Pat's Peak: March 11-13, 2005

[thetrailboss]

Date(s) Skied: Visits on March 11-13, 2005 (March 13th was Scout Day)

Resort or Ski Area: Pats Peak

Conditions: PP, P on Friday, Deep P and Bumps on Sat/Sun. Storm accumulation: 12-14" :P

Trip Report: I live by the 'ski when you can,' saying, and I took advantage this weekend. As mentioned in here, I drove to see my Grandmother on Friday and took some turns on the way up in the early AM. The place was dead and I wanted to sneak into some of the recently opened glades. The Tornado Glades off of the top was the first thing I hit and it was quite bony on the left side...like 6 inches of pow on top of ice and bare ground. Hit a small rock that threw me off kilter No base/edge damage. After this, I found some nice drifted powder on the edges of Tornado which was great. If you are going to ski Tornado Glades, stay to the RIGHT and avoid the snowmaking lines .

The next run I took was to get to the Hurricane Glade. From the top, I took Vortex (icy bumps thanks to the wind ) down to Hurricane Proper, which again had drifted powder on the sides. Hurricane Glade starts as a narrow logging road off of Hurricane about halfway down the main head wall. There is a big blue sign that announces the opening and I snuck in to find quite a sight...glades that resembled Burke or Jay's in tree type and cover It has a nice opening salvo--a little pitch with some narrow tree gaps before mellowing out and opening up a bit more. I hit this about four times...deeper base depths and more of a base...albeit still FRGR with some stuff poking up. The other thing I did was to ski the upper liftline of the Peak Double which had some nice powder. It was barely ten feet wide, but was great! Trailboss hit it pretty hard this AM and with the exception of Tornado Glade, the rest of the runs were great.

So that brings us to Saturday night when Trailboss and Ms. Trailboss made the drive with their Girl Scouts for their overnight and ski day on Sunday. For the most part, the roads were BARE on the way up Saturday, but we still took it easy. We showed the girls around the mtn and Trailboss got suited up and braved the blizzard for some great powder runs. The Superglade is sporting some knee-deep powder, but it is too flat to make it worthwhile (gadzooks). At one point, TB was kneedeep underneath the Valley Double making some nice Powder S's... The audience he had seemed impressed but did not hit my over-visible stash suprisingly. It was a great night, again, couple hours or so. We also showed the girls the lodges, rental shop, and they got a lesson on how to ride the J-Bar. Productive night indeed. I must give props to the two anonymous locals who pulled over to help push out one of our chaperone's cars that was a bit stuck in the parking lot...great guys and we really appreciated it! On a negative note (sigh), I will add that if you were the person(s) who I saw give the finger to the plowdrivers on Sat PM on 93 you are truly classless...

Now that brings us to Sunday, which was something that even I could not have scripted. I stayed overnight at the Best Western in Concord. As I left Concord, with coffee for the other chaperones who slept on a church center floor with the girls, the sun broke out of the clouds to reveal a true winter wonderland...unbelieveable. The snow had stuck to the trees and there had been no wind that night. I pulled over on one of my favorite photo op spots and shot some great pics of the hill in a golden tint and covered in new snow...great (my apologies if you were one of the fellow drivers who had to put up with my horrible tourist-like behavior ). Look for these shots soon....

I got up there and helped get the girls ready...the rental shop was a breeze and the staff deserves kudos :P . Props for the best rental shop I have ever seen. The girls were all grinning and excited, so we snapped on their skis and watched them laugh, fall, and even cry. It was funny. G, the adult chaperone who had never skied, gave it a shot and did her best, though it was pretty clear to me that she was going to have a tough time.

We ushered them over to the lesson and I got booted up and took a couple spins with one intermediate girl, R, and Ms. Trailboss, hitting powder on the side of Whisper and the Superglade before taking Duster, which was bumpy and powdery to Zephyr Glade. R enjoyed her first glade experience .

While riding up the lift for this run, Trailboss could not believe his eyes when he saw that the ski patrol had dropped the rope on the ENTIRE Peak Double Liftline run , so he beat feet over there after taking a run down Hurricane and Hurricane Glade, the latter was in stellar shape with DEEP powder and few tracks . It was glade skiing out of Northern New England (photos soon). (Still drooling from that run). But the Peak Double Liftline was the sweetest... the upper part was still nice and the mid and lower parts were narrow...we're talking about a steep chute maybe 5-10 feet wide in places and choked with powder, and Trailboss was in heaven! I hit it three times that day and took some pics (soon...). This was a great run at a "beginner hill" ...reminiscent of Black Diamond Rush at Sugarbush. Great challenge! I was hooting the entire way.

That morning I took my telezoom lense to the beginner area and took some shots of the girls who were having a great time. The instructors did a great job. (Sorry, these pics will not appear ).

So that afternoon after another Peak Liftline Run (entire way), I met up with the girls and took those who were ready from the J-Bar to the lower chair. E was grinning the entire time she rode the chair...by far one of the shyest girls, I could tell she was in heaven (and TB was so happy to see that big smile...it brought a tear to his eye ). Reminded me of my first experiences skiing. It made the day and work worthwhile. I took her and R down the two beginner runs off of the Turbulence Triple before taking her to the top...she was thrilled! I could not believe how quickly she picked up the sport...new to it and skiing the green run off of the top and able to load the chairs! E and R enjoyed the mini-terrain park on Blast. The last run was with E and C off of the top...C took a fall and her skis pre-released, which made for a tough re-entry thanks to the deeper snow.

The report overall was very good...EXCELLENT weather, lots of 's, great snow, great staff, and a lot of fun! Crowds were a bit much at times, but they kept the lines going. All but two of our skiers/riders made the chair and all loved the sport! "I've got a new favorite sport," was a frequent line. I encouraged E to keep skiing and her father was thrilled...as soon as she got five feet away from us at the end of the trip, this quiet and shy girl was bubbling over with stories of her day and smiles. So cute and again made the effort worth it.

Well worth the day...one of the best ski days...hope you all got out

[bvibert]

Sounds like a good trip! Nice report, now we want PICS!!!

[thetrailboss]

Originally Posted by bvibert

Sounds like a good trip! Nice report, now we want PICS!!!

They're coming....

[hammer]

Thanks for the trip report.

I now know that there's a lot left at Pats Peak for me to explore next year...

[bvibert]

Originally Posted by thetrailboss

They're coming....

I know, I was justing ribbing ya a little