Powder Ridge CT 01/01/05

Well the conditions did not follow up on the ski areas name as the first day of the new year found me back skiing spring conditions in 50F + weather, at least it was sunny. I decided to go skiing at Powder Ridge this morning to get some practice in with my 4 year old son, so he will be in better form for our trip to Sugarloaf next month.

We left home at 11:45am and after taking the 12:00pm ferry to Bridgeport we were skiing at about 2:00pm, so it was an easy trip with minimal driving. The conditions were granular and spring with decent cover on the two trails that were open from the "summit". The trails open were upper and lower Middlefield and the terrain park trail on skiers left as well as begginer terrain.

We skied until 4:30 at which time the snow started to freeze over with the lowering sun and falling temperatures. The lift ticket was $32 for me and my son skied for free, so it was fairly inexpensive. I had not been skiing at this area since January 1993, and basically nothing has changed since then, it's a learn to ski area and is good for what type of terrain my son needs for the next year or so.

Snow

Yesterday, I was able to put down one more x-c sprint track in the shadow of the airstrip near my home on Cape Cod. By the time I was finished I was skiing on packed slush. I checked my notes from a year ago when I changed my Calendars. We had a dusting of snow on New years, rain and fog the next week. After that the onslaught of sub zero weather started.