On 11/8, 2 days after the election and 10 after Sandy, there was still total top to bottom coverage and still powder in north facing shaded areas. Then, Sat. Through Mon saw record high temperatures. Without a hard freeze at night, the snow failed to form corn. Instead we got deep dense mashed potatoes. I headed for Springer on Sun. Morning, the theory being something like, if you don't go fishing you don't catch fish. I attempted parallel turns and couldn't do them. Telemark worked but needed some speed. With speed I could skim the surface, drop into a deep tele stance, edge them, wait for the reverse camber, and turn. It took balance and commitment. The trouble being that crashing in that deep stiff snow would be a bad, possibly leg breaking, idea. I managed to avoid that and so had fun. Six runs, the last one after lunch on the lower open slope, that proved yet again that the dreaded 'lunch legs' should not be taken lightly. Day 4.

Now that it is cold again, the remaining snow should form a solid base for the snows to come.

Andria took just such a leg twisting fall on Sunday just before lunch - fortunately she got off with just a knee tweak, and has no problem walking on it.

The most fun I had was mid-day Saturday, when the snow got fast enough to really /book/ on Gandalf and 3-mile - I was downhilling the heavy stuff by going across the slope and kick-turning at the trees.

The gear tally: - 2 heelpieces lost, 1 set of system boots delaminated, 1 pole crushed (you saw that) - all before the season really starts. Oh well, I guess we can call it a 'nordic shakedown cruise' of sorts.

Oh! Now I know who djop is. Nice to meet you. . Glad Andria is OK. Slight oblique strain for me.

His screen name changes every year and on every discussion forum. Just think gear geek.

Cool so many people got to ski the preseason snow at White Grass. Almost got lost in a mid-february timewarp for a week or so. Ski'd so many days with so many people and handful of night ski's at not just white grass, but all over the place in the valley.

Sunday was all about enjoying the last of the snow and weather in spring party-like fashion. And was still able to ski up to bald knob and back for one last sunset ski!

saweet

apparently there is still snow up high, go git sum