Dan Barron
New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 2/9/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Well, I missed most (but not all!) of the week's epic poudre (zat's French), but the big K turned into a big woods blast for me. Most of my trips there have been early or late season. This one was different. In the same way that Bush's campaign manager said that he "won" the NH primary... except for all those crazies that turned out the vote for McCain, I'll now say K is woods heaven... except for all those McTrails. <BR> <BR>Met boarders Garry and Ray and friend at 10 Sat AM at the Snowdon lift and they proceded to lead me through an invisible opening to a beautifully thinned powder glade on skier's left of Snowdon. Snow was shin deep and soft as can be. Woods were Orford-like, with plenty of obstacles as well as plenty of routes to choose around them. Not first tracks but still delightful. Took one rolling spill that caused Garry to comment, "guess those teles are a lot tougher through here than a board." Which had the effect of making me want to make damn sure I didn't spill again. Other memorable moment was at the entrance, when boarder Ray seemed to me to be too low to get in, facing 3 insurmountable feet with a downed log between him and trail. I turned around for an instant and the next thing I knew he was in. Ray, did you levitate over that log? <BR> <BR>My time with the boarding trio, though, was short. I was there with my daughter Laura, a blue-square non-fanatic. We spent the morning on Snowden and on Ram's Head. Squeeze Play fusion zone (on-the-map glades) turned out to be just right for her and amusing for me. It's a long and wide glade, not steep but with lots of routes (and fair share of roots, too). Snow was well tracked, but still very skiable. Near the top were some nice moguls built up in conjunction with the obvious tree turns. They were fun to loop your turns around. And near the bottom were several little built up jumplets that I surprised myself by actually seeking out. Not as challenges. More as amusements. That' was some kind of subconscious milestone for me. <BR> <BR>Also did parallel runs with Laura on Rams Head's Swirl, where Garry had mentioned the neighboring woods. (I don't feel I'm giving anything away here. You can see 'em easily from the chair.) Funny thing... these woods are pretty tame pitch-wise, but very unthinned. I had first tracks (didn't see any remnants from Garry's exploits in there the day before) which made me head pretty straight down the fall line, which, in turn got me enough speed through the semi-tight trees so that I was experiencing a similar rush to Jerm's far steeper woods runs. Look for an opening. where? Where? Oh no, no place to go. Oh yes. There it is. Through there. Around that. Over that. Push that away. I'm through. Now where? <BR> <BR>Afternoons I said bye to Laura as she went in to warm and I went off seeking woods. <BR> <BR>I got more woods than I can remember. They were everywhere. Conditions were all pretty similar. I'd missed the pow--found only tiny stashes here and there--but the tracked-up routes were very enjoyable. Not at all icy. A fair amount of roots and rocks and sticks showing through on the steeper sides of the turns, which made it worthwhile to scout your routes a coupla turns ahead. <BR> <BR>Did various named glades. Low-rider and Big Dipper, mostly. But most fun were the signless tracks I just followed into the pines in the Snowdon and Canyon areas. Invariably they opened up into multipath (I don't like when you must follow one route) wooded wonders. And (with one exception) long. K's woods do go on. There's been some serious chainsawing in those hills. Thank you, o nameless woodsmen of the summer. <BR> <BR>Near the end of both days, I was in that semi-crazed zone I love, where I'm tired but not exhausted. Memories of the day are trailing behind my ears giving me that satisfied full buzz and there's still an hour to go. The sky is getting those afternoon colors and the question is which way to wrap up and tie a ribbon around what's already been a gift of a day. I don't know about you VT locals, but one (the?) nice thing about being a flatlander is that a day in the mountains is so totally outside my daily routine. It really is a step outside of my normal existence. I often can't believe it is happening, or, the day after, that it has happened. <BR> <BR>Saturday I traverse over to end the day on some non-snowmaking trails I've never seen open before. Escapade was a mogully sweet roller coaster (I love my new Dynastars). Flume, sadly, was an ugly gravel-yard. Oh well. <BR> <BR>Sunday, though. I end the day with two new personal firsts. Julio had always scared me on the maps, but things were going so good, I decided to give it a try. Pop through the entrance, and instead of the tight single-route I was expecting, is a moderately spaced softwood pinball forest. Wide enough for some 7 or so possible routes. Steep but not oh-s**t steep. It's a blast at the top, then as I moved down (again, it's pretty long) progressively scratchier. Towards the bottom, it's that same gravel I found ther day before on neighboring Flume. <BR> <BR>Final run was a cruise, if you can call it that, down ovation. In my mind I thought it was a mellow trail. It turned out much steeper than I realized, and pretty scraped off. But that signature snow and new edges did their stuff. I stuck to the moguls on skiers left, held on through the scrapey stuff and solidified my position on the snowier mogul tops., and just _cruised_ down that sucker. It felt so good. Especially halfway down as I turned to watch some rad snowboarder standing motionless on his board perpendicular to the slope and "doing" Ovation, scarping his dull way down. Teles rule! <BR> <BR>K rocks.