Geoff
New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 11/18/99. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>I actually got out the door at 7:45 this morning to drive from Killington up to Sugarbush. I think the last time I skied there was in the late 70's when I was a UVM student. Looks kinda different 20 years later. I was totally psyched after reading trip reports and hearing the news that Castlerock would open. I booted up at the car, wandered over to the ticket window to grab a trail map, and walked over to a quad chair. Turns out it was the Gatehouse quad and you couldn't ski down to Castlerock yet. I slogged down the liftline in about a foot of rather damp mashed potatoes to get over to the other quad. <BR> <BR>I did a few runs under the liftline and on Stein's waiting for Castlerock to open. I was just getting off the quad when they started loading Castlerock so I headed down there. My first run on Liftline was awesome with knee deep everywhere and thigh to waist deep drifts. The Sugarbush locals are a treat to watch. I'm a generic middle of the pack advanced skier and I was clearly in the bottom 20% of the people on the trail. I rode up with a woman ski patroller who suggested I check out Middle Earth since nobody was skiing it. Good advice. Almost untracked. I did a few escalator ride descents on that in knee to thigh deep all the way. The lift stopped for about 10 minutes and I got to stare at tower #4. Last night, Marc Guido had given me a hex that went something like, "May you get stuck in the bullwheel on a powder day." Marc, please keep those voodoo spells to yourself. <BR> <BR>I then did a few on Castlerock Run. On my second one, I sheared off one of my ski poles in a water bar about 1/3 of the way down the trail. I immediately morphed from powder hound to total geek flailer. I couldn't complete <BR>two turns in a row and couldn't get out of the back seat. I asked somebody on the trail how to get back down to the bottom. They said to take a right at Bailout. When I got to the intersection, Bailout had no tracks but it was marked as an intermediate run. No problem, should be steep enough. I took a quick glance at the trail map and failed to notice that the icon of a Snowboarder standing there holding a snowboard means "walking required". I ended up breaking trail for what seemed like a 30 minute slog across total flats over to Ripcord. At every water bar, I'd have to do a flopping fish herringbone through thigh to waist deep drifts. By the time I made it down to the base lodge, it was 2:15 so I just tucked my tail between my legs and drove back to Killington. <BR> <BR>Epic day but not quite the ending I had in mind. <BR> <BR>Geoff, clueless touron