Mark Renson
New member
The base area is in crappy shape with poor cover, but up Easy Way, turning left at the waterfall and cutting over to the bottom of Porcupine brought me to decent cover. Porcupine had been rolled to the bottom of the headwall and snowcover increased dramatically at the Broadway crossover. I peeked at lower Paradise and was surprised at the number tracks. Slowly, I <BR>gained ground on the two, albeit slowly. <BR> Up Antelope and to the summit where temps had to be in the neighborhood of 0F. After a rest, we were off to Catamount Bowl. Coverage was <BR>outstanding, but many tracks had been laid amongst the virgin powder and snow was crusty and punchy which made for some tricky conditions. Hey, it was only going to make us better skiers, we agreed ..... AND it was a blast! Firm windpack was found at the bottom where we stopped and went for another ascent and repeated a lap down the steep Catamount Bowl headwall. <BR> Another repeat ascent with some socializing at the Stark's Nest with a few other skiers. <BR> Next run was Chute. Again, outstanding coverage was found ! Hill and I went for the right jug handle and Marta went over the ledges. Conditions were the same - that tricky crusty snow which was fun and made us stronger ! <BR> Down the rolled Broadway through Moody's and over to Porcupine where we found outstanding untracked on the headwall and candy on the sides. <BR> To the bottom of Porcupine we went where we assembled for an ascent to the top of The Double. We _stormed_ up Porcupine and Fox ! On that ascent as we skinned 'n grinned, grunted 'n puffed we deemed Hillary as "ready" for SME. <BR> Next on the hit list was my *must* Ritual Day run - Quacky. I aggressively launched into the headwall where the best snow of the day that <BR>side of the Porcupine headwall was found. Past the headwall was rolled, but we found untracked candy on the side. Coverage was stellar all the way down to Broadway. <BR> Hillary noted that she could not find a particular pair of gloves and speculated that she had left them at the Stark's Nest at the summit. "To The Summit" now became the credo ! <BR> Yup, the gloves were there and I suggested a Cat Bowl run to the outer braid of the Catamount/Antelope combo where I figured we'd have the best chance of finding untracked pow. I was disappointed to find the outer braid rolled, but found untracked treats on the sides ! <BR> We paused at the top of LA and I suggested circumventing the midstation and heading for Beaver. With an accumulated 5,000 feet of climbing and tough skiing through tricky snow and the lateness of the bitter cold day, <BR>Marta suggested an "easier" Porcupine run. I paused as I though of a dreamy Ritual Day run the prior year down Beaver in untracked, but <BR>reluctantly agreed in order to be on the safe side; yes, I considered a solo run. Conditions past the bottom of Porcupine was crappy with some <BR>rocks and hairball ice floes. The exception to this was Waterfall where we found some nice skier packed. <BR> It had been a big day for our team of 3. At the bottom at our vehicles, Marta announced that she had to be at a dinner and that with the team that we had, it was a shame that we have the time to get together for a beer. She repeated this, again and I replied with "no problem, we'll make it quick". <BR> It was that type of a "can-do" day ! .... an-n-n-nd There is NOTHING like an olde fashioned bitter cold Winter day in Vermont !!!!!!!!!!!!