end of the fine day, I headed down Bunny. I was surprised at the improvement in coverage and made it down to the elbow before I heard the pop of a rock on the bottom of my skis. Later on, I watched the coach who has supernatural powers to win big games go up against the coach who has supernatural powers to lose big games. Powder skiing, beer and Patriots football - weekends the way they oughtta' be!
Well, we all know about Monday's big disappointment. We Patrollers went on standby in the morning and headed up the Single for 2 runs in the morning to place 'boo and shovel in some water bars (not-so-BRUTAL GROOMING). Geordie exhorted 3 of us to check out Porcupine and whaddya' know, I had my best run ever down Porky - nice sleety snow that skied very well. We had a blast as we got some of the spoils of patrolling. At noon, it was nervously decided to opne up The Single to the public. Good thing we have a GM who has some 'nads and understands skiing. SKiing was outstanding though obviosuly thin. Bunny and Porky held up amazingly well through the day - they were actually doable! Since we opened Easy Way all the way to Birdland, a nice headwall shot down part of Gazelle was to be had (twice - it was good!). Chute was a blast. Our new Patroller, Spike from Smuggs (you've met him through another one of my posts) who we are glad to have ('cuz Smuggs has a cool patrol). joined a buncha' us down Fall line which was a sweet roller coaster ride into and through Creamery. It also helps that I am finally getting used to wider skis (neighborhood of 80mm, though I don't think I wanna' get any wider) Freezing rain held off 'til the end of Sweep. It was a great day and we patrollers were thanked by many of the public for getting the place open - a warm fuzzy day for sure.
Arriving in the Holy Land, I could see that it was warmer there than in Massachusetts - all I can think of is that film clip of Vince Lombardi where he bellows out "what the h*ll is going on here".
OK, there would be snow in the higher elevations, I though as I slapped on the skins in the Base Area. The Practice Slope would be opening, so I checked in in case I would be needed for anything (I was not - enough manpower was there). I cursed as I shuffled up the unskiably (well, unskiable for me but not Justin) thin Bunny. But, spirits heightened when I shuffled past Lower Slower Glade and found acceptable coverage. Snow was heavy and I neglected skin wax (brining it and applying it). This created some huge blobs of snow on my skins. It probably explained why it was my slowest time to the summit ever. Once in the Stark's Nest, I kicked back as I was by myself (first one to summit for the day, too). One thing I deducted was that the shelters at the top can cause one to slow down and kick back a bit too much - no Teutonic Madman bellowing in your ear "MARK, voht are you do-ink, vatchink ski moof-fees? hur-r-r-r-r-ry up". Antelope was a sweet run and I ran into fellow Patroller Brennan and his legion of 3 on the way up. A leisurely skin up Fox and I found great coverage in the Cool Green World of Vixen. Up to the top of the Double again and I took a nap inside. Real lazy day. I took more turns down VIxen and headed down Bunny. At around Lower Slower Glade, things got sketchy and when I reached Bunny-Beaver cache, I carried my boards on my new BD Revelation pack. The pack carries skis suprisingly well, I discovered. That night at the bar, I started to overhear some ski biz b.s. about layoffs, etc which I shut out as I discovered that the TV was on with something much more interesting like Dwight Freeney and Steve McNair. Later on, something even more interesting showed up as Brian Mohr and Emily came in and gave a nice slide show on skiing in Iceland.
Sunday, like WOW, it was really snowing ...... no dry heaves, no sleety crap and mixed fecal matter from the sky - it was really snowing. Checked in the Patrol Shack and headed up Bunny, this time at a blistering 1300+ VPH. Nothing like a good sleep, some refueling on Single Chair Ales the prior night and good inspirational snow. I forced myself not to get too comfy in the Stark's Nest and off I went for a nice descent (duh, I forgot if it was Antelope or Catamount). Found nice descent down Quacky twice and went back up to the summit and had a beaut of a run down Cat Bowl where I was astounded at how deep the snow was getting (wow, all the way up to my boot top ......ummm, it has been a rough season ya' know) and then flew down the Antelope corkscrew and headed for one more off of the Double. At the top, I had run into Josh Tower who was taking his kids for earned turns ..... in fact, Jeff's kid from the bunkhouse was making curious inquiries about earning turns that morning - the wave of the future!!! I had an Upper Canyon somewhere in there which was very nice and at the end of the fine day, I headed down Bunny. I was surprised at the improvement in coverage and made it down to the elbow before I heard the pop of a rock on the bottom of my skis. Later on, I watched the coach who has supernatural powers to win big games go up against the coach who has supernatural powers to lose big games. Powder skiing, beer and Patriots football - weekends the way they oughtta' be!
Well, we all know about Monday's big disappointment. We Patrollers went on standby in the morning and headed up the Single for 2 runs in the morning to place 'boo and shovel in some water bars (not-so-BRUTAL GROOMING). Geordie exhorted 3 of us to check out Porcupine and whaddya' know, I had my best run ever down Porky - nice sleety snow that skied very well. We had a blast as we got some of the spoils of patrolling. At noon, it was nervously decided to opne up The Single to the public. Good thing we have a GM who has some 'nads and understands skiing. SKiing was outstanding though obviosuly thin. Bunny and Porky held up amazingly well through the day - they were actually doable! Since we opened Easy Way all the way to Birdland, a nice headwall shot down part of Gazelle was to be had (twice - it was good!). Chute was a blast. Our new Patroller, Spike from Smuggs (you've met him through another one of my posts) who we are glad to have ('cuz Smuggs has a cool patrol). joined a buncha' us down Fall line which was a sweet roller coaster ride into and through Creamery. It also helps that I am finally getting used to wider skis (neighborhood of 80mm, though I don't think I wanna' get any wider) Freezing rain held off 'til the end of Sweep. It was a great day and we patrollers were thanked by many of the public for getting the place open - a warm fuzzy day for sure.