Jim Bauman
New member
Had planned to spend the last day of this glorious March at MRG, but the power outage that had begun Friday afternoon there was still around, so only the Single was operating. One look at the line at the 10:30 a.m. suggested a :45 - 1:00 wait, and our 3.5 year-old is not quite ready for the terrain off the Single, anyway. Our options were SB and Bolton. SB had power, we were told, and Bolton would have put skiing at least an extra 30 minutes away. I'd have to say that driving to Bolton would have been worth it, as our SB North experience was less than ideal. <BR> <BR>First off, Mobil coupons are no good on Saturdays. Harumph. $55 later, we step up to the one-person-serviced rental counter to get kid skis and boots. $25(!) and 30 minutes of rental fiddling later, we have kid skis. We've rented kid skis about 6 times this winter (we're getting a $99 leased set up next season), and have never paid more than $18 for kid skis and boots. That was at Squaw Valley! <BR> <BR>Conor and Kathleen did get in some good skiing, though, with two runs off Inverness, a Slide Brook ride to and from South, with a little kid skiing at South, and a run later off the other North base area quad. Conor is doing better each time, though he's pretty wiped out after 2-3 runs. <BR> <BR>Dad's one run involved an interminable ride up the lower fixed grip quad, and ascent into the ultimate in pea soup on the North Ridge express <BR>(complete with fog light beacon to notify you of our arrival at the top), and another slow ride on the summit quad. The fog was thick enough to allow only the hint of the outline of the chair in front of you. Black Diamond didn't seem all that steep, but you couldn't tell. Visibility was about 1-1.5 bumps woth. Snow was thick and deep, and would have been a joy had there been some light. Once you punched below the cloud deck things improved considerably. Lower FIS was still chowdery in the mid-afternoon, and quite tricky on the relatively skinny K2 Fours. <BR> <BR>While I was skiing, Kathleen paid $1.25 for a miniature bag of Fritos, but stayed away from the $3.25 french fries. At least Conor got some good skiing in, but we did more than our share in helping ASC service their interest payments on Sunday. <BR> <BR>SB North will be closed this week, and then will re-open with Slide Brook only access next weekend, with the base area and lower trails reserved for the SB triathalon. Most years that race has barely enough snow for the XC leg. This year they may have a tough time finding enough open water for the kayak leg.