A
Anonymous
Guest
Ahh, spring. <BR> <BR>The happy easiness of a day of warm temps and corn is so different from the more energetic, winter variety of skiing. This past weekend, of course, was filled with the former. A check of my notes reveals that it was exactly one year ago that I made my last trip to Kmart, under remarkably similar conditions. <BR> <BR>One lesson learned: it's worth it to arrive early. Not for first tracks. For first, or first 15 or so, parking spot, up next to the lift. Spring you can forget about the lodges--totally unnecessary (for males, at least; the ladies might have a reason to go). No, for shedding a layer, for grabbing a cold one from the cooler (or for disposing of same--remember, no woods runs in spring skiing) near the lift is where you want to be. And by all means, pay no heed whatsoever to those 'Employees Only. All Others Will Be Towed' signs. Their sole function is to divert a portion of the Herb Touron automobiles to the distant parking lot. So after a gorgeous wee-early-AM drive, filled with uncharacteristic sunlight and budding greenery (also r$%#, which never reappeared during the day) I pulled in and quick grabbed a car space just paces below Superstar. <BR> <BR>And with that one pressing need taken care of, I converted over to three-toed sloth pace, and pretty much stayed converted for the remainder of the day. Change into ski clothes in the fresh open air, listening to tunes from a newly rediscovered old, old, sweet happy folk CD (Richard and Mimi Farina for you holdovers from the '60s). Take a few moments to feel the breeze. Amble over to buy a day pass (effortlessly bumming an old lift ticket on the way--hardly worth it since the regular rate is now $29, vs. $25 with old ticket), amble back and run into Rich, with whom I ended up skiing pretty much the whole weekend. <BR> <BR>Conditions: Only Superstar, and progressively to skier's right, Skye Hawk, Skye Lark and Bittersweet were open. I doubt that anything other than Superstar will make it til next weekend. Superstar is a bit more bumped up than I remember it this time last year. The difference being that the easy middle section, where last year I was able to cruise through medium small moguls, I now found challenging all the way. The bare patch that eats in from skiers right at the top of the final steep pitch is so far only a brown island of maybe 15 yards diameter. S.Hawk too is very bumped but by Sunday afternoon required walking to get back to Sstar or S.Lark. S.Lark had soft, sweet moguls Saturday AM, big medium sweet moguls Saturday PM, got groomed Saturday night and was a slushy sort of chowder Sunday AM. Sunday PM it returned to nice soft moguls but rocks began sneaking out from numerous thin spots everywhere except the very top. Also the traverse to get there got very Ptex-unfriendly. Weather was sublime. Temps in the 50s-60s, lots of sun and lots of wind to keep you from overheating. <BR> <BR>For punctuation we hiked over first to Ovation, which was a short, effortless walk, but not different enough from Sstar to be worth it. Interesting thing for me was comparing this grainy spring Ovation, a comfort to ski, with the wintry Ovation that sticks in my mind, a frozen terror. I do not believe they are the same trail. Later we did the 20 minute easy uphill hike to Cascade, which was the treat of the weekend to me. Totally unbumped grainy surface, good pitch, knolls here and there, absolutely perfect for blasting big GS turns or for rhythmic up-down, back-and-forth back-and-forth, love-that-sensation tele-ing. Continuous snow, mostly wall-to-wall except for two narrow ribbons, then 7/8ths of the way down, hike out on dirt.