Mark Renson
New member
Given the forecast, I anticipated some snow on Friday night. Instead, it was another forecast that fizzled. I was surprised at the evidence of warmer weather during the prior week. But, on Saturday morning, temps were warm, the sun was out and the snow coverage was great. <BR> For check, I drew my favorite morning run - Upper Panther. There was some good edgeable hardpack and some good soft packed powder. The lower Slalom Hill portion was a bit slick. I was happy though, that my MRG favorites were now opened. I finally paid my respects to Paradise and was surprised at the great coverage and good snow to be found on that gem. Nice coverage on the frozen waterfall and it felt great to make that peaceful traverse through the woods at the top. <BR> Towards the end of the day, I ran into friends that I had lost touch with since the Killington days and we whooped it up on the mountain. I showed them a choice shot that we had cut last Fall, but avoided skiing it as it was past 3:00PM (very tempted). If there is one rule that the Patrol does NOT like to see broken, it is the skiing in the woods after 3:00PM. <BR> At the end of the day, I had to hustle to get back to Sweep. With only 5 minutes to go at the top of The Double, I blurted out to my friends "if we are to ski, we go NOW" (omigawd, I'm starting to sound like Ruedi). I then <BR>unloaded on a fast and rowdy Upper Panther-Gazelle-Quacky III-Lower Panther-Chip Bowl run just barely making The Double. Sweep was a long one down Quacky; nice, but Cat Bowl-Lynx-Beaver is my favorite end-of-day sweep run due to its great views from the Cat Bowl headwall and solitude on Lynx-Beaver. <BR> In the Patrol Shack, we were informed that Dylan of The Patrol had kept his streak alive, thanx to him nailing a 720 including the landing in the Mogul portion of the MRG Triple Crown. Last year, he won the Moguls outright, the <BR>Unconventional Terrain outright and the Vertical Outright which made him the first to ever do so. Oh, one more thing - he does it on telemark gear. I'm sure that his "groupies" were thrilled. <BR> On Sunday morning, I was disapointed that the forecasted snow overnight fizzled (again). But, snows started to pick up and a light but steady snow persisted all day long making for a very aesthetic ski day. I was able to do a <BR>few woods shots which is something that has been missing from my ski season, thus far (very disappointing). Nice skiing in the woods on the upper mountain. <BR> I also had to do sled training. Down Chute we went with Tiger and I was challenged on Canyon. <BR> As the afternoon wore on, winds picked up and the Birdland and Double became very cold lifts to sit on. I suspect that part of that was due to the wet snow that had been falling earlier in the day that had left much humidity in the air. <BR> We had some technical ski training in the afternoon with Jen (she's the one that looks like Lori Partridge and can ski much better than YOU can - just accept that). <BR> For sweep, I was assigned Gazelle. The surface underlying the powder had become very slick and treacherous. The steeeep Gazelle headwall was nasty, but I was rewarded with sweet snow towards the bottom. <BR> Monday dawned with incredibly beautiful skies. Check down Cat Bowl went well except for a nasty stretch on The Headwall. I found sweet snow on the upper part of Upper Glade and then things got a bit crusty, so I cheated a bit and <BR>zipped down a sweet untracked tree shot down to Ferret before getting back onto Upper Glade. The remainder of this check was very treacherous down Upper Glade - sweet powder with crunchy bumps and patches of nasty ice. <BR> Later, we did more sled training (certainly you've figured out by now that <BR>Patrolling is very demanding and ain't worth the free season's pass) on Chute and into Upper Glade which I had warned Tiger and Christian about. It <BR>certainly made for some great hardball training. <BR> I enjoyed my stint on the Patrol Shack at the top of The Double with the fantastic views of the great ranges of New Hampshire (Mousilauke, Franconia and Presidentials) in the distance. <BR> For final sweep on the tiring weekend, I was assigned to take Candidate Bill down Gazelle and I graciously gave him Gazelle Glades as experience had shown that it had skied exceptionally well during the weekend. Down the gruesome headwall we went and at the entrance to Gazelle Glades, poor Bill lost it as he ejected out of his bindings and slid down past the entrance. Better him than I as it had become necessary to trade assignments as I was still above the entrance! Great skiing was had.