Whiteface Mt. 3-1-03

[Jimski]

Saturday found Shirley, Shana and I meeting up with Marc and stepson Michael at the base of the gondi right on cue. Ain't radios wonderful. The weather was super cooperative and conditions were fairly good for Whiteface all things considered. As Marc said, everything was open except the top section of Cloudspin, Empire and the 10th Mt. glades. Marc got in copious film footage on a fancy new camera and I showed him around any semblance of exotic hidden and not so hidden stuff that can prove interesting at the Face. 11 year old Michael has a pension for the terrain parks and hitting jumps etc and would have had us hang in the park all day if he had his way. The guy is fearless and pretty good considering only having around 10 times skiing under his belt. I think he may be picking up on it so well because of his pretty intense hockey background. Maybe Matt Duffy can relate to how hockey and skiing may have some ! similarities other than the proverbial skid stop that they have in common. The snow was real good up in the snow-fields between Skyward and Cloudspin and pretty much everything off the summit. Approach to Parkway and all the way down, including the terrain park had some real good snow. We covered a lot of vertical and got pretty pooped out by 2 ish and were sitting on the deck at mid-station basking when Marc declared it was almost as nice as Florida. Ironically, when taking an earlier run in the day I pointed out a message on a chalk board to Marc instructing some one to report to the medical services office. I recalled seeing the same thing with my name on it a few years ago when Shana crashed and broke her arm. I mentioned to him that seeing that message on the board was something you never want to happen. I coerced Marc into taking one or two more short runs off the Mt. Run face area just above mid. ! When we went through the line there was *that* message with ! his name on it. Bummer, wife Patricia who was feeling poorly and didn't come skiing to start went to get checked out and wound up in Adk. Med. Ctr. in the ER. This brought the day to a halt as we escorted Marc and Michael to above said facility. She was released over night but had to return for further testing today, Sunday. She missed another day of skiing and her status is unknown to me at this point. This certainly clouds their family's ski vacation together. Hopefully she will feel better and be able to get out sometime. Jimski