A great day of spring skiing until the magic 2 hours ended and it started to get grabby, as in sudden slowdowns that threaten to pitch you over the handlebars. The most fun was watching my 3 grandsons plus the son of a VT friend. Watching was more fun than the proverbial barrel of monkeys. My daughter summed it up; "When those guys ski together the collective IQ goes down and the pace goes up."

Mad River always kicks my butt, no matter the time of year or snow conditions. Slalom Hill was a typical example. There was only one way in, a sheer drop of 15 feet, followed by a hard left on the top of a mogul, Then a full stop so as not to run into a rock ledge, then a hop turn airing over another ledge until you reach a reasonably friendly steep slope full of VW size moguls. Miss that first hard left and you are going to eat wood. The rock ledge is exposed now but in winter is draped with blue gray ice. Which do you like better? The MRG regulars do not bat an eye at any of it, they just do it. My grandsons are among them. The 7 year old has been doing that run since he was 4. Slalom Hill was my 4th and last run of the day. I could feel the loss of timing in my legs and knew that to continue was asking for trouble. I can do 20 runs at Timberline even in the heaviest spring slop. Western skiing is easy.

A reply to a slightly different version of this post on the SkiVT-List;
http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1104B&L=SKIVT-L&D=1&T=0&O=D&P=28685

The day in early March 2011 when me, my son, and Laurel Hill Crazie skied MRG we had a really fun time, but very challenging. More than once during the day I uttered the phrase, "I'm out of gas". It's a heck of a layout. At one point when we were skiing some of the easiest terrain I came upon a green circle run that had a stretch of well defined moguls the size of a football field. Couldn't remember ever seeing that on a green circle trail before. For those who don't know the place here's a link to some photos we took in March. The run under the single chair is Chute and it features big bumps and a number of cliff drops and stays tough for a full 2000 feet of vertical. Of course, much of the gladed terrain at MRG is even more challenging because it includes the same steeps and rocks, but with tree dodging thrown in. http://www.epicski.com/forum/thread/102128/vintage-vermont-march-2011