Mark Renson
New member
On Friday night in the Mad River Valley after a long drive and before I got to the <BR>bunkhouse, I was in search of a beer and a TV where I could watch basketball just like <BR>countless others in the World (okay, in Canada it's hockey and in the Mother Country it's <BR>soccer, blah-blah, you get the picture). The Hyde Away was too crowded, so I drove down <BR>to the MMT which had a cover charge - no thanx. Egan's was closed - dammit, I wanted a <BR>beer - Rosita's closes at 11PM, the Common Man was closed as was The Blue Tooth. Geez, <BR>do I have to drive down to K-Mart? But whaddya' know, the Hyde Away was lookin' pretty <BR>good on my 2nd look - I was able to deal with the crowd after all, plus I ran into <BR>friends and the microbrew drafts tasted great and the hoops on TV was rocking. <BR> The next morning on the mountain it was up The Double we went. According to someone who <BR>had skied there the prior afternoon, much had drained into Lake Champlain overnight. <BR> Several patrollers went over to Panther/Slalom Hill/Gazelle land and found rotten snow. <BR> After a while, they deemed it not worthy of being opened. I actually found great bumps <BR>and excellent skiing on Quacky and later on Quacky III. Kim and I also closed the <BR>Panther/Slalom Hill/Gazelle entrances. <BR> Huge bare spots revealed themselves on Chipmunk and what was left of the Brave Green <BR>World of Birdland. I spent much time picking up and lugging bamboo. This made <BR>negotiating the rotted headwall of Liftline especially tricky. Upper Glade, especially <BR>the upper part, was in very good shape with a minimum of rotted snow. <BR> At around 1PM, I went to the top of The Double patrol shack to do my assigned stint. It <BR>was then that Mother Nature brought out the wrecking ball. It started to rain in <BR>earnest. After a while, we got the word that The Double was closing and when that <BR>happened, we sadly swept the terrain off of The Double .... for the season, apparently. <BR> Generous sized streams flowed down the mountain. The Bunny was hopping away to Lake <BR>Champlain as that was getting hammered. Things were getting grim and noticebly washing <BR>away before our eyes. I took a nasty fall in the Cantelope Chutes as I augered into some <BR>rotten snow and fell flat on my chest on my radio and I am still very sore from that. <BR> The bumps the rest of the way were outstanding and I was surprised at the amount of snow <BR>still remaining on the headwall. <BR> For sweep, we sadly took down much 'boo, rope, padding, etc. <BR> Afterwards, we went over to The Hartford Ski Club for the Mountain Appreciation Party. <BR> That's an annual event the club does to express thanx for the employees (paid and <BR>volunteer) for the work they/we do. Free beer (a keg of LaBatts and a keg of Long Trail) <BR>and junk food - a ski bums delight! <BR> This morning, the rumoured snowstorm fizzled and left only a dusting. It woulda' taken <BR>an enormous amount of snow to bury the streams, anyway. The PD came down with reports of <BR>him sinking a snow machine in rotten snow and grim conditions. It was over, man, though <BR>I was informed that the official word is "Suspended Operations". If enough snow falls <BR>overnight, there might be a revival on Monday morning and an effort will be made to open <BR>at least open terrain from the midstation up for next Saturday afternoon. <BR> A bunch of us went to Pete's for breakfast (next to the MMT) and then we came back to the Patrol Shack to bundle upmuch 'boo and signage. A long sad drive back home to <BR>Massachusetts, ensued for me.