Mark Renson
New member
It felt weird to be so warm on Saturday. I forgot what I did for trail check, but I do <BR>remember that we had to be on the lookout for <BR>branches and debris on the trails. A big conifer <BR>that was snapped off by winds gave me much work to <BR>do on the left of Ferret. Ferret was in good <BR>shape, but getting there via Moody's was lousy. <BR>Some good stuff was to be found on Upper Glade. <BR>A lotta' wind slab was to be found as well as <BR>some ice. <BR> <BR> We ran sleds at about 10AM (I was told <BR>that we "run" sleds at Mad River, not "pull" <BR>them) down Cat Bowl. After last weeks practice <BR>on the Exterminator Ice Skating Rink, it was <BR>easy. Manning the Tag Line on Canyon went <BR>smoothly even though the conditions were variable. <BR> <BR> During my "stint" at the top of The Double, I practiced some of my snow analysis skills that I honed & acquired in my Level II Avy <BR>class. I dug a pit in an area that had windblown <BR>snow pitched at 28 degrees and went to town. <BR> Believe it or not, the temp of the snow at the <BR>bottom of the pit was near freezing - just the <BR>way it should be, proving how good an insulator <BR>that snow is. The snowpack was pretty weak - the <BR>fact that there was a real live small slab <BR>avalanche below The Double just downhill from the <BR>Birdcage proved that ! <BR> <BR>Found nice skiing on Liftline below the Tower 10 <BR>ledge. Found good skiing on the top of Lynx <BR>which turned ugly on Beaver and I couldn't deal <BR>with it anymore, so I bailed over to Upper Glade. <BR> <BR> Loon was lousy - ya' had to be brave to handle <BR>the Brave Green World of Birdland. <BR> <BR> On Sunday, we had some light snow .... <BR>but not enough. Panther was real nice for trail <BR>check, sans the part where it merges with Slalom <BR>Hill. <BR> <BR> The Single developed some mechanical <BR>problems which added to many challenges that we <BR>had over the weekend. The problem was resolved <BR>and we were going to open The Single for the <BR>final 45 minutes of the day, but we had a nasty, <BR>serious injury to tend to on One Way (2nd in 2 days) which made it logistically too difficult to <BR>open up The Single. <BR> <BR> Sweep was down Gazelle Glades which was <BR>in very good shape. <BR> <BR> We all had a few beers at the end of the <BR>day and I clicked on the computer to get the <BR>great news that the real America's Team had <BR>intercepted Peyton Manning 4 times (whoa!). Life <BR>was pretty cool over the weekend.