thesnowway.com

As detailed previously, I have rediscovered cycling in a big way. Taking the activity far more seriously than I ever had before, I have been training for my first century ride, which is scheduled for September 25th. In preparation for that event, I decided to ride in a metric century to gauge my current fitness level and sample what a century ride is all about.

Enter the Blazing Saddles Century put on by the North Shore Cyclists of northeastern Massachusetts this past Sunday. This ride has three routes including a half century, metric century, and full century. With registration allowed on the morning of the event, I was able to decide if I would do the ride depending upon the weather. The registration fee on the morning of the ride was only $25.00. At only ten dollars more than the pre-registration fee, it was a worth while gamble to bet with the weather and against the race. As it turned out, the day was picture perfect with partly cloudy skies, a cool morning, little wind, and temperatures in the low eighties at their highest.

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Not much skiing related has been happening here at TSW-HQ this summer. After ending the season at Cannon during a freak two foot snow storm during the last week of April, I transitioned into skiing hibernation mode. I began rehabbing my left knee which suffered an over use injury during the ski season that I pointedly ignored. The rehab meant that I was sidelined for the spring skiing season. But the rehab has been successful and I am optimistic that I will begin running and hiking again before the start of the next season.

One key component to the rehab process was strengthening my quadricep in my left leg. It turns out that road bike riding is a great way to build muscle strength while causing minimal impact to the injured knee. This weekend I will pass my 1000th mile. I had not done much road biking since college, a dozen years ago. This summer has rekindled my love for pedaling. I am taking biking seriously and doing it for fitness but also enjoying more fully exploring my home… this vast stretch of amazing land from the Lakes Region to the Whites. I have some larger rides planned including a metric century, a Ride Around Winnipesaukee, some notch riding in the whites, and a full century. My fitness is greatly improved compared to last year so I am hoping that translates into the ski season.

New boards for turn earning are ready for mounting. The new earned turn powder rig will be Watea94s mounted with Dynafit Vertical 12s and BD Ascension skins. This will be my first fatter board with an AT binding an it should serve as motivation to earn my powder as both the up and down will ski better with 94mm under each foot.

In other news, frequent readers may have noticed fewer pictures than normal this past season. This was due to my dog destroying my Cannon A630. As a temporary solution, I purchased a used A570 on the cheap but did not enjoy the interface or the quality of the pictures. After having watched closely the digital camera market for the past two years, I finally decided it was time for a major upgrade.

I just purchased a TL-350 which is a brand new camera from… Samsung? It appears that Samsung has gotten serious about cameras and all reviews for their new top end compact P&S lineup including the TL-500 and TL-350 have been full of praise. Look for a lot more photos this winter.

Finally, I am committed to upgrading TSW to the latest v3.0 of WordPress before the season starts. I have held off due to concern for plug-in compatibility. I am unsure of how I will proceed with photos (currently sourced through Gallery software). Suffice to say There may or may not be some practical and/or visual changes before the next season begins.

Hopefully we’ll be making turns again in less than three months. Until then, I will be pedaling hard and trying to find time for badly needed upgrades to the web site. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Ah, spring time. Long days, warmer temps, closed lifts, Mount Washington calling my name… and injuries. Always injuries. Prior to my broken elbow four seasons ago, I had never had an injury that effected my season. Since then it seems like an annual occurrence. This insidious streak is particularly prevalent in the spring. My monthly stats back this up: I have more ski days in July (3) than in June (2).

This year’s injury dates back to the epic dump during the last week of February. Magic Mountain got the goods but the snow was particularly dense and heavy. My tips dove and I hyperextended my knee when my bindings didn’t release as my body tried to go over the handlebars.

My knee seemed fine at the time, just a little sore, and I kept skiing. I kept skiing right through March and April, despite increasing tension and pain, especially when descending stairs or weighting my left knee heavily. These days included a few open to close bump days during which I surprisingly had little pain while skiing.

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The Powder Days Started Here. The Powder Days Finish Here. This is Cannon. This is my home.

Just when you thought it was safe to put away the powder skis and take off the snow tires, old man winter says he ain’t finished quite yet. An impressive storm system dropped copious amounts of snow from Northern Vermont clear across the White Mountains pushing the Avalanche Advisory for Tuckerman Ravine to a rare Extreme rating.

Two feet seems to be the average for terrain above two thousand feet in favored aspects. Cannon got two feet and them some with drifts of three to four feet in places. Cannon historically delivers early season and late season. So it comes as no surprise that my first and last powder days book end the season at Cannon.

With early morning meetings at work and a physical therapy session for my knee (LOL) just after noon, my turn earning was delayed until later in the day. Driving north on I-93, I saw nothing but bare ground and rain which might have tested a less knowledgeable die hard’s resolve. But I know Cannon. And I know what these types of storms do in the Notch.

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Much to the dismay of Killington pass holders, Killington die hards, and spring bump skiers everywhere, Killington recently announced that this would be there last weekend in operation despite having previously promoted that they would ski into May if conditions allow. As we would find out throughout the afternoon, conditions most certainly would allow at least one more weekend of skiing if not two more weekends with a little effort. Three weeks ago, I skied Killington and asked whether or not THE BEAST is back. In answer to the question I posed, Killington will write the words “Closed for the Season” in the new flowery and flowy script of Powd’r and not the big bold letters of the beast of old.

With a freeze overnight, we arrived at Killington shortly after 10 A.M. and went about booting up at a leisurely pace to allow the sun and temperatures to work their magic. Even as early as 11 A.M., some surfaces were still a little firm and variable. By by noon time, epic spring bump conditions arrived and it was game on for a great afternoon of bumps.

The center of Superstar was groomed which proved to be a disaster. The snow formed long well spaced out mounds of snow. Right and left sides had bumps but lines were fairly irregular though things did get better after noon. Upper Ovation was a narrow ribbon down skier’s left and I would be surprised if it was still open on Sunday. There is a 10 foot break in the snow mid-trail. Sensible folks were taking off their skis and down hiking but more adventurous folks, such as yours truly, just pointed the skis straight down the wet grass and went for it. The portage back to Superstar was short and not the problem.

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After skiing on closing weekend at Sugarbush the day before and missing out on the foot of fresh that Wildcat received, I headed over to Pinkham notch to partake in closing weekend at Wildcat. The storm was not supposed to move so quickly and I had expected Sunday to be the better day at Wildcat. Much to my chagrin, no new snow fell over night and all the powder from the day before had been completely tracked out.

Upper Wildcat yielded pleasant natural packed snow with occasional bumps. Regardless of missing the powder, it was nice to ski on true packed powder instead of frozen, wet, or corn snow. I ducked into some trees which were fun and had very nice packed snow. No left over powder to be seen. Mid-mountain started to see the effects of warmer temperatures and frozen manked snow on Middle Catapult. By lower mountain, the frozen mank was complete and groomers were better than natural snow. Visibility was non-existent and the groomed snow on Bobcat was teeth rattling.

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With prepaid vouchers in hand, it was “use it or lose it” time regardless of conditions. And conditions truly were not worth the drive to ski Spring Fling and Stein’s off the Valley House Double. Meanwhile, skiers at Wildcat were enjoying a foot of fresh due to the storm moving faster than anticipated. Suffice to say, this was probably my worst call of the season on a destination.

My hopes were high as I skied off the lift and down Snowball to Spring Fling. Two inches of fresh provided a creamy surface. Skier’s left on Spring Fling was untracked and surfy and skied extraordinarily well. However, halfway down Spring Fling, the creamy new snow transitioned into sticky wet snow on top of frozen cat tracks necessitating careful skiing that was better where the new snow had been cleared down to the base. I lapped Spring Fling a few times chewing up what was left of the untracked surfy snow on upper Spring Fling.

Eventually, I tired of dealing with the wet and manky snow on lower Spring Fling and opted to try Stein’s which was bumped from top to bottom.Conditions were extremely variable on Stein’s with better turns where traffic had already slid off the new snow. An extreme amount of effort was put forth for minimal enjoyment. My knees were rather sore after my run down Stein’s and I knew that would be my only run in the bumps for the day.

I took the lift back up for one more run down Spring Fling. The mountain was empty with no more than fifty people on the mountain including the lift operators and patrol. Sugarbush had planned on staying open one more weekend, but with so little snow at the base and so little demand, it makes sense for them to close up shop this weekend.

Jay has retained impressive coverage considering the past month’s weather. As many lifts were running as there were available routes (read routes, not trails) which is in sharp contrast to typical late season operations at most other areas. But Jay’s setup neccesitates the number of lifts due to its horizontal spread out nature.

Available routes included Northway off the Tram, Goat and Green Mountain Boys off the Bonnie, and Jet, Haynes, and Motrealer/Wiggle off the Jet. Snow ran out at the end of Wiggle about 50 feet shy of the Bonnie (which was required to get to Tramside). There was no snow between Stateside and the Jet which required a walk  (but that is to be expected this time of year). Other than those two hiking aspects, all open trails were wall to wall coverage with no bare spots excepting parts of the bump line under the Jet.

Jay got some snow this weekend and it was snowing/sleeting when arrived at the mountain. Snow conditions were loose wet granular. Fairly decent skiing though the fog made for low visibility. Goat was promoted to a black run per signs as it was rather slick. Other than the small bump line under the Jet, there are no moguls which was a little disappointing. But given the weather, I will take good snow conditions on groomers over a barely skiable bump run.

Jay has plenty of snow for the next weekend and I am sure they can do two more weekends. Three though, might be a stretch but they are planning on staying open until the first weekend in May.

That is difficult for me to judge as I have never skied Killington during the spring. So I have no basis for comparison. The the new Killington logo with its foofy elegant script juxtaposed to the big bold THE BEAST logo is an identity crisis at its worst. Powd’r wants to demonstrate that this is a different Killington while simultaneously retaining, rediscovering, and redeveloping its prior culture and image.

Is THE BEAST Back? It may be too early to judge. But they are setup to go as late into spring as weather allows. I see no reason why they could not be last to close in the east. Whether or not they do depends if Killington wants to write the word “closed for the season” in flowery and flowy script or big bold lettering. Time will tell.

I worked the mountain south to north starting at Outer Limits and working back to the Canyon area. Having never skied south of Skye Peak at Killington nor the Canyon area, I tried so ski every steeper pitched open trail on the mountain and finally completie my knowledge of the terrain to a sufficient level (minus the trees). Snow varied from just past prime corn to sloppy mush. Conditions were best on moderately steep bumps and worst on flatter terrain, especially groomed out blue squares.

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Follow your dreams and don’t ever look back.

Ten years ago during August 2000, after the conclusion of my last two undergraduate classes and prior to beginning my first full time job, I decided to take up hiking. Inspired by reading Waterfalls of the White Mountains by Bolnick, I began planning various Waterfall hikes. I bought an AMC White Mountain Guide. And for my first peak bagging experience, I targeted none other than New England’s highest peak, Mount Washington. Why start small, right?

This ill fated first attempt at hiking involved limping up the summit cone via the Tuckerman Ravine Trail due to a sore and fatigued leg muscle. Despite a severe blow to my ego, at the summit I opted to take a stage coach down the Auto Road to avoid further injuring my leg. My first hiking experience ended in failure. But it was the first step down a road leading to many adventures.

Since that first hiking experience, I have always held a grudge against Mount Washington. While I have hiked and skied the Rock Pile frequently during the past ten years, I have never summited and returned to the base using my own leg power. Skiing off the summit has been an elusive goal since I first started earning turns in 2005. Ten years after my first major hiking experience and five years after beginning to earn turns, I have finally skied off the summit of Big George.

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March 2010 can suck a big fat one.

It has essentially not snowed in a month any where in New England. During what has historically been a month of big dumps. Two years in a row March has not only failed to deliver but this March is full of fail in the most epic of proportions. Put this March in the record books for all the wrong reasons and let us never revisit the subject again.

At least April will begin with a big fat weekend of sunshine. But even after recovering from a deluge, we go from famine to excessively gorged heifer with temperatures forecasted to be pushing towards nearly eighty degrees at bases making for a big fat slushy mess and melting snow without a corn cycle.

Seriously?

Sunday commenced Day Two of the AlpineZone Summit at Sugarloaf with partly cloudy skies that would eventually give way to completely overcast with low elevation clouds around the upper elevation. Unlike Saturday, Sunday seemed to get colder instead of warmer as the day wore on with conditions on the groomers deteriorating quickly after the fresh cord had been skied multiple times. Most folks in our group skied hard for a few hours and were on the road before noon.

The day began with the novel experience of having one full hour of first tracks prior to the General Public being allowed to board the Sugarloaf Superquad. Knowing that Sunday would feature more firm and fast groomers and wintery temperatures, I was hardly excited to wake up early for first tracks. After checking out of our condo, we did make it to the lift by 8:00 A.M. To my surprised delight, the first tracks experience was novel and delightful.

While the General Public began to queue up for their first turns, we had already lapped the Superquad railing arcs into untouched cord. I am many years removed from my racing and grooming skiing days, so I had forgotten that skiing fresh cord for a groomer lover is the equivalent of fresh untracked for a powder hound. I realized that groomer conditions would quickly worsen throughout the morning as more and more people skied the groomers. I also realized that due to the mountain’s layout, we had lapped the main routes off the main lift prior to any other skiers and would be moving onto the rest of the mountain while most other skiers were starting to scrap down trails that no longer had fresh cord.

“It is just like a powder day!” I exuberantly exclaimed while riding the Superquad. Perhaps my quote of the weekend. But within the context of being far ahead of the masses and being able to experience the best conditions faster and in higher quantity than the General Public, this was a fair comparison.

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Sugarloaf has been a mountain that has inexplicably eluded me for well over half my lifetime. Having only been to Sugarloaf one time as a little kid on a ski vacation with the family, it is a mountain that has long been on my to do list. Along with Bretton Woods, Stratton, and Okemo, The Loaf was one of a very limited number of major ski areas in New England that I had yet to fully explore. A dubious list without distinction for such a fine quality mountain as Sugarloaf. With fond memories and low expectations due to poor weather and a mediocre March, I find myself driving from Saddleback to Sugarloaf on Friday evening with significant anticipation.

AlpineZone and Sugarloaf partnered up for the Summit and offered forum members an incredible deal at just over $150 per person for two nights lodging and two lift tickets along with some other perks including two parties with refreshments, the full resort treatment, and first tracks for an hour Sunday morning. We were essentially offered a complimentary two nights stay with the purchase of two slightly discounted lift tickets. This was the no brainer deal of the season and special thanks go out to the AlpineZone Team and to Sugarloaf for making this Summit possible.

Our six person condo in the Snowbrook Village afforded an awesome all encompassing view of the mountain due to its lowly proximately to the base of the Snubber Lift which serviced most of Sugarloaf’s condos off the access road. The condo was spacious and well stocked with a complete line up of appliances and creature comforts. For a skier that historically day trips 95% of the time and hostels one night stays the remaining 5%, the condo was a rare treat of an oasis allowing me to relax, grab some drinks, and have a good time without worrying about the drive home or early morning alarm for the next day’s alpine start.

You may have noticed that I have wrote quite extensively about many aspects of the trip but have yet to provide a conditions report and blow by blow summary of exciting runs as per normal. If you have already drawn the conclusion that conditions were below par for late March during what is historically their snowiest month of the year, your reasoning would be sound. Conditions were similar to Saddleback during the day prior: firm and fast. Sugarloaf did a commendable job grooming the snow into an eminently edgeable fast and hard packed surface following Thursday’s rain/freeze event. We were even able to escape the groomers on occasion with mixed results ranging from the absurd to what could only be described as situationally and relatively amazing.

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En route to Sugarloaf for the 2010 AlpineZone.com Summit, I met some other “Zoners” for an afternoon at The ‘Back. The mountain received Thursday’s rain with a twist: a 30 degree drop in temperatures through the evening. My expectations were about as low as possible which meant that it would not take much to impress.

Saddleback did an absolutely outstanding job getting their product back into shape. I was not optimistic about good skiing conditions whatsoever and was completely blown away by the product Saddleback offered. I had no designs on skiing anything but groomers but we were able to get into some bumps and even some trees due to some nice wind blow in places. But we did spend most of the day on the groomers which skied incredibly well. Saddleback did an amazing job grooming the trails into top shop. Saddleback did better than both Sunday River (second hand) and Sugarloaf (first hand).

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With my legs still burning from skiing Smuggs the day before, I continued my mad dash to use the rest of my prepaid vouchers today at Mad River Glen. The faithful were out in force today to enjoy the last of this long week full of perfect spring skiing days. Despite the sun disappearing shortly after lunch time and being replaced by clouds and a mild breeze, the snow was stellar and well corned in places though just a tad mushy occasionally as well. Lines were long for the Single but tolerable, especially considering the shaky status of my legs by mid-day.

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