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While not a good night for the team, I turned in some decent results and had my highest individual finish at 10th overall. Our team leader pulled five of us together for the race but we were hurting with two of our point scorers skiing out west this week. Said team leader also pulled himself together despite feeling horridly ill which effected his performance and our top point man had a bad night. Despite my great performance, the team will probably drop tonight’s race results as our lowest team score of the season.

Too bad my edges were not sharpened for this race. My race skis have have had at least days use since the last sharpen and tune. Despite two good runs, I never felt connected with my skis. I could have done even better had I really been dialed in with a freshly tuned pair of skis.

I really appreciate the layout and design of the tonight’s course. It was the best course lay out all year, in my opinion. Lots of DNFs and DSQs. The course really punished skiers who were too aggressive and not clean. Some of the turns were probably too aggressive for that type and style of course. Two straight gates out of the start got me going much faster than I had anticipated and I was not quite high enough on some of the gates as a result. Many skiers were not even beginning their turns until getting to the gate resulting in some pretty sensational traverses to save the run. My type of course and the results speak for themselves in that it was not most peoples’ type of course.

Individual Race Results from Pats Peak Monday Week Eight

Team Race Results from Pats Peak Monday Week Eight

Today was a dust on crust special at Jay Peak. All the three inch untracked powder you want with little competition if you did not mind bottoming out on a frozen hard packed base. My feelings predicted that things would be fairly nice this morning with a few inches of fresh. Instead of fluffy blower, we could have used heavy and dense snow. My first three tree runs each got progressively more low angle. Ultimately, I decided today would be a groomer day. While discussing the conditions with some folks, I said “this has been the most groomers I have skied in a day all season, perhaps the most groomers I HAVE skied all season.” That about sums up todays conditions at Jay.

Jet was skiing really nicely throughout the morning. I hammered Jet for several runs before deciding that I was not going to wait for a line longer than a minute or two to ski groomers. Shortly before noon time, I headed back to the Chalet and headed home.

You can tell it is vacation week by the conversations you overhear. I was dumb founded by the amount of times I heard something along the lines of “wow, the conditions are great today!” Which, they were, if you enjoy skiing groomers. But I could have been doing that (more enjoyably) at Cannon on $8 worth of gas instead of $21. This is a big difference in my new location. While living in Vermont, the half hour of additional driving to Jay was always a worth while gamble. Whereas the forty minutes door to door Cannon drive time versus over two hours to Jay is a different story if the woods are not there.

While the main mission of this morning’s outing at Cannon was a never-ever learn to ski package for my significant other, I had other objectives in mind during my free skiing time. Despite the cold and windy weather on this second day of the busy February holiday week, my significant other was jonesing to give skiing a second chance after being a ski widow these past four years. Her excitement was admirable but her timing for picking up the skiing bug was less than perfect.

We arrived around 9:30 A.M. along with the hordes of other skiers setting their sights on Cannon. Having last taken a lesson over a dozen years ago and having last rented equipment when I was too young to understand the process, I was feeling somewhat silly walking my significant other through the lesson and rental package. Lines in the Cannon rental shop were out the door and it took almost forty-five minutes to purchase the package, get the equipment, and miss our preferred lesson time. After waiting another half hour, I walked her over to the lesson meeting location and headed up the Peabody Express Quad for mission number one. After checking in post lesson and taking a few bunny slope turns, I ran off to the summit for mission number two.

Both top to bottom runs were stunning in their challenge, pitch, and degree of difficulty. The first run left me breathless and sweating heavily. The second run had me reconsidering what I considered steep and tight tree skiing. After two years of being a season pass holder at Jay, I have gone somewhat soft after cutting my teeth at Cannon for several seasons. The mellow and open powder full glades at Jay are incredible but can make a skier’s ability soften considerably. These two runs humbled me as only a top to bottom tree exodus off Mad River Glen’s Single Chair can. Cannon remains a spiritual home even if the powder falls less copiously than my beloved Northern Greens.

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Bitter cold and uncomfortable winds had many vacationers holed up inside their condos, townhouses, and rental units for the first day of the holiday week. The slopes were empty well into late morning when some brave vacationers finally decided to leave the comfort and warmth of their condos and townhouses and do what they supposedly drove up to Jay to do. Less crowded than your average Jay weekend with a ski on Flyer and never more than one or two deep in the singles line at the Jet and Bonnie. The tram had what looked to be about a three car wait as many folks opted to wait for the tram rather than brave the chairlifts. I debated doing the wait on my last run to get a run in off the ridge but didn’t have the stomach for the line.

The wind really loaded the powder up creating a tricky wind slab layer on the surface. Boot deep untracked powder was the norm for the morning and I hammered it without much care for competition. Aside from the lack of vacationer traffic, even the regular Jay powder hounds seemed to be AWOL. Pretty laid back morning and I left lots of typical early hits for later. Lots of options.

I made a rare visit to Tramside and poked around over there for three runs before the Freezer sent me shivering back to Stateside. While exploring, I found some new shots (to me) where I suspected there might be some and wished the wind hadn’t been as bad because I was really enjoying the turns on Tramside.

Today was my first full day on a new (used) pair of Fischer Atua skis. They surfed the powder well but were not as agile as my regular Dynastar Legend 8000 skis in tight trees featuring packed powder conditions. Certainly an exceptional ski on powder snow and will be an especially powerful tool on untracked knee to boot deep snow.

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Tonight’s course was held on the F.I.S. race trail. The course had larger and more challenging turns than usual, much to my delight, that favored aggressive and clean turns. Showing up late, I snagged the 23 slot but due to half of the racers not making the race start time, my first run was completed in the middle of running order. The course had a good rhythm and the conditions were perfect on my first run which was my better time. Run two was completed in standard running order. Due to being at the end of the pack, conditions were rough on the more aggressive turns. Results turned in a fourth place finish for the team and a personal 22nd out of 53 racers. I opened a gap between my closest competition on the team and closed the gap between the next best skier on the team indicating improvement and a return to better form with a few races down.

• Race Results from Pats Peak Monday Week Six

Sunday was the bust of this season. With the forecast calling for six to ten inches up and down the Green Mountains, Jay was slotted to receive a major snow storm Saturday night into Sunday morning. Rarely does Jay Peak miss on the big storm predictions. Quite the opposite, Jay almost always receives more snow than expected. But Sunday was a complete and total bust at Jay Peak.

Arriving at a packed Stateside lot shortly before the lifts began loading, I found one to two inches of fluff covering hard pack and scraped surfaces. That is what I get for notching a “powder day” onto my season cost and stat spreadsheet the night before heading up to the mountain. That is just bad Karma.  Still hurting from Friday’s romp at Mad River, I set the early alarm and made the line up for opening at the Bonnie chair.

I checked all my favorite spots in short order and there was not much to be found except hard pack and scraped surfaces. There was the occasional nice shot of snow for two or three turns but conditions left something to be desired for the most part. I was tired, sore, and disappointed and decided to pack it up early despite new snow coming down during the late morning.

Jay posted five inches within twenty-four hours as of 4pm. I will chalk up two of those prior to opening and the remaining three falling throughout the day accompanied by increasingly harsh winds. I had hyped this weekend and it did not deliver. Will remember to keep the expectations down next time even when the snow forecasts start hitting double digits. Cannon would have skied better today, truth be told.

It has been just over a month since my last visit to Mad River and that was just over a month too long. Friday skiing rules. Except for having to deal with commuter traffic, school buses, snow plows, and getting up a half hour earlier in order to arrive at the mountain a half hour later. East/West ski commutes in Northern New England are a bitch.

Upon driving into the parking lot and getting a visual on the slopes, I was immediately disappointed. Thursday was the best day for post storm mid-week skiing despite the storm generally flying under the radar due to forecasts calling for mixed precipitation earlier this week. Queuing up for the first lift ride confirmed my suspicions of tracked out conditions. So much for warming up on some of the trails I don’t normally ski. I went straight into the woods on the first run.

A dense powder was found on short but memorable untracked lines. Adjusting to the less than desirable dense snow took a few runs. Not quite the sublime dense powder we saw during much of December. Instead of skiing through the snow, I was tending to land on top of it and let it slide and glide me into the next turn.

Boot to knee deep untracked was found in some of the usual places but I also found lots of tracks in many others. Still managed to find some untracked towards the end of the day around 3pm or so but generally short slots and lines. The cut up and tracked up loose powder snow skied rather well. Bumps were rather forgiving since they were still soft and not frozen. With only one or two inches falling last night and nothing today or tonight, there will be little to no powder at the starting gate tomorrow morning.

This was certainly unexpected. During the week, Jay picked up two feet of fresh powder over the course of five days. These small snow falls mostly isolated along the spine of the Northern Green mountains added up through the course of the week. Friday through Saturday morning brought another foot bring Jay’s seven day total up to three feet. Surely most of the snow prior to Friday night’s eight inches would be tracked out. Surely I could not hope to find boot to knee deep powder on Saturday morning?

With only a half day of skiing scheduled due to a late afternoon call into work, I spent the majority of the drive from Ashland to Jay deciding whether I should skin up Big Jay where I would find a guaranteed three feet of untracked or risk a morning of skiing Jay Peak where I figured I might find a foot of fresh in isolated pockets. The decision came as I entered the town of Jay and stopped to buy a sub, I was going to skin Big Jay. Or was I? Rounding the bend as I approached the Jay Peak Resort entrance, I saw moderately deep looking tracks on Jet and Haynes. I couldn’t risk a potentially big day lift serviced for only one big run of earned turns. It was on.

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Last night Jay Peak received its third six inch snow fall in less than one week. Blower powder does little to help build and refreshen base, but it is sensational to ski. So despite the powder, a scratchy base, icy in some places, still remains. Untracked lines abound due to sparse crowds and low levels of competition. Six inches was the minimum but sections of boot to knee deep untracked could be found in some tree slots that where not skied since the Monday storm.

After spending my first two hours skiing off The Jet, I began wondering where were the crowds? Yesterday was the first day of a Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend and lift lines for The Jet were a five to ten minute wait the day before. I soon realized what caused the lack of crowds. The completely unthinkable had occurred: so called skiers and riders had decided that staying warm and watching a football game were more important than skiing powder on a near bluebird day. As they say, it takes all types. And thank goodness because I skied onto every lift all day and usually rode solo as a single skier. I wish to extend a special “Thank You” to everyone that normally would have skied today but decided that a football game was more important.

Today and yesterday were a world apart. Saturday was good but the crowds were horrid and the untracked went fast. Certainly a fun day of skiing but nothing special. Today I was hitting boot to knee deep untracked at noon time and got a minimum of six inch untracked lines every run with no competition and no lines. With generally cloudless blue skies, 6-18″ untracked on every run (right up to my last run at 1:30), and no competition… the one word that kept coming to mind was “satisfying.”

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After a dismal meltdown that included a few rain/freeze cycles, most New England ski areas were below fifty percent open and skiing groomed runs only. My solution to the problem was to take last weekend off from skiing and put in some extra hours at work over the weekend. Contrary to popular belief, a bad day of skiing is not better than a good day at the office. This past week brought winter back with a shot of cold and two small snow storms. Jay was a beneficiary of that snow to the tune of about eight to twelve inches total.

Today was my first day skiing Jay in three weeks. Jay weathers thaws better than most New England mountains due to its deep base and comparative best chances at regaining snow back. Glade skiing in all but Northern Vermont are probably done for a while. But I was able to pick up right where I left off three weeks ago. Granted the base depth was slight lower and featured a firm crust under the dust.

Groomers were absolutely phenomenal in the morning. Very atypical for Jay to have such wonderful groomed conditions but the wind was calm, the weather cold, and the snow fresh. I couldn’t help but rip a full half run down Haynes before ducking into the woods. Too good to pass up, but not good enough to do more than half a run, if you get my “drift.”

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Game on! Winter resumes its steady drum beat of white stuff this Monday with a solid helping of eight inches in the upper elevation locales of southern New Hampshire. The storm slowly crept across southern New England with snow totals slightly lower than expected. The day time storm track made for disappointment in terms of looking for untracked powder but pleasing snow conditions across the board. Oh yea, we all had a beer league race tonight too.

Powder snow is great for free skiing but horrible for racing. Major rut action quickly became an issue on the first run and continued to worsen for the second run. Blue course ran better than the red course but neither offered a terribly great run. Our team finished third out of eleven, stepping backwards one place from last week’s second slot. My best handicap adjusted time for the team was fourth out of seven. The best handicapped time actually was delivered on my less than stellar red course run which suggests that the NASTAR system rewards good technique though slower times on a hard course more than cruising to a quick time on an easy course. Overall, I was disappointed with both of my runs and never felt quite on top of my skis.

That was perhaps due to my ski change shortly before the race. With eight inches of fresh falling throughout the afternoon, I got an early start with my mid-fats and changed over to my racing skis just shortly before my first run. The performance and handling differences between the two skis are significant. Though I regret not a second of the fun runs I had prior to the race, during which time I normally spend dialing into my skinny skis and working on race turns.

Day two of White Mountains backcountry revealed rugged terrain and conditions in all their wickedness. Weather was a factor as the temperature rose throughout the morning. Upon reaching the summit, we suspected a temperature inversion was at play (though being steamy on the summit was perhaps due to other factors!).

A long and tiring traverse followed by a horrendously wet bushwhack brought us to the goods. With spruce trees essentially raining on our parade due to melting snow, we made the best turns we could through the soaking wet snow. Challenges included continuously having to free our bases from stuck snow. Certainly not for the faint of heart, today’s foray in the White Mountain backcountry would have revealed much better conditions before the warm up began. Despite the challenges of this epic tour, we were out of the woods well before dinner with big toothy grins and clothes soaked to the bone.

With powder long since been tracked up and packed down at ski areas, it was high time to hit the backcountry and sample week old powder. Thus, I voyaged north to the backyard of my heart and sampled what the White Mountains backcountry had on tap. Offerings were substantially better than expected given how many days have passed since the last storm. Six inches of fluff was pillaged with deeper sections up high and in drifts.

Epic turns were had on a particularly sweet and perfectly pitched tight chute featuring sporadic trees and a meandering double fall line. The run ended with somewhat boring final turns on a switchback like route that ended with a skin out to white pastures. Evidence of recent animal tracks of all varieties were abundant in the snow. Most notably, at one point, I was following the tracks of a rather large moose which was somewhat concerning. The silence was blissful and the contact with nature and true rugged backcountry terrain was stunning.

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What a way to ring in the new year. While less dedicated skiers were partying and drinking last night, I was setting an early alarm and falling asleep just before 10:00pm on New Year’s Eve. I can understand the draw of New Year’s festivities and celebrations. Many years ago, I was into that scene myself. But as the saying goes, you snooze you loose. Or, rather… you don’t snooze because you are working up a world class hang over for the next morning. You get up late and miss skiing right onto the Single Chair for almost four hours. On a holiday. On a powder day.

I was expecting the skiing at Mad River to be good but not great. Maybe I would find some good powder early morning. Or, maybe I would be nailing boot to knee deep untracked at 2:00pm on my last run of the day. Or perhaps both.

Conditions on the trails were a delightful packed powder due to snow from yesterday and most of today. Groomers skied really nicely with the light powder softening things up, especially on trail edges. Moguls still had some crusties under the new snow which occasionally showed through on the surface. Snow started falling off an on by 10am and began in earnest around noon time. By 2pm, it was starting to come down. Hard.

Trees were skiing amazingly well. Lower elevations only had trace remnants of the thaw/freeze and were not that bad. Upper elevations contained dreamy powder and packed powder conditions. With no waiting for the Single chair until noon, clearly there was not much competition or skier impact to conditions. When lines started building on the Single Chair, I moved over to the Sunnyside Double after my lunch break. I simply could not be bothered to wait two to three minutes on a powder day. Boot buckle deep snow was the general rule. Hitting stuff that had been clearly missed yesterday revealed boot deep untracked with occasional AMAZING drifts of knee deep. Some serious jaw dropping untracked was pillaged this fine morning in the lesser known tree areas. But boot deep untracked was still being scored on my last run at 2:00pm which indicated a fine powder day at Mad River Glen.

Three-quarters down one run, I had to laugh. While sucking wind, I realized how much further I had to go to finish the run and get back to the Single. Jay Peak has turned me into a bit of a powder princess with its wide open mellow powdery trees. Not many runs at Jay truly challenge and those runs are usually scraped down pretty sore if not skied first thing in the morning. It was really nice to rough it up today with Mad River Glen’s challenging terrain offerings. You simply do not get that type of challenge at Jay. Or any where else, for that matter.

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Greetings holiday skiers. Welcome to the party. Just a few weeks too late. Today was a mixed bag of conditions ranging from two to four inches of untracked to frozen wet packed down concrete. Holiday crowds overall were minimal in volume but overbearing in terms of effect on the experience. Overall summary is Northern Vermont just dodged a bullet and early birds got some frosting before the warm weather eroded the fresh snow and glazed and crusted the snow. Which heading into New Year’s is only a minor set back given new snow and two nice powder days this week.

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