A
Anonymous
Guest
Yesterday was awesome - who would have thunk it? I must admit I am a skisnob who usually bypasses Bolton on the way to more "vertical" places, only hitting it for night skiing once or so a year. But, after yesterday's Bump-a-thon at MRG, my sore body was looking for something a little more mellow, and Closing Day at Bolton for $10 on another beautiful day seemed like just the ticket. <BR> <BR>Arrived at 11:15 w/ friend John, bought said ticket and ascended the Mountain chair to the Vista chair. Did Sherman's Pass > Schuss for a warmup. Reascended Vista chair to Cobrass as a means to getting to the (from what I hear) frequently closed Timberline Quad. Noticed that Preacher was roped off, assuming this was due to not yet soft conditions. Made mental note to check later and poach regardless (one of the joys of paying $10). Off Timberline, the trail choice was Lost Boyz, one of 2 double blacks on the mountain. Some nice turns in medium-tight woods were found, especially when following the rule of thumb to stay out of the shade. Did Lost Boyz 3 consecutive runs, followed by a high speed cruise on Brandywine (groomed single black) at which point the decision was made to see some more of the mountain, so we headed over to the Wilderness chair, and did one run. The Wilderness chair serves a disappointing collection of green and blue trails, but I was intrigued by the terrain both off trail and above the chair (just below the summit of Ricker Mountain). <BR> <BR>About 1 PM now. We headed back to the Vista chair to do some laps, as I assumed the blacks there should be sufficently soft. I was right -Show Off, Hard Luck, and Vermont 200 all had pleasantly soft, if not particularly large, bumps. On descending Vermont 200, we noticed tracks coming out of the woods - hmmmm....this was turning into a not quite so mellow day, and one in which my helmet was still in the car. <BR> <BR>The ADD started kicking in and we started looking to see what goods could be found. The trail out of the woods was an offshoot of TNT, which we found to be roped. No, nothing like a trivial rope stops the demented treeskier. TNT was pleasantly slick and the fever had set in. We headed back to the Wilderness chair and noticed a veritable snowfield just to the left of the upper left. Peeked in, but found we were on top of about a 15 foot pile of snow, looking down on the tops of some very thick pines. Came down and around and found more open snow and some sweet soft corn turns. Ducked in the woods again and pretty much followed them the whole way down. This was getting fun! On the next trip up the chair, noticed some steep open snow (mixed with just a few trees and fallen logs) just below Upper Crossover. These turned out to be some of the nicest turns of the season. Followed this descent with more woods all the way down, crossing annoying open runs every once and a while. I was slapped silly by the sapling branches, but all in the name of chasing sweet turns. This went on for another hour and 3 runs. Finally, it was after 3 and my "mellow" day was nearing an end. We headed back uo the Vista chair to check out Preacher, which was now open. Preacher to Devil's Playground finished the day on the upper mountain, after which we did a quick tour through the Kids Park and the surrounding woods. The surreal moment of the day was doing turns around a collection of plywood cartoon characters who seemed to jump put of nowhere! <BR> <BR>I was pleasantly surprised by what we found in the Bolton woods. I definitely got my $10 worth! Now, if they could only open the woods for <BR>night skiing! ;-)