Stratton, VT 4/7/00

[GregB]

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 4/10/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>With a sunny day forecasted and one Passport ticket left to use, I decided to bag work and bash some corn mogul at Stratton. I got there around 10 and it wasn't as sunny as I had hoped. I went up the Gong and headed to Upper Spruce. The top of mountain was still a little frozen and fast. There was a sign at the top of Upper Spruce that said closed and the bumps looked pretty solid with lots of untracked powder in the troughs. A sign with no rope means its open so I went in. The tops of the bumps were dimpled like golf balls and pretty hard and crusty so I stayed in the powder troughs. As I lowered in elevation the powder in the troughs turned to a heavy glue like consistency. Lower Spruce was groomed and the Snowbowl chair was closed so I traversed back to the Gong. The lower groomers were already heavy piles of corn so I stuck to the sides and found some great untracked corn. Next was Upper Lift Line to Upper Slalom Glade. Upper Lift line was down to a 20 foot wide strip on the skiers left down to cut-off to Slalom Glade. Slalom Glade was similar to Spruce but the moguls were beginning to soften and the bumps on World Cup were sweet soft corn. As the day went on the sun was more abundant and all the bumps got soft and sweet. Even Shredwood Forest Glade had enough snow to ski down most of the way but there were many obstacles sticking through the snow. I had the whole Snowbowl side almost to myself all day. Very few people were skiing. I think this weekend was there last.