I made turns today on Mad River Glen's Catamount Bowl. Unfortunately, I didn't get first tracks - those went to MRG local John Bronley who beat me by about five minutes. But I got second, third and fourth tracks. <BR> <BR>What had been a distant hope last night turned into reality this morning as I drove over Warren Gap this morning at 8 AM. There was SNOW everywhere covering all of the trees. My plan had been to drive down to Killington to buy some plastic tele boots, but that was going to wait as I investigated MRG and App Gap. As I headed up App Gap I saw two twisted individuals lugging skis into the woods at the spot where Rattled Snake makes it's first close encounter with Rt. 17. Two minutes later I was at the height of land and I saw that snow was sticking to the ground. Hell, if it was sticking there... <BR> <BR>So I followed the footprints of those two sick people. Saw my first skier as he whooped and hollered down past me on Broadway. Caught up to the two folks I saw earlier just a little past Mid Station. I talked to them for a few minutes, but I was on a mission to ski untracked October powder so I cruised on past them. There was six to eight inches of snow greeting me at Stark's Nest when I arrived. <BR> <BR>I hurriedly put on my skis and headed to the top of Catamount Bowl where I watched John make quick work of the powder. Then it was my turn. I pushed off and started linking turns. It was incredible. This wasn't any ASC frost skiing either, this was REAL SNOW!!! I wasn't even striking bottom at first. Halfway down it got trickier as my skis would cut through and grab onto wet grass, usually throwing me off balance. <BR> <BR>At the bottom of the bowl I skied back up, the snow was so sticky I didn't even need to put skins on - not that I even had them. Second run, again Catamount. This time the turns came easier as I adjusted my technique to suit the grass. I had to ski straighter lines to keep my momentum up. As I'd go into each tele turn and the snow would cascade over my knee and hit my chest all I could think of was how lucky I was to be skiing in early October, on natural snow, at MRG. It was incredible. <BR> <BR>My third run took me down Catamount again and then on down to Rt. 17. Didn't want to spoil a spectacular day by taking too many runs once the snow had been spoiled and my legs started to hurt. I was able to "ski" all the way down to the entrance of Rattled Snake. In other words, I was able to ski down to Snail on good snow and from there on, I glided through barely covered sections of trail without ever taking my skis off. <BR> <BR>Spectacular day. I remember sitting at home a year ago reading with awe the stories coming from Jay about skiing past the foliage. Never thought I'd get the chance living in CT, but today I got lucky by being in the right place at the right time. <BR> <BR> <BR>Ski it if you can!
Mad River Glen, VT 10/8/00
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