Stowe, VT 4/28/00

Wesley · May 2, 2000

mr rogers, Jumpin' Jimmy and I made our final Friday ski trip for the season an assault on Killington Peak. It was a wacky day. We started off by gabbing and spacing on I-89 to the exclusion of the proper exit from he freeway. Took a "short cut" through Pomfret, which afforded us a brief stop at Suicide Six. Spent 2 minutes checking out the trail map -- there was but one patch of snow on the suicidal slopes -- before meandering off through Woodstock, Bridgewater, and at last, Killington. Killington peak was socked in heavy fog. Not much happening in the precipitation department, but there was a stiff, cold, wintry wind. What we could see of the peak looked snowy and March-like. I brought along morning and afternoon skis. Morning skis were my alpine touring Hagans. First run was a simple warm up down Skyelark to lower Bittersweet. Run two wasn't so much a run as an an adventure -- perhaps in stupidity. We strapped on skins and ambled up to the summit in search of freshies. The reports of 4-6" new earlier this week had gone to our heads. Well, my head -- Jimmy and roger weren't quite convinced. None of us were convinced once we reached the summit. New snow, yes. Good snow, no. It was a mix of concrete and styrofoam. Heavy, crusty, thick, and completely unturnable. Kind of stuff where you pick a direction and hope it was the right one to pick, 'cause you sure couldn't change it in midstream, especially at speed. But they were fresh tracks. And I'll suffer considerable misery for first tracks -- even bad ones. We chose the least challenging route we could, since the snow presented more than enough challenge: Blue Heaven to that thing under the neck snapper chair to Great Eastern. Best turns were the 20 or so in softer snow -- all of 6" of it on a base of rock and grass -- under the Skye Peak quad. Then lots of mud, rock, and dirty snow as we wrapped around the peak and bushwacked through woods back to the Superstar chair. Oh, what fun. Stopped for lunch, and I switched to my afternoon skis: the dreaded Spalding Starboards. We headed straight for Superstar, skied it top to bottom. Big ol' Killington style gnarly misshapen ice bumps. Nothing like having a pair of six foot ten inch steel I-beams strapped to your feet while skiing big ol' Killington style gnarly misshapen ice bumps. roger and jimmy kicked my butt. My right knee is still throbbing. It was great. We hammered bumps until 3:30. Laughed at some local bump fiends who pretty much straight lined everything competition style -- all flash and no finesse. Looking cool on their fancy modern equipment, bitchin' and Jimmy for standing in their line. I think we flashed them pretty good on our old timey sticks. Ran into a couple of snowboard kids getting into a fist fight while waiting for their Mom to pick them up. We egged them on. Killington: no place like it in Vermont. The East. Or the west, for that matter. Killington: the one, the only. Took off our skis, changed boots and clothes, and watched as the blue skies finally appeared to bathe the slopes in warmth and sunlight. It don't get much more better than this.

Stowe, VT 4/28/00

Wesley

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