A
Anonymous
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If anyone is headed out tomorrow, you might want to check out SB as none of the upper lifts ran today or yesterday. We have an incredible amount of snow here, but we also got a lot of wind, so it is a bit heavy here and there. Anyway...... <BR> <BR>We had some trouble getting out of the driveway today, and my wife had to take my younngest dayghter to NYC so there was some issues to straighten out there. I was able to get out of the driveway with chains on, and Mallory and I left about 8:15. Got to south at about 8:30 and the parking lot was already half full, so we turned around and went to North. North was deserted, but all that was opened was inverness. South had more open, but Heaven's gate and Castlerock were on wind hold, so with the crowds there, we had a good time at North where there was maybe 30 people skiing. We skied in the woods, on the trails and it was great. Not as deep as I might have thought, but felt bottomless. The snow was dense and windpacked even in the woods. Not a lot of face shots but great soft snow. I then had to leave to get Susan off to NYC, and go to town meeting. I would normally blow this off, but as I am on the school board, I figured I had to show. All I could think about was the untracked at the top of North. Town meeting was over by 2:15, So I took of to North. Up Inverness, skins on and headed up the cross over to the top. This was an easy, gentle skin and had been packed by Mr. groomer so it went fast. Headed past the summit lift and followed the groomer up looking good. I was hoping to do FIS, skin up and get bravo and head down Cliffs. As I got near the top, the wind started to pick up and I thought that diamond might be better. As I went past the lower gate to FIS, the wind picked up incredibly. This was easily the hardest wind I have ever experienced, and it was hard to do anything. I saw on the Weather channel that Mt. Washington had 80mph gusts from the east, and this had to be close to that. I turned around, found a tree to take the skins off behind, and decided to try FIS. WRONG. I was greeted by 60 mph wind gusting UP the trail and it was scoured to the crust below. wow. I hung on and cut across it through the woods to diamond and tried that. Much better, but still wind packed. The lower third was great. As time was getting low I cut down looking good th Cliffs, and had a greAT time. Cliffs was the best, bottomless, but still wind packed. I only sunk in about 8 inches or so, no face shots, and it was difficult to keep the speed up. Tomorrow should be fun, but I don't think I'll miss work as the wind has packed the snow, and it will only settle out more tonight. If this next storm is light snow, and the wind keeps away, watch out. The base we have is deep. <BR> <BR>All in all a great day. The hike was fabulous. I always love hiking. You never know what you will get, but earned turns are the sweetest.