<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 2/16/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>The roads between Burlington and Starkboro were almost entirely unplowed Mon morn so we got a late start, didnt make to it to the mtn till 10:30. No matter, it was snowing at rates up to 2 in/hour so this was a day when the best powder would be at days end. Jumpin Jimmy showed up and we all dragged our sore bodies up to the quad. We started easy, with knee deep powder in tame glades off Sunrise and Toll Rd, then quickly graduated to steeper terrain, where we could build enough speed to warrant turning. Goat Woods, Tres Amigos, Lookout, Lookout Woods, Bypass Chutes, Midway Chutes, and Goatdive were all as good or better than I've ever seen them. So deep that all the steepest sections could be run directly without worry. Obstacles and woody debris werent an issue anywhere; anything shorter than a teenager was deeply buried. <BR> <BR>Jumpin Jimmy and I had first tracks in a little chute off Bypass that's one of my personal favorites. It's the one we did at the skivt partee where you drop in from the side, kick 90 degrees in the air to point straight through a shoebox-width opening bounded by two cliffs and then gun it straight though. I dont think I've ever done that in powder -- now I'm spoiled. After exiting the chute there were great pillows of fluff all around and I was able to make deep airplane turns through the curves below.. <BR> <BR>After lunch, I left Wes and Jim to pursue some steeper terrain. There were postholes leading to Pipeline #1 already so it had probably already been wrecked by boarders. I took my chances with Pipeline #2 and discovered the same thing. Actually caught the bastards in the act, heelsiding their way down and taking with them all the snow. Call me an elitist, but if snowboards were allowed at Mad River, Paradise Lost (very similar to the Pipelines) would probably be unpassable most of the year. Once I fought my way around these two obstacles I found good snow below them and was able to link a couple of jumps through the steep section into thigh deep fluff. The lower sections were an exhilarating blur of green and white whizzing by. <BR> <BR>For last run I decided to try my luck and see if Kitchen Wall had be tracked out yet. I figured MC would have done a dozen laps on it by now but to my surprise the two sets of tracks leading out there doubled back and went down Stu's Shot. As far as I could tell Courvilles Coolie was mine for the taking. Getting out there was another issue, the traverse over buried spruces took a good 20 minutes of thrashing. When I finally got there I found more snow than I've ever seen in it. Chutes that are normally choked with debris were wide open. I took a few deep breaths <BR>and dove in. <BR> <BR>Most anything steep was sluffing as soon as a skier passed over so I expected Courville's to do the same and empty the steepest line out. Wary of getting flushed down the chute, I aimed at a cluster of trees as I dropped in. Nothing happened, it stayed put, the line was still skiable. I've never taken the direct line on this chute, and I've never even seen MC's tracks do it. It looked perfect though so I pointed em in. The initial chute is probably 47 degrees and about 4 feet wide, narrower than my skis so I'd have to straight run it to the wide section below. I made one long arc through the narrows and breaked a bit on the section below. Just as I did that it sluffed. Skier's right of the chute was moving so I beelined for the left side where the route corkscrews around the next throat. In the corner of my eye I could see a mound of snow accelerating alongside me, charging straight through the the second throat. I was quickly well ahead of it and banged two more huge turns onto the runout, dropped a pole, and stopped in the trees around the corner. As I turned around to get my pole all the stuff I started sliding caught up to me and buried it. After some postholing and probing around (I'm sure MC is gonna be real happy to see that 
I was still pole-less so I dedicated the run to Mapadu and used the nearset twig as a replacement. <BR> <BR>The last 1500 vertical feet were painful; my thighs were screaming. As I made my last few turns through upper Sepps and liftline the clouds broke and the whole mountain was bathed in an eerie orange light. Wish I had a camera, but I'm sure if I did it wouldnt do it justice -- just like this post doesnt do justice to this day. Words cannot describe, you had to have been there.
I was still pole-less so I dedicated the run to Mapadu and used the nearset twig as a replacement. <BR> <BR>The last 1500 vertical feet were painful; my thighs were screaming. As I made my last few turns through upper Sepps and liftline the clouds broke and the whole mountain was bathed in an eerie orange light. Wish I had a camera, but I'm sure if I did it wouldnt do it justice -- just like this post doesnt do justice to this day. Words cannot describe, you had to have been there.