Adrenochrome
New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 3/14/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Saturday night it started to snow at the Lobster Trap, and I made <BR>preparations to be at Sugarloaf for opening chair on Sunday Morning. <BR> <BR>Car? Loaded and fueled. <BR>Skis? Waxed and tuned. <BR>Alarm clock? Set. 4:45 am. I can have my contacts in my eyes in five <BR>minutes and be on the road by 5:00. <BR> <BR>After a night of leisurely dreams, I sat bolt upright, realizing something <BR>wasn't right. It was bright in the bedroom, and the alarm clock cheerily <BR>but silently pointed out that the time was 6:10 in the morning. At was at <BR>that moment that I realized I had forgotten Powder Day Rule #2 (Set 2 alarm <BR>clocks.) <BR> <BR>I'm on the road at 6:30, and make it to the mountain by 9:45, the last 16 <BR>miles from Kinfield spent at 35-40mph behind a line of people who obviously <BR>don't realize that I have all wheel drive and I'm not afraid to use it. My <BR>first inkling that conditions may not be all I had expected comes on this <BR>section of the drive, as I see SUV after SUV with Mass plates heading south, <BR>with skis and snowboards loaded on their roofs. I have faith. These are <BR>the unwashed masses who cannot handle powder in its ungroomed state. Yeah, <BR>that's the ticket. <BR> <BR>All the way to the mountain I've been driving through rain and freezing <BR>rain, but I have faith, and as I get to "Ohmygosh corner" the precipitation <BR>changes to lovely big fat flakes of snow. The mountain is invisible, <BR>shrouded in clouds. <BR> <BR>My second inkling that something may not be as expected comes in the ticket <BR>line. "Because of the rain last night, only Tote Road, Kings Landing, <BR>Spillway and Boardwalk will be open until the other trails can be re-groomed <BR>after this morning's freezing rain. That'll be $39 please." <BR> <BR>Oh crap. <BR> <BR>The groomed snow was, um... Heavy. Sort of what I'd imagine the west coast <BR>would be like after a coastal precipitation event. It was good skiing <BR>though, and fast. Very conducive to laying down snowboard-style carves. <BR>Even at 10:30 the high-traffic routes were starting to get moguled. The <BR>summit lift opened at about 11:00, and I took one run from the summit. It <BR>was raining heavily up there. There was a major temperature inversion going <BR>on with rain at the summit, freezing fog halfway down, and ice pellets at <BR>the base. This continued for most of the day. Visibility was a sick <BR>joke -- use The Force, for your eyes deceive you. <BR> <BR>The crust at the summit was wicked. It was almost unbreakable crust, which <BR>I can handle as it skis just like your garden-variety blue ice, but <BR>occasionally I would break through and one of my skis would dissappear under <BR>the surface and my momentum would cause a nasty face-plant. <BR> <BR>>From mid-mountain down, the crust was mostly skiable as my skis would slice <BR>through it in a mostly consistent manner. Turning, however, was another <BR>matter entirely and I could only manage the slightest of slow curves. <BR>Numerous tip crossings and tip-spread face plants ensued. Skiing the woods <BR>in these conditions was entirely out of the question, and thus, not ready to <BR>be Jedi am I. <BR> <BR>The best runs of the day were the bumps that formed on Kings Landing -- they <BR>were regular, soft and supremely edgeable. The worst run of the day was <BR>under the chair in King Pine Bowl. Zero visibility and evil crust. <BR> <BR>About 2:00 the pellets/snain/rain changed over completely to snow from top <BR>to bottom, and the wind started to swing around from the north. As the <BR>afternoon went on it snowed harder and harder. At last chair it was snowing <BR>so hard that I could only see 3 chairs ahead. <BR> <BR>Today ought to have been stellar. Figures.