April 21st...Sugarbush..final day of the ski season..
I woke up early this morning in Stowe and it hit me that today was my last day of the ski season. I putzed around and watched Saved by the Bell and had some coffee. I packed up my stuff and hit the road to Sugarbush stopping at the Village store in Waitsfield for a bacon egg and steeze sandwich and some sugar free red bull. I arrived at Sugarbush at 9:15AM and it was 57 degrees and sunny. As I walked to the ticket window I noticed a bunch of people in the swimming pool at the Claybrook resort and a few MILFs in bikinis..wow..what a warm morning. I noticed a sign that said that this week lift hours are from 10:00AM to 4:30PM...doh..so after buying my lift ticket for $29 I had more than 30 minutes to kill. I hung out in the lodge and took a powernap..then around 9:50AM I stood by the Sugar Bravo chair and waited for it to open.
About two minutes before me, a man in a full bulky one piece ski suit with about 25 lift tickets attached to it on 198cm circa 1999 K2 Merlins skied up to me. He asked if I was chilly in just a shirt sleeved shirt..lol..I said,"No it's going to be 75 degrees"...then he looked at my skis and said,"Doubletips"...lol..and he said he liked his long skis for the spring snow. So I rode the lift with the uber gaper and it turned out he was from Maryland. Onto the skiing...
I first skied Downspout down to the HEavens gate chair and it was soft cordoroy..then up the Heavens gate chair and there was nobody for 30 chairs behind me..then down Upper Jester to Lower Jester to coffee run back to the Sugar Bravo..a nice 2400 vertical foot run. The main runout at the bottom of Organgrinder/birdland was all bare ground so coffee run and lower spring fling were the only ways back to the base. Spring Fling to Snowball was nice mushy corn with some bare areas and some cord. Then I hit up Steins run which was !$$$$$$...big widely spaced bumps and soft but firm corn..with a nice bite to it..since it's mostly manmade snow..it's more resiliant to the intense heat. Upper birdland and Murphys glade also had great smooth corn..
I took another run down Downspout and it was littered with little kids..in large part due to a spring vacation week for Vermont kids. Wow Downspout got mushy but I had fun using all the kids as a human slalom and spraying them with big abrupt turns..steezy..I dusted this one Mom really bad..lol..Then up Heavens gate and near the top I saw the gaper from earlier standing sideways on Ripcord....I don't think he linked two turns together before sideslipping. I skied down to him and shouted,"Hey Maryland"..and he was like,"This sucks it's all mushy"..and I said,"It sure is"..and then linked about 50 straight turns down a zipperline..then looked back up and he must have made it 30 feet. Ripcord is almost 1500 vert of side to side bumps and I needed to stop twice due to hot spots in my feet..so it probably took him an hour to get down...mad Homer Simpson...doh..I then skied down to the base and hit Steins run again. Steins was so saweet...
Near the bottom I saw a familiar face...Wesley Allen Wright..founder of the Ski Vermont Discussion list. He's the webmaster for the University of Vermont and I have many fond memories from college skiing with Wes and other Ski Vermont members. Wes was skiing with his 7 year old son William. I rode the lift with him and William announced that they were skiing Steins again. I joined them for a run and William freaking rips..serious kid stoke. I started out in front of him in the bumps then he passed me and I followed on his tails for half the run before my legs started screaming and at the 2/3s point I had to take a breather..wow..impressive stuff. I wish I had a season pass at Mad River Glen when I was 7..oh well..I decided to ski Steins a final run and then at the top of the Sugar Bravo chair..it was around 12:45PM and with an almost 400 mile drive ahead of me..I decided to make one last run..
I held back a few tears..and began my run down Spring Fling to Snowball with a few slow and deliberate turns..F that..GrilledSteezeSandwich doesn't like to ski that way so I straightlined and made a few big GS turns through the crud..the end of my ski season was at the bottom of the run...It was a great ski season for me..I skied 98 days including more than a sozen days in Vermont and 10 days in Wyoming. I changed out of my ski pants and clipped my ticket with a nailclipper and gave it to a Mom in the parking lot for free. Then I went to the Paradise store and got a diet coke, water, a cheesesteak, and chips..and began my 6.5 hour drive home. I took German Flats road to 17 west to 9 south to 74 west to 87 south to 287 south to 78 west to 33 north to 22 west and rolled into the A at around 7:30PM..exhausted..It's sad..this is my last trip report until November..
