When opportunity comes knocking, you have to answer. After all, this is the mid Atlantic sub tropics. Pounce on every powder opportunity.

Check the pics on Chip's page, http://www.whitegrass.com/report.html

I pounced yesterday 11/28. Light and dry powder, perhaps 2" at the base of CV's timber trail where I began skinning, 4" at the top, and blown in a bit deeper on the north face of Weiss Knob at 4400 ft. It was very skiable with a firm base left over from Sandy but many other opportunists had been there. It was almost mogulled. On the other hand, I had looked over the top of Gravity on my way up and it was untouched. Something needed to be done about that, so I did. Up high there was a bit of old firm snow from Sandy, lower it was mostly frozen ground. It was skiable but turns had to be smeared, the thin coating of powder didn't support much edging. Utah deep it was not. nevertheless. A 30 turn first descent in powder - I'll take it.

Sorry that I will miss the Jack Frost party this year. It is always a great time.

Denis is skiing while others are keying! (as in keyboarding)

Well put. Glad someone else besides the very few local ski junkies here got to enjoy some powder on base. It is still there as of yesterday and could even do some glade skiing!

Carpe Skium!

I've got to get mt AT set up done.

Finished buying or still hunting?

I'm likely to be hunting for AT boots/bindings throughout the season. (Still learning the ropes.) For Denis info, my current WV solution is Rossi S3 and Atomic Tracker bindings (~ Marker Dukes) and skins from climbing skins direct. Beefy, but it will get me up/down the hill (not for touring.) And if there is a random rock outcropping that I encounter, I won't have to worry about the gear holding up if I decide the pow landing looks soft.

John - I just bought a pair of Technica Cochise AT Boots that are really nice. Burly but they need to double as my resort alpine boot as well. They carry them at Ski Center. Not sure what you are looking for. I have a pair of lighter weight Scarpa boots that I used on the Haute Route that were much better on the up and still decent on the down but I was using a narrower ski.

Here you go John,
http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0004C&L=SKIVT-L&P=R4279
AT boots that weigh less than 2.5 lbs per pair! They can be yours for $3000.

AT racing is going really high tech and serious. You can now get super light stuff but you had better have a heavy wallet. Chip told me that one of the VT hard core guys who showed up to ski Sandy's snow had a fat ski set up that weighed the same as his edge less XC skis with NNNBC boots.

Brian E att Ski Center once told me that AT guys will walk into the shop and drop $2000 without a second thought. We have been friends for years and I understood and laughed at the unspoken implication that tele skiers are dirtbag cheap skates. I will admit to being frugal.

John, looking for AT boots as well. I'm a cheap dirtbag...er frugal too so I'm mostly interested in enough ROM at the angle to make it a little easier to skin up. Maybe when that dude that just dropped 3 grand on their AT set up gets a hankering for that new boot that weighs 4 grams less and dumps his stuff on e-bay.... no it'll still be to rich for my budget. Anyways I know that I'll probably have to look hard to find a bargain.

Rob, whats your size?

You can scan the intertubes for deals but probably will not be till late season for anything good. Seen some scarpa ATs on SAC for $800+ marked down from $1600.

In the mean time try on as many boots as you can. Even if it means you have to travel to do so.

I got a pair of Dfit Green Machines with the tech fittings that are 28.5 but most of their shells run small. They fit me but are tight, have not modded the shells. Could part with them for $300 plus ship. Liners molded once, several molds and lots of life left in them. The boots have about a dozen days if that.

Boots are the one item you should not cheap out on. You have to do your homework to figure out what fits you and what you need.

Bad fitting boots will not only fk up your skiing but also your feet.

Thanks for the tip scottyb. I know that the likelihood of finding a boot that fits well, used, online is nil but it seems you have a solution. My Lange RX120s are a 26.5. Are the Dynafits thats small? I'm definitely interested.

Check out gear swap over at TGR and another site called Gear Trader. My boots would not fit you. :_(

If a boot is close you can work with a boot fitter to get it dialed in. Brian Deely in Leesburg has all the tools and knows his stuff.