Souvenirs from Mad River
The slate coaster is quite nice, made in VT. That's what the single chair looks like up close. The bar/foot rest swings in. I saw a guy go up holding his young daughter, with skis on, in his lap. That's a first. The chocolate is made by Nutty Steph in Waterbury. Paradise is the trail from the top skier's left. It had some spots of interesting conditions. It wouldn't have been my 1st choice for my 1st run in a week on unknown skis. But, "Ski It If You Can", and there's only one way to find out.
One by one they go up. I'd forgotten there's a mid station too. My foggy memory thought the other main chair was a fixed quad. Nope. It's a Noah. Two at a time.
Upper Chute. The snow was pretty good. Chalky. Spots of patented Mad River solid clear ice. Some large. Not the yellow man made ice. Organic, free range ice. The rocks had their say too.
The quite good coverage there was slaughtered by...World's Most Horrible Moguls. Downhill slope to the bump? - Just chopped straight down by the 10 to Monty Python Guillotine dropping out of the sky. Just unreal. Are people bringing huge snow saws and cutting the round parts off? Square bumps, triangular bumps, Great Wall of China bumps. Just ghastly.
How? It must be the boarders! Wait, there are none here. They're poaching after closing? Yeah, they hide in the woods, then come out after sweeps and destroy the round bumps.
The answer came from...well to protect a whole group, we'll leave it annonymous. On another part of the mointain off the double, the Sunrise chair. More horror bumps. "What's going on with these bumps? They're terrible."
Guy in a chair on the snow observing:
- "Short skis...And the telemarkers."
Aha! Now it made sense. Who else makes 180 degree turns constantly. Just sawing away any hope of a nice round bump.
The interim solution should be to ban them. Do it for a month. See what happens.
@Tony S about to go over the waterfall on Paradise. Some beautiful views from this mountain.
The crew waiting and looking for carnage. Paradise.
@Tony S,
@Scruffy ,
@JohnL , @ Snowbowler (epic),
@mdf.
Skis of the day. Demo, Liberty Origin 90, 179. Pretty good ski for the day. Solid, good shape. Little clunky, side of beef with crispy bacon.
@JohnL on Lynx/Beaver.
We decided this trail was a lot like trails in Palli at Abasin. Not as steep. But on this one you could never see what was coming. This was an open spot.
@mdf
Tony S and mdf.
@LiquidFeet ,
@SKI-3PO ,
@KevinF in a clearing on Lynx/Beaver. Today was not too hot, not too cold. Very limited melting. They're might be an inch of new tonight. Could use 6.
Pub at base 5pm.
@mdf and I skied till they closed the chair. Our last run was to be a groomer off the top. A cool down run. We took Antelope. Where it meets chute at the single midstation mdf has stopped. The moguls below there were much better than the horror show above. "You want to do that, don't you?"
"Yeah. Ya think?"
"I think we have too. Well were going too anyway."
So much for the groomer cruiser into the lodge. Nice skiing under the single with no one on it. It's an odd space under the single. They're not that far away, then there's one at a time instead of a whole busload above you. And the one behind can hear also.
Sometimes they talk directly to you. Like when your standing on the rock or ice cliff, trying to figure a way down. "That's a great line below!" I've already looked, it's a cliff. But maybe I was wrong, I look again. "Yeah, that's great," from the lift.
Nope, still a cliff. He must be that guy that yells "Jump!" when he sees someone on a roof.
I manage a path between the rocks, dirt and over something that stopped growing months ago.
There's a silence to the single. With that you can have a brief interaction with someone above. There's a window because it's not a fast chair. (I wonder if in 10 years MRG will be the first to put in a detachable single. Probably cost as much as a six pack since it has to be engineered from the ground up)
One of the conversation windows opened with a kid on the single and apparently his brother next to us, playing the role of Jackie Gleason as he opens the apt window in Brklyn and yells out "Norton!"
Brother next to us yells up something about chicken and waffles. Seems the one in the air doesn't want it. I enter the conversation, addressing the brother in the chair, "You don't like chicken and waffles?"
What comes back is some mumbling and then "I want a
fried waffle!"
Well. Here I was after hacking my way down through the field of horribly misshapen moguls, completely unaware that fried waffles even existed. But now I knew. Because of the single chair. Better get down now to the cliff where the guy above told me to jump...
Great Day at Mad River Glen!
Never know what you'll find there. Always interesting.
Thanks to everyone who came out. Fun times.
Leafed my way down the mogul field while everyone else waited. Managed down to the lodge for some drugs and a coffee while everyone else soldiered on.
