Days 6 & 7: Clothing fails, equipment issues and more.
But some good skiing to be had nevertheless.
On Friday I spent three hours skiing in the morning before spending the afternoon cleaning up the remainder of the autumn leaves at the house. I was alone, both literally and figuratively. The place was so deserted that only once did I actually ride a lift with anyone else (and by sheer coincidence that person turned out to be a friend of Marc_C's from Delaware).
Snow was pleasant, even off the groomers. A couple of inches of dense, wet graupel that fell on Wednesday freshened things nicely, and with the lack of people I was still finding it untracked or only lightly tracked in some surprising places like Tombstone and Armpit, both of which I was skiing for the first time this season.
When I went in for a coffee I pulled off my jacket and flakes flew everywhere. And they weren't snowflakes.
My regular ski clothes were in the laundry for their once a year cleaning, so when I left the house I grabbed a Mountain Hardwear jacket I had laying around. It's 7 or 8 years old, but it's only been worn a few dozen times, so I was surprised to find the waterproof breathable membrane cracking and flaking off. Jacket dandruff was stuck to me everywhere. It went into the trash as soon as I got home.
Today was different in many ways. Unlike Friday morning, it was cloudy. I was joined by Bobby Danger, AmyZ, Telejon and TheOtherAmy. While it started out just as dead, we were quickly joined by many young hotshots in town for last night's POWDER Awards. And the annual AT/Tele Demo Day was happening at the base of Collins.
We nosed around and found good snow once again, but the best snow of the day was in Lone Pine, another shot I was visiting for the first time this season.
We even got up the nerve to try getting there once via Liftline, which wasn't nearly as sketchy as I had expected it to be. Another first for the season.
Ever since the season began in mid-November I've felt like my legs didn't have a lot of strength. This happens every year as I never do anything to prepare for the season, but it seemed worse than ever this year. I sort of chalked it up to being a year older, now 48. But when I clicked into my bindings after lunch today at Watson Shelter, I realized that for the first 6.5 ski days this season I've been skiing all along with my AT boots in walk mode! I've done that before for a few runs, or even a few hours, but never for nearly seven full ski days! I locked the boots into ski mode and I felt like a new man! I could drive the turns with the boots. I could lead the turns with my knees. And I stuck it out until 3 p.m.
But some good skiing to be had nevertheless.
On Friday I spent three hours skiing in the morning before spending the afternoon cleaning up the remainder of the autumn leaves at the house. I was alone, both literally and figuratively. The place was so deserted that only once did I actually ride a lift with anyone else (and by sheer coincidence that person turned out to be a friend of Marc_C's from Delaware).
Snow was pleasant, even off the groomers. A couple of inches of dense, wet graupel that fell on Wednesday freshened things nicely, and with the lack of people I was still finding it untracked or only lightly tracked in some surprising places like Tombstone and Armpit, both of which I was skiing for the first time this season.
When I went in for a coffee I pulled off my jacket and flakes flew everywhere. And they weren't snowflakes.
My regular ski clothes were in the laundry for their once a year cleaning, so when I left the house I grabbed a Mountain Hardwear jacket I had laying around. It's 7 or 8 years old, but it's only been worn a few dozen times, so I was surprised to find the waterproof breathable membrane cracking and flaking off. Jacket dandruff was stuck to me everywhere. It went into the trash as soon as I got home.
Today was different in many ways. Unlike Friday morning, it was cloudy. I was joined by Bobby Danger, AmyZ, Telejon and TheOtherAmy. While it started out just as dead, we were quickly joined by many young hotshots in town for last night's POWDER Awards. And the annual AT/Tele Demo Day was happening at the base of Collins.
We nosed around and found good snow once again, but the best snow of the day was in Lone Pine, another shot I was visiting for the first time this season.
We even got up the nerve to try getting there once via Liftline, which wasn't nearly as sketchy as I had expected it to be. Another first for the season.
Ever since the season began in mid-November I've felt like my legs didn't have a lot of strength. This happens every year as I never do anything to prepare for the season, but it seemed worse than ever this year. I sort of chalked it up to being a year older, now 48. But when I clicked into my bindings after lunch today at Watson Shelter, I realized that for the first 6.5 ski days this season I've been skiing all along with my AT boots in walk mode! I've done that before for a few runs, or even a few hours, but never for nearly seven full ski days! I locked the boots into ski mode and I felt like a new man! I could drive the turns with the boots. I could lead the turns with my knees. And I stuck it out until 3 p.m.
