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“Discretion is the better part of valor.” A proverb I sagely doled out last week at Stowe in the climbing gully to a snowboarder that had never hiked the ridge before. And it was advice I was heeding myself Friday morning. Original plans called for a summit of Mount Washington and descent via a western facing gully that I have yet to ski. Exploring a new area solo when I did not have beta on snow conditions and feared possible wind and clouds blowing in later that day did not add up well in the risk assessment arena. Perhaps I was overly cautious in my decision making but I by passed the Route 3 exit and continued north en route to Smuggs.

A decision to go lift serviced on Friday could not possibly have gone wrong whereas a mishap was certainly a possibility with the alternative (though that is part of the sense of adventure!). I arrived at Smuggs shortly after 10:00 A.M. to find the snow still in the process of softening due to a hard freeze the night before. I took a warm up run on Sterling hitting the lower part of Exhibition under the lift where bumps were still rather firm. I tried to follow the sun and made my way over to Madonna 1 and skied down to the bumps under the Madonna 2 lift which were still firm and a little icy. I opted to take a short break and let the sun do its thing.

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“I gotta get to Smuggs”

This has been a yearly refrain of mine for some time now. The excuses are long since familiar and trite: “Jay has more powder”, “the lift lines will be really long”, “I don’t feel like the longer drive”, “not all of their trails are open”, “I have to max out my Jay pass first”, etc. Add in a few injuries these past few seasons for good measure.

But earlier this week, I started getting a feeling that it was at last the right time. Smuggs was fully open due to last week’s storm and was getting the same snow that Jay was getting. Lift lines would probably not be an issue due to this being the weekend between two holiday weekends and before the College kids came back to Burlington (and the cold weather certainly helped as well). And I do not have a season pass this year. Friday night before bed, I was giddily excited. Not because I thought today was going to be an exceptional powder day (which it turned out to be!). But rather simply because I knew I was finally going to ski Smuggs, a mountain that by all accounts is my type of mountain, and that made me very excited.

Pulling into Lot 1 at the opening bell, it did not look like more than an inch or two of fresh had fallen. I made the decision to grab my Legend 8000s but quickly changed them out after only a single run. Smuggs had conservatively reported 6-8″ but more than twice that amount could be found in the trees. I skied boot to knee deep fresh every run with plenty of untracked and the occasional thigh deep drift. Suffice to say, it was a very special first day at Smuggs.

Having gone entire seasons without skiing a new area, it is interesting that I have now skied two new areas in less than one week. Not knowing the mountain nor having a proper plan of attack was discomforting at first. But I gradually warmed to the wonderful feelings brought on by novel exploration and discovery. You only enjoy that feeling of wonder and discovery a few times at each area before it becomes just another routine. It was thrilling and tremendously enjoyable, especially considering what I found. Enough waxing poetic, let’s talk trip report already.

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