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Anonymous
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Spring skiing at it's best was on tap at "the Face". <BR> <BR>Greg's 6 yr old granddaughter gently reminded him that he promised to take her skiing again so there was no way I was going to convince himto head to Vermont with me. She has only been skiing three or four timesso far and already likes to do moguls and some of the easier black diamonds. The heavy loose corn of the day would eventually take it's toll on herjust like the rest of us but whenever he suggested we head home she wouldscowl and say no. He says he is creating a monster and loves it. <BR> <BR>My daughter accompanied us and we got started up around 9:00 witha slight chill in the air despite the total sun drenched day. I went upthe triple to mid station ahead of the rest since we all had packs to dropoff and didn't want to ski down with them from the gondola. I went aheadup the little Whiteface chair to scope out conditions and caught the chalkboard message that the summit was closed until it softened up. Then I realizedI was actually on the little Whiteface chair and not the Mt. Run and wecould access the summit from mid station. This boosted my spirits even moresince I really didn't want to do laps in the slop to get to the gondi everytime. <BR> <BR>I got off at the mid lift off ramp anyway and radioed the rest towait at mid station and I would be right down. I tried lower McKenzie andit was left ungroomed but the moguls were quite "stiff" much the same as atStowe last weekend. I clattered and chattered my way down to meet the restand it appeared that the non-sun facing trails were going to be tough for awhile. We headed up the lift to the top of little WF and took excelsior andlower Northway down to the junction of the upper quad. The groomed but firmcorn provided excellent turning and even little Mercy (Greg's granddaughter)was cruising along pretty good. By now the summit quad was opened so wedecided to go up and try Follies and Peron's. This is where I did not endearmyself to my daughter. The loading platform had snow only where you stood toget on. I didn't want to crowd Mercy on her first ride on a quad and "perhaps" scrunched Shana a little too far to the outside. She couldn't sit downand her board hit the mud and well, it wasn't a pretty sight. I had to waitat the top while they had a patrol check her out for routine required procedure. Knees were a little scraped, pants a little dirty, a little scuff on the front of her jacket and scuff marks on the heels of her mittens. The mittens had been starting to wear through the outer protective layer anyway and I said I would get her some new ones. She grinned andsaid "no"---"duct tape". I guess that meant she was ok. 
<BR> <BR>Despite the 10 to 15 minutes I waited for Shana we caught up withGreg and Mercy at the junction of Excelsior and Upper Valley run. We had cruised a delightful run in firm corn and granular conditions all theway down Follies, Peron's and Excelsior. Greg indicated that we had to doa water and potty break at mid station and Mercy said she wanted to ridethe gondi. I decided to split and check out some trails on my own and wentup to the top of LWF and headed down Approach. Northway, Empire and Upper Northway were closed because they are sheltered away from the sun andwere set up like Chin clip last week only with excellent visibility. Thismeant there would be no glades also. I wandered down upper parkway and backto thruway and down to mid again. The turning was so sweet I just had togo back up again. I did Essex on hard but edgeable moguls to Excelsiorand Connector and did the pole line beside lower Cloudspin. You can duckunder the phone line a lot easier now, you also have to watch out for stumps,logs and rocks starting to show though. The snow was a little firmer in there than the main trail and therefore less work. I then went up the quadand did a full Skyward run. Oh man, it doesn't get any better than this. The higher elevation hadn't deteriorated to slop and the turning was just fantastic. I radioed to Shana and she said the trio was just above midand ready to do lunch so I joined them. <BR> <BR>After lunch Greg said Mercy wanted to ride the gondola again. Aswe were putting on our skis we heard people saying the slides were open. This being a call too hard to resist I encouraged Shana to accompany me andgive it a try. Several weeks ago Shirley said she mentioned to her that "next year" she might like to try the slides. I figured loose corn snow wouldbe better to start out on than a couple feet of powder since I know whatShana can do and can't. The sun hitting the huge granite openness was making short work of the cover. We decided on #1 and picked our way throughthe ice and exposed slabs. The skiing was excellent. As we got to the topof the ice fall some people indicated that it wasn't too bad to the sides. I scoped it out and knew I could do the two mogul wide edge with shortjump turns but no way Shana was going to. I told her we had to cut over to#2 through the trees and brush and she didn't give me a nice look. We maneuvered through there with great dexterity and the snow was actually quite better than out on the open sections. We worked out of what Icall #2 1/2 into # 3 and encountered the 3 ft. ledge I remembered I had to jump before. At this point we could cut back across to the bottom of #1 again before jumping the ledge and decided to do so. Down on the out run of#3 I had just witnessed another snowboarder crash over a 50 ft section ofexposed granite and watched him tumble and clatter off the bottom of it. I sure didn't want Shana to wind up in that predicament. We were over in thebest part of #1 again and I thought we were ok but we still had to do slideout. The whoop-de-doos were greatly smaller than they had been last time I was in there but many were crashing in the entrance. Shana remained a little too stiff and caught some air off the first bump and landed on the back of her neck on the second. This caused a major traffic jam holding up every one in the slides. She wasn't the only one so people were understanding and patient. She decided to walk out however thetrack is only single lane and the snow on the sides was way deeper than herpants inseam. First I take Shirley in Twister glades and now I take Shanain the Slides. You would think I would learn. Anyway, we made it outalive <BR>with a grumpy daughter with snow caked in her goggles dangling off the backof her helmet. She actually put her board back on half way through withstrong encouragement from me and rode out the last of the egress through someheavy whoop-de-doos successfully. She split to meet back up with Greg andMercy for easier terrain and I looked at my watch and thought I might as well finish up my day on the top. I did a full Cloudspin run in unique conditions. I would be turning in the loose heavy slop in the sun and exactly at the shadow demarcation where the sun was dropping behind thetop it was immediately crusty over corn. The balance and edge setting hadto be adjusted constantly. I did another full Skyward run in the same conditions encountering the shadow line effect on the lower part where it tiltsaway from the sun. <BR> <BR>I was getting pretty burned out so I headed for mid station expectingto find the trio waiting for me. It was 3:20 and all the packs were hanging where we left them and no sign of anyone so I jumped the LWF double forone last run to the top on that side. My plan was to do approach to upper parkway to thruway and back to mid again but I noticed the top of McKenzie open. I thought the shade would have kept it hard but it doesn't getthe sun much at all so the thaw/freeze cycle hasn't affected it like theones that get sun blasted. I stumbled on the best conditions of the day onthe last run. This could easily have been the best bump run of the seasonI have had there and it's on what might be the last day of my season (there). I cut over into High Road Glades and found excellent firm corn snow withthe best turning of the day. So I did get one glade run in during the dayand it was an exceptional one. <BR> <BR>Arriving at Mid-station I found the packs still there and no onearound. It appears the youngest die hard of the trio insisted on one more runand Shana radioed me they were plugging along rather slowly on Excelsior. The run from mid down was very wet and the base area was almost unrecognizable from our first arrival in the AM. It appears to be vanishing prettyfast. I spoke to the asst. mgr. this AM and he thinks it will still be opennext weekend and the slides should hold up enough to be open. I may get onemore shot in them yet. This season is definitely not going out with a whimper.
<BR> <BR>Despite the 10 to 15 minutes I waited for Shana we caught up withGreg and Mercy at the junction of Excelsior and Upper Valley run. We had cruised a delightful run in firm corn and granular conditions all theway down Follies, Peron's and Excelsior. Greg indicated that we had to doa water and potty break at mid station and Mercy said she wanted to ridethe gondi. I decided to split and check out some trails on my own and wentup to the top of LWF and headed down Approach. Northway, Empire and Upper Northway were closed because they are sheltered away from the sun andwere set up like Chin clip last week only with excellent visibility. Thismeant there would be no glades also. I wandered down upper parkway and backto thruway and down to mid again. The turning was so sweet I just had togo back up again. I did Essex on hard but edgeable moguls to Excelsiorand Connector and did the pole line beside lower Cloudspin. You can duckunder the phone line a lot easier now, you also have to watch out for stumps,logs and rocks starting to show though. The snow was a little firmer in there than the main trail and therefore less work. I then went up the quadand did a full Skyward run. Oh man, it doesn't get any better than this. The higher elevation hadn't deteriorated to slop and the turning was just fantastic. I radioed to Shana and she said the trio was just above midand ready to do lunch so I joined them. <BR> <BR>After lunch Greg said Mercy wanted to ride the gondola again. Aswe were putting on our skis we heard people saying the slides were open. This being a call too hard to resist I encouraged Shana to accompany me andgive it a try. Several weeks ago Shirley said she mentioned to her that "next year" she might like to try the slides. I figured loose corn snow wouldbe better to start out on than a couple feet of powder since I know whatShana can do and can't. The sun hitting the huge granite openness was making short work of the cover. We decided on #1 and picked our way throughthe ice and exposed slabs. The skiing was excellent. As we got to the topof the ice fall some people indicated that it wasn't too bad to the sides. I scoped it out and knew I could do the two mogul wide edge with shortjump turns but no way Shana was going to. I told her we had to cut over to#2 through the trees and brush and she didn't give me a nice look. We maneuvered through there with great dexterity and the snow was actually quite better than out on the open sections. We worked out of what Icall #2 1/2 into # 3 and encountered the 3 ft. ledge I remembered I had to jump before. At this point we could cut back across to the bottom of #1 again before jumping the ledge and decided to do so. Down on the out run of#3 I had just witnessed another snowboarder crash over a 50 ft section ofexposed granite and watched him tumble and clatter off the bottom of it. I sure didn't want Shana to wind up in that predicament. We were over in thebest part of #1 again and I thought we were ok but we still had to do slideout. The whoop-de-doos were greatly smaller than they had been last time I was in there but many were crashing in the entrance. Shana remained a little too stiff and caught some air off the first bump and landed on the back of her neck on the second. This caused a major traffic jam holding up every one in the slides. She wasn't the only one so people were understanding and patient. She decided to walk out however thetrack is only single lane and the snow on the sides was way deeper than herpants inseam. First I take Shirley in Twister glades and now I take Shanain the Slides. You would think I would learn. Anyway, we made it outalive <BR>with a grumpy daughter with snow caked in her goggles dangling off the backof her helmet. She actually put her board back on half way through withstrong encouragement from me and rode out the last of the egress through someheavy whoop-de-doos successfully. She split to meet back up with Greg andMercy for easier terrain and I looked at my watch and thought I might as well finish up my day on the top. I did a full Cloudspin run in unique conditions. I would be turning in the loose heavy slop in the sun and exactly at the shadow demarcation where the sun was dropping behind thetop it was immediately crusty over corn. The balance and edge setting hadto be adjusted constantly. I did another full Skyward run in the same conditions encountering the shadow line effect on the lower part where it tiltsaway from the sun. <BR> <BR>I was getting pretty burned out so I headed for mid station expectingto find the trio waiting for me. It was 3:20 and all the packs were hanging where we left them and no sign of anyone so I jumped the LWF double forone last run to the top on that side. My plan was to do approach to upper parkway to thruway and back to mid again but I noticed the top of McKenzie open. I thought the shade would have kept it hard but it doesn't getthe sun much at all so the thaw/freeze cycle hasn't affected it like theones that get sun blasted. I stumbled on the best conditions of the day onthe last run. This could easily have been the best bump run of the seasonI have had there and it's on what might be the last day of my season (there). I cut over into High Road Glades and found excellent firm corn snow withthe best turning of the day. So I did get one glade run in during the dayand it was an exceptional one. <BR> <BR>Arriving at Mid-station I found the packs still there and no onearound. It appears the youngest die hard of the trio insisted on one more runand Shana radioed me they were plugging along rather slowly on Excelsior. The run from mid down was very wet and the base area was almost unrecognizable from our first arrival in the AM. It appears to be vanishing prettyfast. I spoke to the asst. mgr. this AM and he thinks it will still be opennext weekend and the slides should hold up enough to be open. I may get onemore shot in them yet. This season is definitely not going out with a whimper.