A
Anonymous
Guest
Saturday my wacko skinnin pals and I headed up the Teardrop to see what we could find. At 50 degrees in Colchester with a cold north wind, I was fearful of hard nasty conditions. After the spanking I took rattling around Stowe last weekend, I wanted soft snow... Happily, I can report we found a ripe corn harvest in progress. <BR> <BR>Chris aka "Mr. Bumps" stormed up the trail, followed by my buddy Scott in football shorts and T1 race boots. I waited like a cunning fox (or maybe like a 38 yo beer drinker in insulated work bibs) until it got steep before I made my move to humiliate my friends. These guys thought they would put the boots to me on the climb up. They love to race the ascent. Using my patented wall to wall "magic carpet" G3skins, I just waited for the steep pitches to pass the others as they backslid. Those of you who never stray off the resorts don't know the pleasure of watching your pals slip helplessly backwards as their too skinny skins lose contact with the snow... <BR> <BR>Made it to the top of the trail after about 1 1/2 hours of climbing, but decided to skin the rest of the way to the summit of the Forehead. We had to bushwack around a bit before skinning up a hard, rain-cupped surface toward the top. Near the top there is a big drift/cornice covering up the trees completely. I found a deep tree well near the summit with my pole, and tried to find bottom. Laying on my tummy I tried to find bottom with my pole, and then a ski. No bottom. <BR> <BR>After a peek over at Stowe, we diced up the Forehead to the amusement of a couple of snowboarders. Made it back to the trail, and blasted out sweet corn turns all the way to the bottom. Gotta look at a map to see how many vertical it is from the Forehead...Can't wait to go back.