Since I was up in mid-February it did that warm wet thing, then there was 4 inches at some point, 16” on this past Weds, and 5 or 6 last night into today. As we were loading into the Gondi, things looked great on Showcase and everything at the bottom. It looked like all the snow that fell was on top of the corduroy.
I got to the mountain at the same time as yesterday. Instead of being totally alone in the base lodge, there were maybe 50 people inside. The holiday was on. At the top of the Gondi, there was no waiting at the rope – for the second day in a row, I was first down Pine Knot.
I hit the Pine Brook glade on the way down – as good as yesterday really, except for a few spots you had to jump over. When I got to the Straightbrook chair it wasn’t open. I waited.
Marc, the head of ski patrol, and Howie another patroller, ski up and wait with me. On the way up he “recommends Chatiemac” all the way down. I told him I was headed for the Straightbrook glades, and he repeats… “all the way down.”
I scored. After debating the decision to burn all that gas on the drive up, I went for it. And Gore was great today. Put it this way, not everything was great, but a lot of it was. Enough to keep me busy and smiling. I decided to take pics today for the first time in forever. My first picture was a completely empty base lodge at 8am. I sat in there, by myself, amazed that I was alone. I caught the first Gondi.
At the top, as usual, the summit was roped off. I went down, taking Twister, in the hope that Twister glade would be open. It wasn’t and that was probably for the best. Do I really have to go into the crustiest glade on the mountain without a warm up? If it was open, I’d a been in there.
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