A
Anonymous
Guest
Daughter Gillian had another race today, this time at Pico. I'm always glad to discover new ski horizons, and never having been to Pico I was looking forward to it. <BR> <BR>Temps were around 60 or so - I didn't have a thermometer, but most people were in shirtsleeves, and the area around the base lodge was about ankle-deep in water in places, much to the delight of the girls, who took great pleasure in the opportunity to water-ski off the hill. (It was essentially pond skimming.) <BR> <BR>The race was on B Slope off the Little Pico chair, which was showing grass and dirt at the top but well-covered, if very very soft, down below. <BR> <BR>After the race I went to explore the summit area. It was surprisingly crowded, but it soon became apparent that most of the crowds were sticking to the blue cruisers. Many of the other trails were closed (including Upper Pike and Upper Giant Killer), but we found wonderful soft spring bumps on Upper K.A., and the discovery of the day for me, Summit Glades. <BR> <BR>I had begun to despair of finding an open trail that was something other than a wide, crowded, flat cruiser, when I stumbled into Summit Glades. What a nice ski trail! It was narrow, bumpy, curvy, pretty, and interesting, and was almost Mad River-esque in its atmosphere. <BR> <BR>I finished up with laps on Summit Glades, which was full of soft, forgiving hero bumps, with occasional rocks and dirt to avoid. I even started getting into a sort of rhythm in the bumps, which for me was a new thrill. There was only one spot (right above where the trail splits into East and West halves) that was thin enough where it took a bit of route-finding to negotiate a path through the dirt. <BR> <BR>All in all, given a choice, I'm not sure I'd rush back to Pico, but it did have at least two very nice trails off the summit, and Summit Glades is a keeper anywhere.