Gore and the Siamese Ponds Wilderness: 2/16/08

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.

Mineshaft Glade at Gore Mountain

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.”

Continue reading

My First Winter Solo

beaver damI didn’t plan a solo trip. It was early March in 1998. There had been a lot of snow that season but in the last 10 days a front had come through. Rain had fallen before the frontal passage and brutal cold had followed. All that snow was locked in, beneath an tough crusty layer.

My regular ski partner and I had been watching the weather, hoping for some new snow, so we could get back into the woods. The plan was for a two or three night overnight in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. Made to order, early in the week, a low came across the southern tier of the US, turned north off the coast and headed towards nor’easter land. The call was for a lot of snow, starting to fall Friday morning.

Continue reading