Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Mad River Glen, with my brother and my 16-yo niece. Alan had bought a multi-pack ticket earlier in the season and had two left, and with the end of the season approaching, was facing the prospect that one would go unused (his daughters ski free because they're on the honor roll at school). So I drove up, and overnight the mountain got 24"-30" of fresh snow. Fiercely windy, nothing groomed, and 30-minute lift lines (the lift capacity at this place is not very high, really just one double chair and one single chair, with the latter on wind hold until early afternoon). Most of what we skied was either steep, narrow twisty trails or advanced glades. Celia is pretty hard to keep up with. With the soft, deep snow, we all fell multiple times -- you'd either hit a deep drift that would stop your skis, or you'd come to a stop, and you wouldn't be on firm snow, so one ski would sink in and you'd topple over.

And after lunch. Total of seven runs for the day, but I forgot to start the watch until after the first run (but that was on the "practice slope" in the NE corner). There are actually five lifts, and we did the three that start from the bottom twice each, and the one that starts from higher up once. The fifth lift is one of the smallest mighty-mite tows I've ever seen, and it didn't work out for me to ride that one.

Another thing approximating the WBSE Challenge Loop, In The Dark, under an equinox supermoon. Getting muddy and puddly. Figured I could just follow my footprints from a few days ago, and that worked -- partially. It was only a couple of hours after moonrise, so I had to turn my flashlight on to look for tracks several times, and after a bit I just turned on the headlamp. Some spots were good, in some the snow had melted and refrozen, and in others it had melted completely and I was just looking for the very faint trail. Got pretty bamboozled for a while down at the south end, losing the trail and getting caught up in a laurel patch and eventually finding my way back and trying again. I went for no light again once I got to the open beech woods, and then had to turn it back on when I went off trail, but couldn't see the laurel density at a distance, so it was pretty slow going for a while.

Basically like a solo hash, without the beer.

For those who might be wondering, the runic letters of course said something to the effect of "like a broken ski pole strap".

Something approximating the WBSE Challenge Loop, right around sunset. Pretty much all crusty snow, sometimes sinking in a bit for extra effort. Quite difficult to follow the trail, since the ground wasn't visible, and in many places there were enough small branches down on top of the snow that it looked the same in all directions (and in a few places, larger limbs or trees were down, obscuring it even more). There were some old footprints in a few places, but I got fooled at one point -- I was searching around for the trail, found some footprints, and followed them for a bit before realizing they were mine. Heading for the northern end, I detoured down hill to avoid Old City Torrent Road, and just cruised through the woods.