riverc0il
New member
It took me a while to make a decision this morning. After rolling out of bed at 8am and lounging around the house, looking at the forecast, looking at the radar loop, etc. it was just after 10am before I decided the hell with it, I am going skiing today, rain be damned. Thankfully, no rain fell until all my gear was packed up, and even then I only encountered a few sprinkles on the way home.
Snow making was going on Locke when I arrived at noon time but it got shut down soon after. Temperature was balmy despite the cool breeze and I quickly confirmed my suspicions that they let the guns go just a touch to long. Short hike up Cascades and then I slapped the skins on for the first time this year
and only had to click out of my bindings twice due to some creative route finding skills T2 is wall to wall with one foot base depth. Snow guns were ready to blow some more. Small mounds were present on the steeper part, perhaps pushed around snow from Halloween? Upper Sunday Punch had guns layed out too but much less coverage, no more than half a foot deep and a few open rivers. Ground is still far from frozen even at Sunday River's upper elevation. I took two runs down T2 since skinning up Upper Sunday Punch revealed too many obstacles and less pitch. Looked like Goat Path to Ecstasy might have also had snow making setup? Look for three routes down from Locke Summit next Saturday from the looks of things. Snow making on Cascades will essentially begin again from scratch. I managed to connect the patches with only three ski removals on my descent and made it to within 100 vertical feet of my car. But it was survival and desperation skiing most of the way below Chair 9 intersection.
The disadvantages of living in NH instead of VT are already apparent with 2 hours drive time instead of 1.5 hours each way, but its all good! :-D
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