Jay Peak, VT 4/15/00

Jimski

New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 4/16/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>What an awesome day to break the big four ooh in the ski day count. <BR>Buddy Greg and I got there just a little before nine AM and headed up the <BR>quad to get a warm-up run in. We did the poma line to Beaver pond glades <BR>and down through Kokomo and back to base. Even at this early hour it was <BR>the wettest gooiest stickiest slop I can ever remember in a long time. I <BR>have to revise my rating system from trickiest conditions at Hickory in Feb <BR>to yesterday at Jay. Even my trusty short shaped skis wouldn't come around <BR>when I tried to initiate turning. I was beginning to think that I might have <BR>to stick to the trails where heavy slider traffic tended to make the surface <BR>more manageable and just stick out the day making the simplest of turns. <BR> <BR>Greg and I then met up with "bouncing" Ben Bloom, "gyrating" Jim <BR>Bauman and "rabid" Rich Ramsden and proceeded to find out that "simple" was <BR>not on the day's agenda. Up the tram we proceeded and took on Tuckerman <BR>chutes. Getting over and into them was the interesting part but overall the <BR>run went pretty well (cuz I survived) even though the glop made turning <BR>extremely fatiguing. I think we finished the run with Northwest passage to <BR>North glade or something like that. I don't remember if we did a run off the <BR>quad at this point but eventually made it to the top again where "rabid" <BR>Rich wanted to do something called "Radio Shack". (??) We went down the <BR>access trail off the summit about 200 feet and took 'em off and proceeded to <BR>climb up the rock ledges and scramble across the top of the shoulder of the <BR>mountain in plastic ski boots in gale force winds. Are we having fun yet? <BR>Our fearless leader Rich found enough snow below "the shack" to let us get <BR>the skis back on one person at a time and we proceeded to pick our way <BR>through the stubbly conifer stuff and back over towards the tram to where we <BR>found a line that dropped down and eventually came back out in Green Beret I <BR>believe. This seemed steeper and narrower than Tuckerman's but I have been <BR>in worse places with less cover and made it down. Somewhere along in there <BR>I twinged my left knee and it would remind me the rest of the day of the <BR>stickiness of the snow. Again I don't remember the rest of the run to the <BR>base. It's funny how the "regular" stuff can become a blur when you start <BR>doing stuff out of the normal realm of your activity. The heat and the hop <BR>turns were getting to me and fortunately it was lunch break time at that <BR>point. <BR> <BR>After lunch we proceeded up the tram again and into the face chutes. <BR>Yee haa! Here we go again. I actually felt better on this run than the <BR>morning's endeavors. Maybe I was getting used to the conditions or maybe I <BR>was finally loosening up after a two week layoff but in any event I was <BR>starting to have more fun. We made a run off the quad through some regular <BR>type glades that I don't remember again and tried to time a potential <BR>meeting with "dauntless" Denis at the base. He must have gotten tied up <BR>along there somewhere so we elected to do the quad again and at this point I <BR>think we did Everglade. The surface wasn't quite as mushy probably because <BR>the slope is away from the direct sun and sheltered somewhat by the conifer <BR>growth. I was moving a lot better and linking consistent turns and really <BR>starting to get into it more. This tends to get my adrenalin up and <BR>overcome the fatigue factor that had set in before lunch. We bushwhacked <BR>around the shoulder on a high route to get back to the base with the least <BR>flat route since the runouts were extremely slow to say the least. We spent <BR>10 or 15 minutes looking for Denis again with no luck. We went up the quad <BR>again and decided to head over to the triple and see how things were over <BR>there. We screamed down that long trail(name?) that comes out at the top of <BR>the red quad. Maybe it wasn't glade skiing but for me it was refreshing to <BR>relax and wherever I wanted to turn I could just instinctively do it. We <BR>shot to the right of the top of the lift with Jim B and Ben in the lead. <BR>They never broke stride and shot right into Pole line?? I believe. Bam, <BR>down goes Jim; bam, down goes Ben; either there is a sniper up here <BR>somewhere or they found rotten snow. Rabid Rich frantically waves and <BR>hollers, "into the woods, into the woods." We take cover from the sniper, <BR>err; rotten snow in Canyonlands and continue to make our way over to the <BR>base of the triple. Greg is starting to get leg charlie horses and is <BR>slowing down somewhat but everyone seems to adjust the pace accordingly. <BR> <BR>We head up the triple and Jim B leads us on a rollicking romp down <BR>Kitzbuehel. Awesome soft bumps and firm surface allows for easy turning <BR>almost anywhere. Rich, I think, comments that this is the best cover he has <BR>ever seen and I agree although I only usually get to Jay once or maybe twice <BR>an year and sometimes it isn't open when I am there. There's just something <BR>I love about spring bump skiing and I'm thinking on the way up that I <BR>wouldn't mind doing that again. At the top I ask where to and Jim B says <BR>Kitzbuehel was great let's do it again. Great minds think alike. Ben sets <BR>up and gets some camera shots yet to be posted and the gang starts to slow <BR>down somewhat in the bumps and heat. (65 degrees at the base of the triple) <BR>At this point "rabid" Rich hits the wall and heads over toward the tram. <BR>Jim B's making like Emeril on the food channel and "kicks it up a notch" <BR>with a run down UN. As Ben and I catch a breather about 1/3 the way down he <BR>proclaims Jim "an animal" and "gone off the deep end" as we watch his smoke <BR>all the way to the bottom non stop. I try to suck it up and finish the run <BR>in one shot but the legs go into after burn and I have to screech to a stop <BR>before the bottom of the main steep bump section. I am bent over gasping <BR>when Greg pulls an emergency hockey stop and unintentionally (I hope) nails <BR>me with a tidal wave of slop. In the face, arms and legs, down my neck, I'm <BR>soaked. Refreshing actually. To emphasize how warm it was I was totally <BR>dry by the time I got to the top of the chair again. In the line this time <BR>we encounter "dauntless" Denis who made it in time for one run with us. <BR>Perhaps he had been there a while and we just didn't cross paths but I got <BR>in my one run a year with Denis for a second year now. We did the Jet under <BR>the chair; nice,-- nice,-- nice, what a way to probably close out the year.
 
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