A
Anonymous
Guest
You know its going to be a good ski day when: <BR>You're in the lodge bootin' up and thinking 'Wow, there are MAYBE thirty people here. This is going to be great.' After thinking that you hear the table behind you mention that they think there a lot of people here. <BR> <BR>It was my first time at Plattekill. The rumors from friends was that it was a great laid back little hill with an MRG style. They only open midweek when they declare it to be a Powder Day. Lift tickets are $20 and they leave all but a few trials ungroomed. They had received about eight to ten inches of new snow. And, it didn't seem very light. Get there at 8:40 and the lift isn't running. 9am it's finally started but they still have to get someone up top and clean the chairs. We load about 9:25. Everybody, all thirty of us, are in line for the triple chair. And the fun begins. <BR> <BR>I was fourth or fifth chair after the triple loaded. It was the kind of run where you don't stop to put you hands into your pole straps; just point 'em and go. The top of the run was a little wind scoured (only 3-4 inches deep). After the top it was around 8 inches deep and very dense. Lots of fun. Next run was a traverse to skiers right. I found a narrow trail (12 feet wide?) with only two tracks. Mine were the third set. On this trail the snow was a lot lighter, or less dense. After a right angle turn, it dumped me half way down a wide bump run. Powder bumps with face shots galore. There was a third run off of the triple that I don't remember now. What I did notice on my third ride up the triple was that the T-bar was open. Time to head over there (I haven't ridden a T-bar since Mt. Mansfield took theirs out. What year was that?) <BR> <BR>The secret of the T-bar: a slow lift, depositing very few people onto lots of fresh powder. First run: right down the trail accessed by the T-bar. A wide open powder run. Fresh snow everywhere and I only crossed other peoples tracks about every fifth or sixth turn. Next run: First run to skiers left of the T-bar. A top to bottom bump run with maybe four sets of tracks. Oh what a morning. By now the legs are screaming. This and the next run, I just kept saying to myself, just keep turning. Next run: second run to skiers right. On the short traverse over, I finally notice tracks heading into the woods. I had been looking all morning for tracks leading in, but this was the first I had seen them. This run was again powder bumps. <BR> <BR>Back to the triple to rest the legs between runs and now it was evident where most people skied the woods. Maybe I didn't notice them at first or maybe now one entered the woods until the trails were somewhat tracked up. There are many mountain bike trails traversing the woods and these give great access to woods shots. It was amazing. You would be gently traversing a mountain bike trail when the underbrush to the downhill side would disappear for several feet. Hmmmmm. What's this? A little exploration is needed. Good stuff. If the trails had dense snow, the snow in the woods was much lighter. At this point, the rest of the day was "use the trails to get to the next section of woods." After many runs on the triple and T-bar I ran out of energy before running out of woods shots. On one of Plattekill's Powder Daize just take your pick.