Mark Renson
New member
"Very technical Mad River skiing out there" was the announcement made by John the PD for our morning briefing on Saturday. It was to be another weekend of crust and ice, typical of this lousy February. <BR> Up The Single I went to help set up a bump course on Chute. At the top, great dust on edgeable crust was found as I negotiated the use friendly bumps. But Jordy (you might have dealt with him - he owns <A HREF="http://www.snowshack.com" TARGET="_top">http://www.snowshack.com</A> ) the <BR>old sage Patroller alerted me to the fact that I neglected to carry down bamboo and rope - duh! After we set this up, I enjoyed a great run down Chute and then Moody's. Enjoyable skiing was had throughout the morning. Later that morning, I participated in toboggan training down Fall Line, practicing taking the tail rope (called the Tag Line by other Patrols). <BR> Occaisionally, I'd do some tree shots, finding good dust on crust, especially on a nice shot I had worked on 2 years ago where I got untracked. <BR> For Sweep, I was assigned Chute. Things <BR>were just "OK" through the left jug handle, but from there downhill was nothing but crap. Conditions had fallen apart since the morning. Even worse was the sweep I had to do down Upper Glade. <BR> This morning, I rode up The Double for trail check, which meant I did not have the chance of checking Chute or Upper Glade - funny how that worked out. Being a soldier, I <BR>volunteered to check Upper Panther which I dreaded because I knew that it had a chance to be miserable. But the morning sun had softened things up to a manageable edgeable level and it was pretty decent and I found some untracked <BR>in the Matt Reagan Snowfields. For the 2nd run, I headed to Lower Panther to mark off an ice floe that had sprouted in the middle of the trail. <BR> I then went to Paradise where I found <BR>solitude. There was a reason for that - the skiing was lousy there. I ventured off a bit and found nasty death crust. In bounds, I caught a buried death cookie of some sort and went arse over teakettle downhill for quite a distance. Later, Penny, Cindy and Jen were doing sled training on Partridge using long ropes and belaying tactics used from the prior day's rescue. I joined and then I did tail practice down Slalom Hill. <BR> During the rest of the day, much snow softened up under the sun, but more slick spots became exposed. Skiing became more demanding and I longed for the earlier days of this season when we had thin cover, rocks and grass but much soft snow and user friendly moguls to be found. Face it, we're having a lousy season and I am getting a bit burnt out on it. MRG has only received a <BR>season-to-date snowfall total of roughly 120" and only 18" has fallen on The Rockpile so far this February. I have not golfed yet nor have I investigated code name TNF or TLN. Sure there is some fun to be had, but someone needs to kick Mother Nature in the arse. Hey, that's the reality.