Mark Renson
New member
We had our Patrol Refresher at Hermit Lake, NH on Saturday. It was great getting back to see the many faces from last year and it was a beautiful day. A long fracture line was observed running from between Left Gully-Chute to Right Gully. Hillman's Highway is filled in but Duchess is not and Dodge's Drop is thin. Little Headwall is filled in, but pretty meager compared to last year. The bowl has a generous amount of snow. <BR> We have a new Snow Ranger this year (Chris Joosen) who replaces Brad Ray. Brad signed on as a consultant, so he and Tuckerman the dawg will be around. Our bunkhouse got some repairs and important modifcations (like a door that actually shuts). The bunkhouse was actually a shed used for cooking years ago when food was served at HoJos; it was moved to its present location. <BR> At the end of the day, there was enough time for a ski run down to Route 16. Coverage and surfaces were great and I even got a few scraps of untracked on the sides. Conditions were much better than what the Snow Rangers tend to report on the website - they always understate it. We speculate that instead, we are used to marketing fueled gross exaggeration reports provided by lift-served ski areas. Skinning back up to Hermit Lake was a breeze with my new AT boots as I arrived there at dusk. <BR> I was supposed to spend Sunday doing beacon practice with someone, but those plans were abruptly changed. But I did have a big cold Foster's Lager in an oil can (yum-yum-yum, I hadn't had one of those in a long while) and good company with others on the Patrol who decided to stay up there. It's a real nice benefit for us to have that shelter. We bs'd until we could barely stay awake and it started to snow in addition to the ubiquitous winds. <BR> The next morning ...... wel-l-l-l, it coulda' been worse. Allison the Hermit Lake hutmistress reported 4.75" of new snow and said that there was drifting until about 7:30AM which was when the light rain commenced. The avalanche danger was high. Rains were not heavy, though and it looks like there was a net gain in the snowpack from this storm. <BR> The untracked snow was actually manageable! In fact, it was actually a lot of fun and the skiing was great in an interesting way. Halfway down, the skies brightened and we observed some blue patches up above. Progress was slow and cautious due to the mashed potatoes, but it was actually the best skiing I have had since I got back from Durrand. At the bottom, the sun appeared as we tromped through the slush. I seriously considered another run, but I was nervous about soloing as there were few people out and I suspected that the weather was to change and make conditions very difficult by the time I got back up.