After a week of below zero temperatures, Mad River Glen decided to offer up an amazing deal to good to pass up. The Glen slashed prices in half all weekend for a promotion called "Freeze Your But Off Weekend" which allowed for 8 hours of skiing for only $25! Combined with the fact that MRG has more open terrain than any other area (100% open this weekend) made the decision on where to ski a no brainer.
My first visit to Mad River Glen in 2003 was a fun but ugly affair. The conditions were "dust on crust" which skied very poorly. Additionally, I was still developing my bump and natural snow techniques so I got showed up by the mountain pretty badly. I had planned to do a four day tour in the Mad River Valley, but was hurting so bad after two days of skiing that I packed it up and headed home. Despite less cover and a general lack of snow, my adventures at The Glen this time around were much improved.
The brutal cold of the week eased off to only very cold, but after my first run I returned to the Base Box to switch my helmet for a hat which I find warmer and offers more coverage. The day would gradually warm up to above freezing and allow for bucket head heroics once again. Thankfully, there was little to no wind all day.
I began the day riding the mighty single chair to the summit of General Stark Mountain finding more snow than expected underneath me. More snow than expected is a relative summation as rocks, grass, ledges, and other such ugliness were all present in large amounts. However, this was by far the best terrain I've had to ski all year, so geological treats be damned!
I warmed up on the well groomed Upper Antelope to Catamount and decide it was too early for skiing the good stuff, so I went Sunnyside to Bunny. After exchanging head gear, I bored the Sunnyside Double and began my morning over there. I quickly noticed most of the groomed trails were scraped down in several areas from a lack of snow and over grooming. Additionally, several ice and grass patches were noticeable even in the Birdland Beginner area! Clearly it was a day to stay off the groomers (but aren't they all any ways!).
I worked the Sunnyside Area over pretty good starting with one of my favorite trails at The Glen called Quacky which features lots of interesting turns and double fall lines. It was nicely bumped and I was I had time to return to it later. Feeling properly warmed up, I sampled the excellent bumps on Panther and Slalom Hill where I just ate up some great snow. Wish I could have returned to Slalom Hill as well. The Birdland area in general was really ugly with groomed slopes scraped down everywhere and wouldn't be recommended for beginners. Down lower, One Way was steep and ugly and generally not fun whereas Lower Snail and Periwinkle were not so steep but still kinda ugly. I finished out the Birdland side with a ski down Upper and Lower Canyon followed by Waterfall which both had sketchy bumps especially on Waterfall which was pretty thin.
After lunch, I worked the upper mountain from the single chair. Starting off in Catamount Bowl, I found delightful bumps in places and scratched up bumps in others. I took the single back up from the mid-station and dropped into Chute, the upper lift line trail under the single. It wasn't as steep as it looked, but the bumps were a heck of lot more fierce than I had expected. Especially thin cover forced me to stop and re-assess the best lines every five or six turns or so. Definitely not a very fun run, but glad to have made it down in one piece. I took an especially good cliff jump up top for about 6-8' which was fun, stuck the land just right! Next up was Fall Line which offers dozens of different paths through the woods. The initial pitch was really rocky, but the upper section of the trail had amazing snow after the first pitch! The lower portions of the trail got really sketchy. I had an ugly pre-release binding issue near the bottom that sent me flying down the hill without one ski. Took a while to hike back up the steep and nasty trail to make the retrieval.
Back to the summit for choice bumps skiers left in Catamount Bowl, then I dropped into the rollar coaster ride that is Lower Antelope. This incredible trail dips and pitches and double falls all over the place with bumps and natural snow top to bottom. The trail reminded me a lot of a slightly narrower and longer version of the Hardscrabbles at Cannon. Despite the thin cover, this trail was awesome and challenging top to bottom. A quick five minute traverse through the woods must be made to regain the MRG base area, but it is well worth the effort.
My final run for the day was Cat Bowl to Lynx to Beaver. I found more decent snow in the bowl before dumping into Beaver, a trail in which I have history from my first time skiing at Mad River Glen. Last time I was here, Beaver really showed me up. It took me a long time to slowly work down this gladed bump run and I severely strained my back and other muscles in the process resulting in an early end to my ski vacation. Two years improved in terms of bumps and glade skiing, it was my turn to show Lynx up. I busted down the trail like no body's business only stopping twice to check out lines. I hope turned passed three Telemark skiers having a hard time of the thinnest and steepest section of the trail. Suffice to say, I am a completely different skier now than I was just two years ago and it really shows. Lower down where the trees stop begins Beaver which has slightly worse bumps. I scraped over the back of one particularly nasty bump that my body didn't like and realized at 3:15pm, it was time to call it a day. I finished out strong on Rockefellers before hitting the Base Box and packing in it just before the snow began to fly.
Such an awesome day at Mad River Glen, and all for only $25 to boot! After much improvement in my skiing ability in terms of natural snow and bump skiing, I returned to The Glen more able and confident to handle it's worst and do so in awful snow conditions. Most expert terrain featured scraped snow, rocks everywhere, grass patches, and other such geological treats. It wasn't enough that I could ski the terrain well and enjoy it, but I did so largely avoiding the unpleasantness of nasty thin cover. Whereas my first visit to Mad River Glen was fun and yielded decent skiing, I returned to fall in love with the mountain and long to return to cover the trails I missed such as Fall Line and Paradise and those shots into the woods that spot the marked trails all over the mountain.
