Mark Renson
New member
Well, ya' know how a few weeks ago, I said that October and November really were'nt ski season and that any decent skiing you get then is gravy. Well, I got some mighty tasty gravy, today ......
Friday was a 13 hour Dronefest that only got tougher as the day went on with me getting sliced 'n diced past sunset :roll: . I could not leave as the excuse of "I gotta' get up very early tomorrow to go earn turns" :shock: would only confuse the living sh*t outta' my coworkers. But, all bad things come to an end and I made it home by 9:00PM and gotta' break when I opened an e-mail from the Flight Commander pushing back launching off of the carrier deck from 0700 to 0800. OK, I could get 5 hours or so of sleep, I deducted. So I packed my toys including my boards which had been freshly tuned by Strand's in Wstah' .
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz OHMIGAWD! :shock: :shock: :shock: , I woke up in the middle of the night and immediately realized I had not packed my skins. In a deep sleep, some trigger function in my brain executed an audit program which flagged skins as not being packed. So, I lept outta' bed and grabbed and packed my skins. Phew! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
In the morning darkness I punched the accelerator on I-495, firing up on caffeine and first-day-o-skiing adrenaline on the way and arriving at Pico, as ASC Resort - can ya' believe it! I was brave, too, as I didn't put a bag over my head :twisted: .
The half dozen of us and all grunted uphill with the Flight Commander in front all on a torrid pace with me tagging along in . Plenty of snow was to be found!
We eschewed the very top of Giant Killer, avoiding some sketchy wind blasted looking terrain, opting for the powder. I gingerly catapulted first - dang, do I remember how to do this, I thought to myself. Snow was tricky and punchy and I biffed, illiciting a comment of "1st Turns, 1st Cratering" from above. But, I gained confidence and snow got better. The other 5 greatly outclassed me, making fine fluid turns. What was eye-popping was the fact that bottoming out was not a factor at all :shock: - DUDE/DUDETTE, THIS IS FRIGGIN' OCTOBER - CAN YA' BELIEVE THIS ?!?! :lol:
:lol:
Skins on, again and I was taken aback by where I thought these guys were taking me :shock: . Unfortunately, I thought right. I was skeptical and skied tentatively on this run, but again, bottoming out was not a factor and obviously, there's been some mighty fine and meticulous caretaking going on in them hills in preparation for The Holy Season. Skins on again, up, and my next run felt a lot better and I was making the type of turns I've been dreaming about during the last 5 months , AND it was October. We could not believe what we were skiing. Towards the bottom, there was evidence of blowdown from the storm and snow was getting heavier and baked and shallower as evidenced by some recently cut striped maple stumps cut low to the ground. Skins on, another ascent and a repeat of the fine turns we had just made, but avoiding the lower section. Next run, up into the birches - yeah, Im not making this up - for some sweet low angle turns amongst the numerous critter tracks. One more ascent through the heavy forest, led as usual by our Flight Commander. We topped out at the top of a lift with the remaining crew opting for some black diamond turns and me going for some nice low angle novice turns in some untracked that had seduced me on the way up. My turns were great, but due to my unfamiliarity with Pico, I found that they ended earlier than I had anticipated as I found myself emptying put onto a liftline trail which led to a water bar hell. I avoided that by going back on a cat track before dropping into some more nice untracked and then back to my truck.
Truly a Red Letter Ski Day in New England.
Friday was a 13 hour Dronefest that only got tougher as the day went on with me getting sliced 'n diced past sunset :roll: . I could not leave as the excuse of "I gotta' get up very early tomorrow to go earn turns" :shock: would only confuse the living sh*t outta' my coworkers. But, all bad things come to an end and I made it home by 9:00PM and gotta' break when I opened an e-mail from the Flight Commander pushing back launching off of the carrier deck from 0700 to 0800. OK, I could get 5 hours or so of sleep, I deducted. So I packed my toys including my boards which had been freshly tuned by Strand's in Wstah' .
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz OHMIGAWD! :shock: :shock: :shock: , I woke up in the middle of the night and immediately realized I had not packed my skins. In a deep sleep, some trigger function in my brain executed an audit program which flagged skins as not being packed. So, I lept outta' bed and grabbed and packed my skins. Phew! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
In the morning darkness I punched the accelerator on I-495, firing up on caffeine and first-day-o-skiing adrenaline on the way and arriving at Pico, as ASC Resort - can ya' believe it! I was brave, too, as I didn't put a bag over my head :twisted: .
The half dozen of us and all grunted uphill with the Flight Commander in front all on a torrid pace with me tagging along in . Plenty of snow was to be found!
We eschewed the very top of Giant Killer, avoiding some sketchy wind blasted looking terrain, opting for the powder. I gingerly catapulted first - dang, do I remember how to do this, I thought to myself. Snow was tricky and punchy and I biffed, illiciting a comment of "1st Turns, 1st Cratering" from above. But, I gained confidence and snow got better. The other 5 greatly outclassed me, making fine fluid turns. What was eye-popping was the fact that bottoming out was not a factor at all :shock: - DUDE/DUDETTE, THIS IS FRIGGIN' OCTOBER - CAN YA' BELIEVE THIS ?!?! :lol:
:lol: Skins on, again and I was taken aback by where I thought these guys were taking me :shock: . Unfortunately, I thought right. I was skeptical and skied tentatively on this run, but again, bottoming out was not a factor and obviously, there's been some mighty fine and meticulous caretaking going on in them hills in preparation for The Holy Season. Skins on again, up, and my next run felt a lot better and I was making the type of turns I've been dreaming about during the last 5 months
, AND it was October. We could not believe what we were skiing. Towards the bottom, there was evidence of blowdown from the storm and snow was getting heavier and baked and shallower as evidenced by some recently cut striped maple stumps cut low to the ground. Skins on, another ascent and a repeat of the fine turns we had just made, but avoiding the lower section. Next run, up into the birches - yeah, Im not making this up - for some sweet low angle turns amongst the numerous critter tracks. One more ascent through the heavy forest, led as usual by our Flight Commander. We topped out at the top of a lift with the remaining crew opting for some black diamond turns and me going for some nice low angle novice turns in some untracked that had seduced me on the way up. My turns were great, but due to my unfamiliarity with Pico, I found that they ended earlier than I had anticipated as I found myself emptying put onto a liftline trail which led to a water bar hell. I avoided that by going back on a cat track before dropping into some more nice untracked and then back to my truck.Truly a Red Letter Ski Day in New England.