Day 78: A great day until...
Went cruisin' with Mrs. Admin up to Canyons Resort today. This is their last weekend of operations this winter and we had one free season passholder appreciation ticket still laying around to be used.
It was warm. Really warm. We arrived for an alpine start at the crack of noon, having sat around the house for the morning to give it time to soften. Honestly, we gave it too much time for things were already sticky glue by the time we hit it.
We checked out the new Iron Mountain terrain, a first for me. Starting off, getting there's a bit of a pain, for due to the privacy of the über-exclusive Colony development, and partially also due to a small ridgeline between the bottom of Iron Mountain and the bottom of Tombstone you have to ride a short bi-directional transfer lift, Timberline, in order to get there and back. Timberline is a fixed grip quad, but once you're on Iron Mountain proper that lift is a true high-speed quad.
The terrain over there, however, is quite pleasant. These are long cruisers with a consistent fall line. The ones down the center have a bit of a runout, while Mercury to looker's right of the chair has a rather consistent fall line top to bottom. Copperhead, furthest to looker's left is a wide, gently undulating cruiser that just begs for high-speed arcs. Here are some photos:
Shortly after that last picture was taking we started heading higher on the mountain as the bottom of Iron Mountain is roughly the same elevation as the base of the ski area, and things were getting really sticky down low. We therefore went back to Tombstone and headed down Sidewinder in an effort to return to Red Pine. A couple of hundred yards into Sidewinder, however, Mrs. Admin fell backward and weighted the tail of her downhill ski -- the proverbial phantom foot. Sure enough, she tweaked her right knee. After trying for a few moments she couldn't bear weight on her right leg without pain so we called in the backup. Ian from Canyons Ski Patrol showed up and boxed her up himself for a toboggan ride down Sidewinder to Red Pine and a ride down the gondi. Hats off to Ian for a job well done. Ironically enough he was with Jay Peak Ski Patrol up until the year that I started there. We had the chance on the gondola download to exchange names of folks we knew in common.
She's doing better this evening, I'm doubtful any substantial damage was done. And Mrs. Admin got to find out firsthand what a patrol toboggan ride feels like.
Went cruisin' with Mrs. Admin up to Canyons Resort today. This is their last weekend of operations this winter and we had one free season passholder appreciation ticket still laying around to be used.
It was warm. Really warm. We arrived for an alpine start at the crack of noon, having sat around the house for the morning to give it time to soften. Honestly, we gave it too much time for things were already sticky glue by the time we hit it.
We checked out the new Iron Mountain terrain, a first for me. Starting off, getting there's a bit of a pain, for due to the privacy of the über-exclusive Colony development, and partially also due to a small ridgeline between the bottom of Iron Mountain and the bottom of Tombstone you have to ride a short bi-directional transfer lift, Timberline, in order to get there and back. Timberline is a fixed grip quad, but once you're on Iron Mountain proper that lift is a true high-speed quad.
The terrain over there, however, is quite pleasant. These are long cruisers with a consistent fall line. The ones down the center have a bit of a runout, while Mercury to looker's right of the chair has a rather consistent fall line top to bottom. Copperhead, furthest to looker's left is a wide, gently undulating cruiser that just begs for high-speed arcs. Here are some photos:
Shortly after that last picture was taking we started heading higher on the mountain as the bottom of Iron Mountain is roughly the same elevation as the base of the ski area, and things were getting really sticky down low. We therefore went back to Tombstone and headed down Sidewinder in an effort to return to Red Pine. A couple of hundred yards into Sidewinder, however, Mrs. Admin fell backward and weighted the tail of her downhill ski -- the proverbial phantom foot. Sure enough, she tweaked her right knee. After trying for a few moments she couldn't bear weight on her right leg without pain so we called in the backup. Ian from Canyons Ski Patrol showed up and boxed her up himself for a toboggan ride down Sidewinder to Red Pine and a ride down the gondi. Hats off to Ian for a job well done. Ironically enough he was with Jay Peak Ski Patrol up until the year that I started there. We had the chance on the gondola download to exchange names of folks we knew in common.
She's doing better this evening, I'm doubtful any substantial damage was done. And Mrs. Admin got to find out firsthand what a patrol toboggan ride feels like.
