Mark Renson
New member
I was on the fence as to whether I should do some hiking in The Presidentials or head up to Jay given the recent snows. <BR> I drove up on Monday night, hitting a wall of falling snow north of Plymouth, NH. The skies abruptly cleared when I reached Franconia Notch and the intense moonlight blasted the snow and ice plastered Cannon Mountain. Fantastic shades of light blue shone and the overlaps and forming ice curtains were very well defined. A reflection bounced off of the Fafnir ledges and illuminated the alcove below the Black Dike to the point where I speculated that perhaps some climbers were partying at the base in anticipation of making the first 2002 ascent of 'da Dike (there weren't). The Adams slide stood out and in the nighttime sky, one could easily recognize the profile of the Old Man of The Mountains. <BR> Anyway, on to skiing. When I arrived at Jay, I was disappointed that the dump I had anticipated for overnight apparently fizzled. However, there were few people present and I figured that there was still much fluff to be had from the Sunday-Monday storm. Winds howled and skies were foggy and spit out some flakes. <BR> Up the quad I went and I then pointed my boards towards B.P. Glade, bagging some fluff on the lower Poma Line on the way. A nice layer of fluff covered the skier packed - evidence of some heavy skiing from the prior day. I think I made my way to B.B.P. Glade but dunno'. I did find much untracked from the prior day, however. <BR> After this, I headed to Expo Glade and found some snowmaking blowover which nearly wrenced my knee. No problem as I gravitated right and found untracked followed by more untracked in an unmarked glade followed by a nice cruiser on some untracked on the novice Deer Run. <BR> Canyonlands (nothing to write home about), Bonaventure (nice!) and the novice Kangaroo (nice untracked) all fell to me, giving me my 5th day of untracked powder skiing out of a possible 7 giving me a .714 STD (Season-To-Date) powder day quotient. Surprising, given all of the whining we've done about lousy conditions. <BR> I went in to drag out my bag lunch and warm up a bit when I ran into Mike Jr and Mike Sr who I met at SME last January. They being from Baja Vermont were unfamiliar with Jay, so it was up to me to play guide. <BR> Up the quad we went where I caught frostbite on my face, a result of my misplacing of my balakalava (well, I think the brutal cold and winds had something to do with it, too). Everglades were visited as were Buckaroo Bonzai and Timbuktu. After a while, we split apart between Mike Sr & I and Mike Jr and Frank. I finished up with Stateside Glades and some nice skier packed on Derricks, UN and some other stuff. <BR> On the way back to the base, Mike Sr who had been listening to my directions so well all day long, went the wrong way at the last possible decision point which was the source of humour when we all gathered at the base afterwards to defrost. <BR> Mike Jr also revealed to us a prize he had discovered where he found thigh deep untracked in some fantastic glades that they bagged 4 times. Both Mikes are now hooked and want to Winter Camp up there and take an inventory of the great off-piste terrain up there. Sounds like a plan. <BR> Great skiing. A few hairball spots and not enough to make Staircase legal (a spooky lesson learned there, [ahem] that I am NOT proud of), but much great snow and Winter has certainly arrived in Northern Vermont.