Ski Butternut - 1/10/04 (morning)

[skijay]

Date Skied: 1/10/04 (morning)

Ski Area: Butternut

Conditions: Very Good, freshly groomed machine made snow, no icy patches.

Trip Report:

I got on the quad at about 8:20am and by tower #8 I witnessed the "fog". You could here snow guns running in the distance, but this was fog. As I got closer to the top, I noticed that this was the freezing fog as the tree limbs were all white and icy. I said to myself, wow -4 degrees F does not feel so bad. I had the fleece hat, a fleece neck / neoprene face mask combo, goggles, mittens with two low temp hand warmers and I was nice and toasty. I got off the lift and took the trail to the right (Pied Piper) to Whip to Nut Hatch. By the time I was on Nut Hatch I felt the moisture around my nose turn to ice and start to sting. Did I mention how cold it was? There was a combination of blowing snow from the guns and fog. By about 10:15 the fog was gone and the sun was shining with a bright blue sky. The snow was excellent. I did a total of 10 runs, 6 off of the Quad and 4 off of the Overbrook Triple. At this point my toes were numb, even after one trip to the upper lodge. The lift rides up were fine, it was the skiing that got you. Upper Apple jack, Freewhwheeler and Main St were still closed. There were about 8 busses in the parking late and the parking lot was not to bad. I waited in no lift lines. The lodge(s) is where the people were! I left at 11:00am the thermometer in my car read 1 degree F.

[Greg]

Too bad Upper Apple Jack wasn't open. That's one of my favorites runs. They always seem to open it last unfortunately. I migh hit either Butternut or the Beast next Monday; probably Beast though as I know B'nut's MLK Day crowds can be a killer...