MRG the day after St Pats

Finaly made it to MRG. Cold..below zero cold. The place is just what i thought,rustic. Its the antithesis to Stowe. Love it..Everyone says hello..you first time? Yup..well you picked a good day..reminds me of GMD at Alta, which i prefer way more than the Cliff at Snowbird. I can see why people come here and never leave. Now we'll see how i do. A few too many IPAs last night isnt helping.

An intimidating place for sure. Took some warm up laps on the double first..too many IPAS, had to get moving. Found some bumps to bang down, lapped it 5 times to warm up..6 below zero..cold...
Met Bob the teacher at 10, 65 years old, lives 20 minutes away, been here since the 70's. I wanted him to show me around and I wanted to work on a specific thing I have a bit of trouble with. Need to tighten up my bump line when it gets super steep. I tend to wander, not a good thing in the woods unless you want to meet a tree face to face. His style matched mine which is a good thing as trying to learn something from a 25 year old isn't..easy. He's been writing a book in his head for 20 years..The lazy mans guide to skiing..I like it.
The single chair. This thing is an engineering piece of art in its simplicity. The towers look like theyare made from giant erector set pieces..the chair very comfy. At the top you just step off and to the side, no ramp. You have to know this or it will smack you.
The top is pretty intimidating. I haven't been to many Mt's that had scary peaks. This one you have to know where your going. We took upper and lower Antelope to Marten woods. Awesome. Bumped up twisty narrow, just what I wanted. Did that twice, ran some glades. Then dropped off the top onto Chute. This thing is steep. Good place to practice speed control. Off into the glades to miss the bottom of the run which is a bit sporty. Lunch at the bar, watched the kids jump off the small cliff at the bottom of the run.
Its interesting to watch groups of parents cheering on their kids..jumping cliffs. In this day of child proof everything I thought this was great. These kids won't be calling mommy every time something happens to them, they"ll figure it out.
Spent the last 1.5 hours back on the double exploring some more. Found Slalom Hill, nice bumps. 5 1/2 hour ride home next.
If your going to go here..go now. Its as good as it gets. I can't imagine how they ski some of this when its crappy, icy, boney..
Looking at the exposed part of Paradise from the double I have to wonder how thats skiable, but it is judging by the small black dots crawling around up there. This place is very different from any East Mt I've ever been to, a mini Jackson Hole. Steepest lines I've ever seen, all over the place. You can get in trouble fast here, but if your really good you can spend a lifetime just getting better.
MRG SKi it if you can..I could..some of it.
Pics come later..takes a while to load them here.

The anti-Stowe.. very true

Have you been to Smuggs? I find some of the stuff on Madonna a little intimidating, maybe I'm just less familiar with it.

Been there and yes it is. They say they are a family mountain...the family of rippers lol...

Off the single...Chute

The kids jump this

Bob

more good stuff

Kingslug,

I had the exact same experience...skied MRG yesterday for the first time in my life. Loved every second of it. But admit to being a bit intimidated. It's old school in every sense of the word. I wasn't that bothered by the cold. I got on the mountain around 8:45 and on the drive to the mountain my car said anywhere from -8 to -2.

My first lift ride was the single chair and I was nervous to get on. I read the sign, "poles in right hand, look over left shoulder" and watched the people before me and was fine. But the first two rides on the single chair, I had my left arm wrapped around the pole pretty good. LOL.

Loved Upper and Lower Glades. Loved Panther, Gazelle, Slalom Hill and Partridge. Was a bit too nervous to venture over to Paradise or Fall Line. Wanted to do Chute as I saw a bunch of portions of Chute that looked great, but there were two areas with drops that I didn't like and I couldn't quite figure out how to avoid those even though I was told it's possible.

One of my biggest takeaways is that you can get in serious trouble on this mountain very quickly if you don't know where you're going. I agree...it's like an east coast Jackson Hole with in bounds cliffs. Another take away is that the level of the average skier at MRG is as high as anywhere I've ever been.

I skipped lunch as I also had a 5+ hour ride back to NJ.

I too will be back. But it will have to be in great conditions. I loved every second of the day, but I can't imagine what it's like when the snow isn't as epic.

PS. Sign above the urinal in the lodge says "Danger, No Diving, Shallow Water". Haha!

PPS. My lift ticket says "happy 25th anniversary Kim and Dave. How great is that.

PPPS. I have no idea how to post pix here.

Fall Line / Paradise proper isn't that scary you guys should def ski it next time. Some of the most classic terrain there is!

Just enter Fall Line from the top of Chute the first time if you're nervous... believe me it's a blast in there and you're not going to get cliffed out.

bdfreetuna said:

Fall Line / Paradise proper isn't that scary you guys should def ski it next time. Some of the most classic terrain there is!

Just enter Fall Line from the top of Chute the first time if you're nervous... believe me it's a blast in there and you're not going to get cliffed out.

Click to expand...

Umm, Chute is way less "scary" than Fall Line and, particularly, Paradise.

Sent from my moto x4 using AlpineZone mobile app

Mikec142. Did i meet you at the top of slalom hill..guy said he had a 5 hour ride back to nj too..said he just didnt want to leave.
Funny how several of us where there yesterday..
Good thing i didnt meet and follow Krusty though. Lol..
Hiring Bob for 2 hours was great..expensive with the tip i gave him but worth it as i would have never found some of those lines..im more adventurous out west..at least you can what your in for..i doubt i can bring my wife here though..although there are some lines she could do i guess. Maybe hire Bob and set them off for a few hours

kingslug said:

Mikec142. Did i meet you at the top of slalom hill..guy said he had a 5 hour ride back to nj too..said he just didnt want to leave.
Funny how several of us where there yesterday..
Good thing i didnt meet and follow Krusty though. Lol..
Hiring Bob for 2 hours was great..expensive with the tip i gave him but worth it as i would have never found some of those lines..im more adventurous out west..at least you can what your in for..i doubt i can bring my wife here though..although there are some lines she could do i guess. Maybe hire Bob and set them off for a few hours

Click to expand...

That's so funny! I have a red jacket with black pants...orange googles.

Yup that was you..i had blue jacket ..wood top sheet skis

Fall Line and Paradise aren't really as tough and technical as people make them out to be. Fall Line has no cliffs at all. Paradise has the waterfall but when it has the snow (and I assume it does right now) you can ski over part of it without having to get air. For comparisons sake I still won't ski the front four at Smuggs but I can ski those two comfortably. Just follow people and take it slow the first time.

Chute isn't too bad either...the cliffs have the small chutes around the side of them. Below the midstation is where it gets gnarly...definitely the hariest inbound terrain at MRG.

^^ nailed it

Chute is actually a fairly mellow upper liftline trail for Northern VT. By mellow I mean just a nice pitched bump run with a few very small optional drops.

Fall Line isn't much tougher but I consider it one of the great trails due to it's character, views, and yes decent difficulty level. I ski Fall Line as often as Paradise proper, they are both incredible runs, and you can make many variations of those runs.

Smuggs actually has some trails I haven't skied ... yet. Some of that stuff just doesn't look very inviting to me unless conditions are spot on.