Mad River Glen 2/15/09 -- a beg for beta

[polski]

Mad River Glen 2/15/09.

Conditions were pretty much as expected -- some soft snow in spots, plenty of scrape/ice. Good thing they got a little fresh snow on the back side of the storm last week. The upside to this (from a skier's if not necessarily an MRG shareholder's perspective) was it wasn't too crowded -- the line for the single never got to more than 3-4 minutes, less than half what it was on the last midweek powder day 2+ weeks ago.

Yes, the single -- the boys did their first (and second, and third) ride up the single. So despite the less-than-stellar conditions, it was a milestone day.

Given the conditions we mostly stuck to greens and blues. We did take one trip on the lower part of the Rat and the snow there was excellent ... though it turned into a bit of an adventure, to be described below (with photo). Then we hit the single for the first time.

 

[polski]

p.s. Had hoped to hit Gazelle Glades as I think the boys are ready for that now, and the snow looked decent in there. But when they saw the entrance at the top of Gazelle from the Sunnyside chair -- basically one very gnarly needle-threading way down -- they opted against it. That's OK, I was down with taking it fairly easy this day.


edit p.p.s. got our first adventure on the drive up. I had to stop for gas at exit 5 on I-89 and once I realized the gas station was 3 miles off the highway I decided to keep heading that direction and drive over Roxbury Gap to the MRV. Thing is, I didn't have my 4WD but instead a front-wheel drive, low-clearance Scion XB as I'd expected dry pavement the whole way. Roxbury Gap Road wound up being fine, some slippery spots but nothing too treacherous. I'm not convinced that route saves any time even though it is 15-20 miles shorter, but the views are outstanding anyway.

 

[polski]

I'd skied the off-map trail the Rat a few times last year and been told to watch for a right turn at a certain spot in the woods to get back to Snail. Apparently we missed that turn yesterday and ended up at ... Route 17:

When I first saw the road from above it looked like the trail might end there and I thought we were in for a hike but it turns out there's a steep and narrow but skiable route down to the right from here.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I've skied that exact same run along the road..fun stuff..I might be skiing MRG on Monday..