Mad River Glen, VT 2/20-2/21

[BD]

Friday morning got the best spot in the parking lot and got out to a beautiful sunny day and warm temperatures (high 20s or 30s I'd guess). Headed up the mountain for a warm-up on chute, which was in pretty good shape. Snow conditions were firm packed powder everywhere (including in the woods, with the exception of 20th in which powder could be found). A little scratch here and there but nothing too bad even on the lower-mountain trails. On the open runs, the presidents' day crowds had taken a small toll on the bumps, making them a bit deeper and more uneven than before the holiday. Spent most of the day in the woods, which generally had nicer bumps. <BR> <BR>Saturday morning got up to the mountain a little worried about the possibility of freezing rain during the night. But it turned out it had been all snow, though just a couple inches. Got on the chair at 8:32am and managed to get the first tracks of the day down Chute. This was fabulous -- all the fresh snow had blown into the troughs so it felt like more than 2" of fresh (if you could hold a line anyway!). One of my best runs of the year. Then headed over to fall line for another great run before heading into the woods. 20th hole felt like a crowded casino -- people everywhere and whoops coming from all around. I've never seen that many people there before. But amazingly I managed to find untracked boot-top powder on every run -- clearly lines that hadn't been skied for more than a week. It was fabulous. Though some of these lines had (as Marc Guido put it) a few 'technical' moments. Trees elsewhere were also good, especially some of the lower-mountain deciduous lines. Lines weren't as bad as I expected either -- 30 mins at the worst, but more typically around 15. It snowed more or less the whole day too, so I was sorry to have to head back Sat. night.