Midseason 2012 / 13 Reflections

[Scruffy]

Been a mixed bag for me; I got the early Jan dump, I missed the Fri-Sat dump a week ago, by Sunday it was toast already. The good news is I got some really good Back Country sking in on that Sat. Everything in between has been kinda scratchy.
Going out west in a few weeks to Oregon, hopefully that will be make my season.

 

[Euler]

Average season for me. I had some of the best skiing of my life in the trees at Mt. Sutton during the storm on 12/27. Other than that, pretty mediocre days. I decided to give Okemo a try this year, the Sunday afternoon price for VT residents is hard to beat...BUT, I've decided it's not the place for me. Too many trails that ski exactly alike. Tomorrow I get to spend a half day at Mt. Snow with my son. Should be fun, if a bit firm

 

[octopus]

nice start, thought we would have a good base for the rest of the season. then it all melted away, only to start all over again. heading up later this week to see where we are

 

[abc]

The season is meeting my expectation, which being a low one. 8 days so far (I count both xc and alpine days) which isn't too shabby given my low expectation.

For the first time in many years, I'm only doing 1 trip out west, which is coming up in March. I got docked a 2 week forced vacation, without pay and unfortunately before the ski season. So cash was a bit on the low side so is remaining vacation time. I had to skip the January trip while building back up my reserve for the March trip. So my "season" hasn't really got into full swing yet time-wise. It maybe mid-point on the general calendar but not on my personal planner.

As usual, my skiing in the northeast is really a preparation to the trip out west, plus as many xc days as weather allows locally. To that end, it's not bad.

If I had looked when the thread was first posted, I would have said my season so far sucks, because I had only been out a few times and the "powder weekend" turned out to be a dud (fluff on crust). But this past weekend, my obligation melted away and I got to go out for 2 days. Condition was better than expected (for xc anyway) so I'm a lot happier camper as a result.

The weather being such a strange one this season, there's as much snow in the Cats as up north up till last weekend. So I've been doing 100% day trips to local areas, a lot of them xc days too. It's rare to get good snow for xc ski so I gave that a higher priority. I'm pretty happy I got quite a few days in so far. And it looks like more to come too. The beauty of local day trip is the cost is a lot lower, not having to fork out lodging and meal cost. More comfy in my own bed at the end of day too.

For alpine, I got 1 day in Bell, 2 days in Platty so far. I'm hopeful I'll have a couple more, before my trip out west. That would easily add up to 10+ (whatever the + end up being). If I can get up to 10 days xc, that would be fantastic. And that would make for a 20+ skiing days, which will equal my "average/typical season".

Did I say I'm an optimist?