Date Skied: 04/13/08 10 am to 12:30pm
Resort: Mount Snow
Conditions: 38* at the base, sleeting/flurrying, windy, top 1/3 covered in fog, spring snow/ice/slush with little bits of nice groomed areas (very little bits), full side-to-side snow coverage, no lift lines!
Trip Report: After hemming and hawwing for the last couple of days over whether or not I should go today, I decided at about 10:30PM last night to make the trek - alone. Haven't skied anywhere other than Sundown or Mohawk without somebody at least on the mountain with me. Headed out at about 6:50AM (ran late)... grabbed breakfast at D&D and decided to forego filling up and see how far I could make it in my gas-guzzler on a tank that already had 50 miles on it. Made it all the way to to Exit 2 off of 91 in VT.
Sun was shining when I left T-town, but by the time I hit halfway through Mass, the sky clouded over. I was met with intermittent drizzle/flurries on the drive over Rt 9 to Rt 100. Arrived at the base of Mt. Snow around 9:40AM to a sort of sleety flurrying.
At the base, only the Grand Summit Express Quad and Launch Pad learning area triple were running. Took the quad to the top and went down Deer Run for my first run. Feet were very unhappy. Also had some issues adjusting to my new skis (Roxy Joyrider). Ended up in the backseat a lot.
Found some deer poo on the side of Deer Run (how authentic!
). Took slow me 45 min to get back to the bottom between the skis, boots, and freakouts due to being afraid of falling. <<SIGH>> Quad back to the top. Tried Long John. Ended up having to actually stop at one point, take my skis off, and sit in the woods because my feet were so unhappy.
Continued on Long John and met back up with Deer Run around where The Vermonster branches off. Deer Run>Cooper's Junction. Cooper's Junction was a mess. Lots of piles of very spring-like snow that was giving me one heck of a time today. Next ride up, I decided it was time for a blue run. First thought of Canyon, but changed my mind and went with South Bowl. South Bowl was AWESOME. The snow was more like -SNOW- than piles of cement, even scratchy in some spots. I had a blast, making some nice big arcs on the mostly deserted trail. But one of the times I stopped to survey the trail ahead, I started to psyche myself out. And not long after, I took a bad fall. Twisted my left leg, binding didn't release on that ski and I fell hard. Panicked because of that being my rehabbing knee. I couldn't find my groove the rest of the way down. Cut across Sundance to Meadow. The snow on Meadow started changing back to the spring stuff. By the time I followed an offshoot back to Deer Run, I was starting to get cranky and pissed off. Feet hurt, couldn't buckle boots down because of that, which meant more work trying to control the skis I wasn't used to. Hurt my knee (and hip joint!). I was about ready to take my skis off and walk by the time I got to Cooper's Junction. Then some punk shouted down to me from the lift - "FALL!!!!" He watched me as he rode up, eagerly awaiting me to do his bidding.
I had enough.
3 hrs in the car and I managed to psyche myself out in 3 runs.
Hobbled back to the car, debooted and dropped off my skis, and decided to go chill in the lodge for a couple of hours. Might as well enjoy the peace and quiet if I wasn't going to ski. I headed home at 2PM, pulled into the driveway just before 5PM and found I was home alone. The peace and quiet continues.
So yeah, that was my $59 3-run day. Was it worth 6 hrs in the car? Not so sure. I clearly have a lot of work to do on this fear of falling.