It has been far too long since my last day at Burke. Last season was truly atrocious for Burke, seasonal snowfall was well below normal. This season, Burke missed many of the early southern storms. But recent trends have favored Burke which is now 100% open for business both on piste and off.
My game was off from the get go. Perhaps it was the extreme cold. Or perhaps it was fatigue from working twelve hour days twelve days straight in nearly non-stop stressful conditions. A lack of conditioning due to not many days on snow this past month did not help either. Whatever the cause, my legs were not moving as they should have been.
I warmed up on Burke’s rocky liftline–Fox’s Folly–where I found very grabby snow with occasional thin cover. Burke might be 100% open for business but the coverage still needs some TLC. Sufficiently warmed up (but still off my game), I took to the woods where I discovered one of the few Burke stashes that has eluded me. Next up I dropped in Doug’s followed by some primo woods lines that had less grabby packed snow.
Perhaps a little too high on the horse after my earlier off piste find, I opted to try an attempt at a stash I helped maintain when I lived in the area. Despite a few hiking excursions through the glade, I had never skied it due to its remote aspect and timing of conditions. Unfortunately, I was not able to locate the entrance. It is amazing how different woods look when you are skiing down in the winter versus hiking up in the fall.
But I was committed to the aspect. So after missing the entrance, I skied the backup option which is a narrow staircase of thin coverage. Halfway down, I got spun around after skidding over a mostly buried log. I started slowly sliding backwards towards a nearby tree only three feet behind me. I thought would stop my slow backward descent with a soft and well padded bump on my behind. All went according to plan but the well padded bump actually was a deeply bruising thump. In hind sight, I should have attempted a face plant shoulder roll to stop my descent. Instead, I am resting my rear while Jay Peak is posting face shots on their face book.
8 thoughts on “Back to Burke: Finally”
Ahhh, the old “face plant shoulder roll” method. We prefer to call that the “rollover recovery technique.” Hope your rear end heals well and soon! Ice, ice and more ice.
OOH Steven, that hurts! What great pictures, you turning pro?
Nice report, great day.
Getting a little worried, the temps got to the mid 30s on Monday afternoon in MRV, so I wonder about NEK.
Thanks for the comments on the pics. Not turning pro, just got lucky the sun was out (P&S work great on bluebird days but my pics on cloudy days without subjects are not so great).
Temps were warm here in central NH. Wouldn’t be surprised if temps even in NoVT got to around freezing. More snow on the way, though! This weekend should be mint!
Sweet report and nice pics. Too bad I was injured from earlier in the week and couldn’t come out and join you. Hopefully your bruise heals up quick and you’re back out on the slopes this weekend. The temps did get up just over the freezing mark yesterday but the heavy damp snow we have also recieved at the same time should fill in all those thin spots. A few inches of cold pow for the rest of the week should set Burke up to be really nice this weekend.
These casualties are part of skiing… happens to all of us, even when skiing carefully and in control. I hooked a ski tip on a sapling Saturday, got spun around, and the only difference in my outcome was a soft landing. Get well quickly, sounds like you’ll be back out by the weekend. And in the meantime, along with SBR’s “ice ice ice,” you might consider “beer beer and more beer!”
No ice! I iced this weekend but there was no bruising or swelling visible so it was a wasted effort. I have changed over to the heat pack to ease the muscle tension. Hoping to be ready for this weekend but it is very possible I will have to sit this weekend out. If I have all week to rest at home, surely I’d be good to go. But I can’t take time off from work right now and its easy to put stress on the back being on my feet most of the day. Even when I am sitting, it can hurt a bit.
I agree the pics are primo. I don’t know NH at all – what is the notch on the horizon of the last two photos?
Get well Steve. We need you healthy!
Willoughby Gap. Quite the dramatic landmark. The mountains straddle Willougby Lake, deepest lake in Vermont as I recall. Speaking of which, that is not NH. 😉