After two false starts, my season finally begins. The allure of an epic 26 hour road trip to West Virginia was considerable (especially after seeing the incredible reports). But with snow on the way, guns prepped to blow, and a potential storm on the horizon, I decided to stay put. Driving halfway to Florida for skiing would have been quite an adventure but I couldn’t justify it with things looking so good locally.

Instead of driving all day Saturday to ski Sunday, I drove on Sunday to ski on Sunday, returning to my own bed at night. And tomorrow, I’ll do the same but with lift assistance. The next day, I’ll recuperate and watch the storm come in and then repeat the process with better results.

Word in the Midway parking lot was that Cliff Trail had the best snow. I a skinned up Gondolier to Switchback to Chin Clip and I didn’t see any better options. So after survival turns down Perry Merrill, I turned right onto Cliff Trail (not normally where one would go to find the best snow on Mansfield).

Cliff Trail was well covered with half a foot of packed dense snow. Temperatures were hovering around freezing and many snow surfaces were covered with a grabby frozen layer making for interesting turns on less tracked and packed areas.

Surveying Nose Dive, I lamented the impending loss of base coverage on my new Tonics. I scrambled down two or three pitches before deciding that the turns were no longer worth the effort. Thankfully, not much damage to my skis. But I must be starting to get more conservative on what I consider “worth the effort”. I down hiked from just above the National merger as my lungs didn’t have a second effort in them.