Shawnee Peak, ME 2/24/08

Date(s) Skied: Sunday, February 24th, 2008

Resort or Ski Area: Shawnee Peak, ME

Conditions: Packed Powder, Crust, Hardpack. BEAUTIFUL day, sunny, about 30 degrees no wind

Trip Report:

As I had skied Black Mountain yesterday, I decided to switch gear from my normal Sunday routine of going to Wildcat and keep it more local at Shawnee Peak. Shawnee has a great Sunday deal where if you bring your lift ticket from any mountain for the previous Saturday, they offer a discount ticket at $33.

After a long day yesterday, I was a little slower getting going today and arrived at the mountain at 9:30. The parking lot was about a third full, but even with that, the mountain looked pretty empty. Got my ticket and headed up the summit triple for a fast cruiser under the lift and then over to their race trail, the Headwall / East Slope. The cord was fantastic, real hero carving stuff that encouraged fast speeds and laying over deep trench carves. While Shawnee is only 1400 vert, the pitch is very consistent the whole way down with little to no run out on the main face. As yesterday I couldn't find any pitch to really carve, I decided to rip groomers for the first hour as there was minimal skier traffic on the hill, so I could really let em run.

Following five groomer runs mixed between the center of the Mountain and the East Mountain area, I was ready to mix things up as I had gotten my carve fix in. The bumps under the Sunnyside Triple on Cooleys looked decent though fairly crusty. This run had never been open in my previous trips to the mountain and is quite fun. It's not too steep, but reasonably narrow, about three to four bump lines across. There's also a couple of double fall line areas and few ledges to negotiate. Though the bumps were hard, they weren't bad at all and had been skied enough the day before to loosen up the snow. It was clear that beginners didn't ski the trail much as the bumps were much tighter than anywhere else on th mountain and the troughs not too scraped out. Still slightly sketchy that I had to dial back my speed some.

After Cooleys I decided to check out some other trails that had bumps on them and they were much more spread out, smaller and very slick in the 'troughs'. I put troughs in quotes as they really weren't troughs, just fifteen foot long flat spots between small bumps. One trail that had these little poles sticking out of the bumps, which I had never seen. I assume its a poor mans way of 'seeding'. Whatever it is, it doesn't work, unless with the type of skiers that skied and formed the bumps in there.

Next were some glades. Dungeons was open, which I had never skied before. The name suits the trail well as the woods are VERY dark. The trees are pretty tight and are all evergreen, so very little sunlight gets through. Where people had skied a lot was manageable ice bumps, the lesser traveled areas of the glade were a sketchy crust. I linked this into East Glade which was of the hard wood variety, much more spread out and better snow, though kinda boring for a glade. Dungeons would definitely be a lot of fun with good snow.

So, back to Cooleys. The warm sun had softened the bumps beautifully. They were far from hero bumps after a big dump or spring skiing bumps, but perfectly edgeable and the snow kept loosening with each run. I had found my home for the day and was charging them. Even got a few shout outs from the lifts. Guess somedays I still got some game. Today certainly felt like it. I was psyched to be able to ski the run top to bottom, about 800 vert, 6 times in a row and finish the lower half of the mountain bombing out big carves.

It was a killer day that I had to cut short at 1:30, but I logged a solid 16 or so runs without stopping. Now, time to finish up the reason I cut my day short. LAMB SHANKS - yum. Fanstastic dish, but it takes a solid 3.5 hours to do right. Gotta keep the girlfriend happy, so I can keep up my much improved pace in terms of quanity of times out on the hill.

Nice TR..you need to post a trip report on the Lamb Shanks..wow..sometimes the Giant supermarket sells lamb ribs and I broil them with a little soy sauce.

lamb shanks

Date(s) Prepared: Sunday, February 24th, 2008

Item Prepared: Lamb Shanks

Conditions: Pretty comfortable in the apartment, nice late day sunshine coming in through a wide open door, letting in nice cool late winter air

Meal Report:

Lamb Shanks can make an exceptional and affordable meal if you know how to get your braise on.


The meal started last night with a simple marindade for the (2) 1.25 lb. Free Range Aussie Lamb Shanks. Drizzle some olive oil, coarse ground pepper, garlic powder, a little ground coriander and a liberal amount of salt. Don't worry about over salting items like Lamb Shanks, it helps break down the tough tissue and much of it is absorbed into the tendons.

Now for today:

pour glass of wine, enjoy 4:20

Pour 12oz of chicken stock into crock pot along with a couple of table spoons of the above blend of seasoning, a tea spoon of cumin and two table spoons of whole grain mustard. Wisk together and set crock pot to 3.5 hours. I used to do a more traditional braise using a braising pan on the stove then finishing it in the oven, but I find the crock pot does equally as well and is easier to deal with.

check glass of wine, refill if necessary

Pre-heat Sautee pan to medium high and place the shanks in the pan and brown on all sides. Remove shanks and add to the crop pot. At this time also add one twelve ounce dark Ale to the liquid and the bouquet garni consisting of three Rosemary sprigs, three Thyme sprigs, 1 bay leave and about dozen mixed color peppercorns.

by now definitely need a wine refill

Return pan to heat and add two table spoons of minced garlic and one minced shallot to the pan. After about 30 seconds, just as the garlic starts to toast, remove from the heat and reduce heat to medium. Add 2 cups of chopped onions and one cup of chopped carrots and return the pan to the heat cooking for five minutes until the onions are fully sweated.

more wine please

Add shallot, onion, garlic and carrot mix to the crock pot. The liquid and veggie mixture shoudl cover about two thirds of the shanks. At this point you have 2.5 hours to let the crock pot do it's thing. Flip the Shanks every 45 minutes or so.

open second bottle of wine, re-visit 4:20

Once the three hours is done, remove the shanks and bouquet garni from the crock pot. discard bouquet, let lamb rest on cutting board. Take a hand held immersion blender and puree the snots out of all of the liquid and veggies left in the pot. This will give you a velvety perfect sauce. Carve Lamb off of bone and serve with the suace and sides of your choice. Tonight was Andioulle and Romano smashed potatoes.

enjoy feeling happily full while finishing second bottle of wine. re-apply 4:20 if necessary

My wife and I were there also today.The skiing was awesome as was the company. We were there from 8:30 till 4:00. Skied everything today and had a good time. There were no bumps on Cooleys. I think you meant Poachers Paradise. Did you ski lower haggets? that had some pretty good moguls on it.

Terry said:

My wife and I were there also today.The skiing was awesome as was the company. We were there from 8:30 till 4:00. Skied everything today and had a good time. There were no bumps on Cooleys. I think you meant Poachers Paradise. Did you ski lower haggets? that had some pretty good moguls on it.

Click to expand...

Is Poachers under the entire Sunnyside liftline? oops, just re-looked at the trail map. I was referring to Cody's Capper I think? The liftline section above where Roosevelt cuts under the lift half way down. The lower liftline section bumps weren't as nice. Skied em twice, but they didn't see enough sun to soften up to my liking. The top liftline section was fantastic though. That was the run I was referring to as 'home'. Ski the bumps then have to drop off into the woods on the right, which dumps you out to head just a tad up hill to hit The Gut to Lower Appalachian.

I did ski lower Haggerts and they were okay, but far more spread apart than the ones on what I guess is Cody's looking at the map. The ones that they had those little poles set up on under the summit triple, on the Vain were pretty scraped out.

Will you be there next Sunday Terry? Provided the weather is good, I'll be there from noon til close for the Sunday afternoon half day deal.

Deadheadskier, enjoyed reading the trip report, and the lamb shank report! Man, you've had a really good day!