Matt Duffy
New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 12/17/99. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Got an email the other day from our friend Dan Barron; inviting me to <BR>ski with him either Thursday or Friday. I went for Thursday, and uhhh... <BR>Dan, I've already said this repeatedly, but thank you thank you thank you <BR>for coaxing me towards a change of scenery. It was great. <BR> <BR>I drove in pouring rain almost all the way there. Around Waitsfield or <BR>so there began to be bigger than normal splats on the windshield. I spotted <BR>the occasional wet flake as it hit and melted. It started to change over and <BR>mix about 50/50 rain/snow on the access road. It fell like this for maybe <BR>the first hour of skiing before changing over fully to snow. There was <BR>immediate evidence of a significant snowfall overnight with unspoiled white <BR>glopped on the trees and all over everywhere. It snowed very steadily, hard <BR>at times, all day long. We made 3 or 4 nice runs on Organgrinder-Spillsville <BR>in loose, if not a little thick powder all across the trails. Then, with <BR>skivt-l style, we bushwacked through some dense woods that seemed to stretch <BR>on and on. There were some things hidden just below the surface here and <BR>there, like rocks, stumps, logs, underbrush - you know, the usual hazards. <BR>But oh, oh there were some great lines in there with a fresh 2+ feet of <BR>powder of various strains. There were somewhat thick & heavy spots and <BR>variances on up the spectrum to very dry pockets stashed all through there. <BR>I bottomed out on stumps and periodically whacked some rocks when snapping <BR>into turns. All skis are rock skis! It was more than worth a few smacks and <BR>thumps for the flotatious, bottomless feel that the snow sometimes was <BR>providing. <BR> <BR>Dan did some damage in there though. He wound up giving one of his skis <BR>an elf-like, or court-jester-ski look. About 6 or 8 inches back from the <BR>tip, he snapped it almost clean through. I think the edges may be the only <BR>thing that held it together - the front 6 inches or so bent up in the air <BR>about 30 or 40 degrees. All he needed to complete the look were some little <BR>bells attached to it. So we headed down and Dan switched to his other skis. <BR>Telenaut comes prepared! <BR> <BR>We rode back up through the clouds billowing snow to the ground for <BR>some more. We then really capped it off, making it just a fantastic outing <BR>for us both. We sidestepped over the big hump at the top of Heaven's Gate <BR>and hooked on to the Long Trail over to Paradise. A Paradise that was roped <BR>off from it's traditional entry. An untracked Paradise. A wonderful Paradise <BR>that's been closed throughout the entire mini-series of recent little <BR>storms. What was it?- 12 inches over the weekend, 8 on Tuesday night and I <BR>don't know, maybe another 6-8 today. It was edge to edge, top to bottom, <BR>notta track anywhere, until... my vocabulary became: "Whhoooohhh! Yeaha! <BR>Yeah! Whhhoooop!" Floating floating side to side on a trail called Paradise <BR>that was it's namesake and a big way. It was all ours. All of it. I watched <BR>Dan while he made big looping, floating, rounded rooster-tailers in a <BR>display of how elegant and graceful the telmark turn is meant to be. I did <BR>my own thing with a mix of big rounded turns and some ankle-rolling little <BR>floaties and even an occaisonal upward little launch out the snow with one <BR>turn and back down into it for the next. I went over and through some <BR>explosive drifts and got spoiled on snow treats. That was to be my last run, <BR>cause I gotta work (in fact I'm almost running late at the moment), but that <BR>run was just too damn good not to do another. When we first approached the <BR>Long Trail this time, the heavens were opening before us as the clouds <BR>parted and we were treated to a stunning look at Lake Champlain, the green <BR>trees in the valley beyond the cool whip white covered trees of Lincoln <BR>Peaks backside, the patches of blue sky and the yellow glow of the sun on <BR>the snow. Priceless. <BR> <BR>We were again off to our Paradise - it _was_ ours, we had marked it with <BR>two sets of tracks- the only tracks on the entire trail. We made it four. <BR>This time, I took more advantage of the trails width when going over a few <BR>knolls and fast rollers, easing and leaning over a little more for some <BR>really, _really_ fun & totally silent submerges and there was a groove going <BR>on. Dan did more of his rooster tail sailing and if there was a dance floor <BR>I think he woulda been diplaying that cool groovin' we all imagine he'd do. <BR>As the runout flattens out, the snow was gettin just a little stickier & <BR>heavier until it actually had a humiliating crust just before the end. At <BR>one point, it pulled us both under as we were side by side with <BR>slingshotting face plants for us both. People laughed at us, but we were the <BR>ones with real cause for giddy laughter as we got up. It was fantariffic, <BR>just a fine shared experience that neither woulda had without the influence <BR>of the other. That's gonna be a good memory!