Christmas Eve, we're in VT with daughter and family. Daughter and her Mom want to shop, son-in-law has to work, grandsons are climbing the walls and swinging from the chandeliers. They hadn't skied yet. Then we saw on the web that it was opening day at Mad River Glen. A volunteer needed to take the grandsons skiing. I could handle that. Well, actually, I couldn't. After the first obligatory run with Grandpa they won their freedom to go off on their own, so long as the 3 of them stayed together and stayed out of the woods, which have too little cover at this point. The 15 yr old is responsible, sort of, and has been trusted to watch after his brothers for 3 yrs now, and nobody has died yet. They are all on the MRG Free Ski Team and their skills, energy and stamina go up every year. Mine are on the other side of "over the hill" and are in slow but irreversible decline. We picked up their season passes, which were purchased back in Sept. and I got my shareholder ID and free over 70 pass.

First run was Antelope end to end, a favorite of mine and in many ways Mad River's quintessential run, 2000 vertical feet of narrow twists and turns, rolls and drops. The mountain had received 20 inches of snow since Fri. The last 4-6 fell on and bonded to a firm supportive crust. The top layer of powder was light and fast, amazingly good conditions for opening day. The oldest boy immediately began having unwanted releases, he had mistakenly brought last years boots, his bindings were set for this years bigger boots. I carry a small screwdriver, but the range of travel of the heel piece was not enough. So we went slow while he attempted to ski gently, not his strong point. The 2 younger guys used the delays to seek out jumps which they nailed cleanly with whoops. We had to rent a set of skis and boots, those boots were too big so another trip to the rental shop to get a smaller pair, which hurt his feet anyway. After lunch he couldn't find his poles. They had been taken by someone else, probably some doofus rather than theft. I have never known theft at MRG. I let him use my poles for the afternoon. While it is a very good instructor's drill, telemarking with no poles in ungroomed snow is a very good way to drive already tiring legs into total failure. The middle kid decided to quit in mid afternoon when I did. We enjoyed a very pleasant conversation in the base box while the 2 OCD cases skied until closing.

A good time was had by all.

no pitchers?

Apologies, I'm going to have to do something about that.

Should get even better:



With more coming on the weekend.

Mon was day 6 but the first 5 were earned turns. I am still suffering from the workout. Wouldn't do differently of course but I cannot go down stairs without hanging onto the walls. My quads cramped up badly. Skinning and skiing doesn't do this because in going both up and down many muscles are worked and none are over worked. The downs don't last that long.

I hope to be recovered by tomorrow. Planning to ski tomorrow and Fri. Tomorrow will be in the storm. In the east that is the best time to get the powder. It often begins to set up as soon as the snow stops falling. In the west, that can be a very bad idea due to avalanche risk.

Nothing like a couple of Long Trail IPA's after some skiing!

BTW, you don't have to go to VT to get Long Trail anymore, I have found it here in the lowlands, as well as at the McHenry Beverage shop........