Stick Season in New England continues with more cautious exuberance at Mad River Glen. Perhaps a little too much exuberance and not enough caution but can you blame a guy that is snuffing out half a foot of untracked days after the storm? I was hoping for a reasonable amount of relatively safe tree skiing. Despite the untracked heroics, even I had to question how to define reasonable.
Cross blocking skills were not optional in the trees at Jay this weekend. All of Jay’s Stateside glades are open excepting Deliverance and Canyonland. But I was more excited about having so much off map tree skiing available. Cautious exuberance, with poles held high, yielded an exceptional amount of tree skiing. There is no doubt about it: stick season is officially open at Jay.
At some point, I lost my sense of anger. I thoroughly deconstructed and rebuilt myself but I deconstructed more than I rebuilt. I was unable to manage more than stoic outrage.
The ability to channel anger into positive action is amongst the most powerful movers of humanity; the ultimate resolution of something positive out of something negative. But the basic ingredient of such powerful change, anger, had eluded me for years.
A resolution is a commitment to resolve an identified problem; to bring about lasting change. But resolutions are merely statements of intent doomed to failure. Making a resolution because of a date on the calendar without associated thought pattern and habit changes is not only foolish but dangerous, dooming oneself not only to failure but also the resulting depressive self doubt.
Four weeks ago I reached a critical moment. I sat in an endodontist’s chair staring at an x-ray of a broken tooth, weighing my options, none of which seemed very good. The endodontist remarked that dentistry is nothing more than applying temporary solutions to inevitable decay and failure. He was speaking of his profession and my choices. But I heard something much more profound.
I haven’t had a drop of soda since that moment. Year after year, Doctors told me that I needed to fix my diet. But it took a costly broken tooth and associated life long problems to birth lifestyle changes. Instead of resolving to do something, I ingrained a different mental paradigm resulting in habit changes. I finally found my anger and brought it against my will forcefully and conclusively.
Mad River Glen’s quality control department looked the other way as the lifts finally came alive today for the first day of lift operations. The untracked was sacked yesterday by copious turn earners and mountain operations (first chair looked more like noon chair). But plenty of untracked pockets were available for early risers with an understanding to seek out lesser skied options.
But untracked was besides the point. I was just happy to be skiing top to bottom on natural snow again. Base depths were variable ranging from grass to a foot of fresh depending on where the wind blew. The bottom of the base was wet and pasty creating an excellent protective layer with light and fluffy powder on the surface. Perfect early season (wait, early season?) powder that covers up most of the crap while still being fun to ski.
My recent visit to Killington proved that great days can be built on low expectations. Sometimes high expectations deliver. But not often enough to warrant the build up of excitement. If only I could contain said excitement when 4-6″ is forecast for Cannon on top of 8″ since Friday. But by now I should understand that southerly storm flows do not deliver for Franconia Notch. And yesterday’s snow rarely holds on before being blown across the mountain.
More ski areas need to offer 8:00 A.M. first chairs. Arriving at the summit of Vermont’s second highest peak forty minutes after sunrise was a treat. A warm glow bathed a mountain caked in white, floating over an undercast. I never expected to find beauty at Killington this morning. But low expectations make for delightful surprises.
That is the theme for this season. Delightful surprises happen when you expect the worst. Or when you don’t expect anything at all. Just set the alarm, grab your skis, and go. Because that is what we do. No matter how bad it gets, we are still making turns. And that sure beats the alternative.
Caution and Closed. Just signs of the times. One indicates what you can’t ski. And the other suggests what you can ski won’t be very good. But there is opportunity for some fun despite frozen groomer tracks being evident from the first chair.
Never before have I been so delighted to ski under the guns. Lower Cannon was lit up top to bottom yielding terrain features, somewhat powdery snow, and occasionally fun turns. I found ample opportunity to work on my pathetic early season form and I occasionally enjoyed it.
Unfortunately, getting to that occasional fun required significant misery. Despite almost doubling available terrain, Cannon could only keep me interested for two hours this weekend instead of last weekend’s four.
The packed parking lot suggested conditions and crowds would be worse than two weeks ago. I was apprehensive about conditions and wondered how many runs it would take to drive me off the mountain. Surprisingly, the crowd was somewhat manageable after the first tracks frenzy and I found some bumps to keep me entertained through noontime.
Cannon added the Links to Spookie as an option but the combined traffic still needed to run the gauntlet down Gremlin. I was delighted to find loose snow on an enjoyable Big Link, a surprisingly treat (for once). A bump line setup on skier’s left of Gremlin which kept me entertained far longer than I had expected.
The trails were crowded, the conditions were scraped, and the troughs were thinly covered. But dancing in between the bumps on Spookie, I skied a line true and had a huge smile as a result. Even on an early season death ribbon, there is still fun to be had and quality turns to be made.
If the density of skiers at Cannon is any indicator, demand is seriously exceeding supply. Much like last year, Cannon opened with one crowded route via Middle Cannon to Gremlin. Unlike last year, Thanksgiving leftovers were still available for turn earning.
Despite bringing both alpine and touring setups, I concluded it would be a lift serviced day. I thought the natural snow would be manky given the warm temperature. So I boarded the Peabody Quad for a few runs down the gauntlet.
While riding the Quad, I looked around and reflected on how Cannon continues to be my mountain. I’ll ruminate in a future post about what factors induce love of particular mountains. I won’t be spoiling anything by stating the nuanced connection is both irrational and emotional.
Once upon a time, the only way to exit Middle Hardscrabble was a short uphill climb. Half a dozen years ago, the powers that be at Cannon decided to tame the final insult to Cannon’s most rough and tumble trail.
A pussy path was cut, MH Cut Thru was added as a trail (all 100 feet of it), and Middle Hard got a little easier. I was disappointed to see the classic trail’s final pitch blown open. But I’ll shamefully admit, I always use the cut thru.
No more!
I’m bringing the uphill back to Middle Hard. This is the kick off to the Middle Hard the Hard Way Campaign. In the spirit of the way this classic trail was cut, I invite all skiers and riders (if you have it in you) to climb out of Middle Hard the Hard Way up to Lower Hard. You’ll then have the option to ski the excellent first (and only) pitch of Red Ball. Let’s bring it back.
Who’s with me?
I hoped for a half dozen runs before the lines and downloading became overwhelming. Instead, I got a baker’s dozen before the lines and downloading became barely a minor annoyance. The guns were on and then they were off. The turns were good on variable man made blow with natural and skier induced terrain obstacles. Skier’s right on T2 was sweet and Upper Punch sucked the big one. Coming off a mammoth earned turn powder day last week, this wasn’t much to write about. But it was still turns sweet turns and I’ll be back for more next weekend if the natural hasn’t returned.
Zoomer Lift Line
The past eighteen months have been brutal. On the cusp of greatness and actualization, work fell apart and I was overtaken by a deep malaise. Despite being awarded my company’s highest honor, I’ve never felt my shortcomings more keenly both personally and professionally. I awoke every morning without feeling alive. My consciousness disassociated from reality but yet I still saw it, a distinctive blur that I imagined myself reaching out and trying to grasp.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was never work but rather my work, an extension of myself. But I took that philosophy too far. I moved here partly because I viewed a job as a means to an end. But something went wrong, terribly wrong. And through the powder and face shots, my eyes opened wide and I felt alive again: knowing what went wrong and how to fix it.
Opening Day at Killington (Photo Courtesy of Killington Resort)
Congratulations to Killington Resort on being the first eastern ski area to open for the season! This is Killington’s first October opening since 2005! Welcome back to October, Big K.
Enthusiast skiers and riders hope the momentum is kept going through late season. Perhaps Killington will not only be first to open for the season, but also last to close?
Sunday River also got T2 going this weekend and will be open through Halloween. Props to both mountains for getting it done when mother nature allowed.
Today had all the makings of fantastic adventure: equipment failure, gear breakage, poor packing skills, lost helmet ear pads, and horrific skiing. Depending upon one’s outlook on life, it could have either been a comedy or a tragedy. Or both. My amusement while “skiing” (i.e. attempting and failing to link two turns) suggested comedy. But my frustration with trying to engage my Dynafits after falling (again) and associated broken brake suggested tragedy. I laughed, but I didn’t cry.
Welcome to the new and improved TheSnowWay.com v5.0. The site’s theme was updated from a hacked version of Kubrick to a significantly less hacked version of Twentyeleven. In the next week or two, you may notice a few additional changes as I dial in the style sheet. This was an unplanned acceleration of the theme change over schedule so please comment to report any bugs you notice. Thanks!
