jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
On my way up to New Hampshire, I wanted to break up the seven-hour drive with a ski day somewhere in Vermont. Originally, I thought about rolling the dice with Magic to support the cause (I bought the t-shirt), but it sounded like southern VT got walloped with the NCP stick, so I decided to go to Pico for the first time in many moons. They were claiming 15 inches since Friday, so how could I argue with that?
While there was very little snow on the ground in and around Rutland, it got noticeably more wintry the closer I got to Pico. The parking lot was filled, but as is always the case at this mountain, there were little to no lift lines. The longest I waited all day was 90 seconds. There were also concerns about the summit chair, which derailed yesterday followed by a full evac of everyone on it; however, it ran fine and was ski-on all day. I love the old Yan’s teardrop-shaped chairs:
Within a couple runs, I figured out what the deal was. The new snow was the driest pixie dust imaginable — exactly what everyone claims that we never get back east. The blues and green trails were like velvet, but on the upper mountain, you had to shop for turns on anything steep or you’d have a close encounter with a hideous bottom from before the storm. By 10 am, I headed over to the Outback chair, which hasn’t run all season. All you needed to do was herring-bone or walk about two minutes up a groomed trail:
Wrangler was completely tracked out. Still, very fun to ski:
But all of the trees to the skier’s left of the lift were completely untouched. Never touched bottom once on seven laps. You gotta love Pico: the anti-Killington -- that’s what some guy on the chair called it.
My mother found this old Thermos in our basement, probably from the late 60s. I’ve been using it this season to carry hot tea on the drive to the mountains. It’s amazing; ten hours later and the tea is still scalding hot.
While there was very little snow on the ground in and around Rutland, it got noticeably more wintry the closer I got to Pico. The parking lot was filled, but as is always the case at this mountain, there were little to no lift lines. The longest I waited all day was 90 seconds. There were also concerns about the summit chair, which derailed yesterday followed by a full evac of everyone on it; however, it ran fine and was ski-on all day. I love the old Yan’s teardrop-shaped chairs:
Within a couple runs, I figured out what the deal was. The new snow was the driest pixie dust imaginable — exactly what everyone claims that we never get back east. The blues and green trails were like velvet, but on the upper mountain, you had to shop for turns on anything steep or you’d have a close encounter with a hideous bottom from before the storm. By 10 am, I headed over to the Outback chair, which hasn’t run all season. All you needed to do was herring-bone or walk about two minutes up a groomed trail:
Wrangler was completely tracked out. Still, very fun to ski:
But all of the trees to the skier’s left of the lift were completely untouched. Never touched bottom once on seven laps. You gotta love Pico: the anti-Killington -- that’s what some guy on the chair called it.
My mother found this old Thermos in our basement, probably from the late 60s. I’ve been using it this season to carry hot tea on the drive to the mountains. It’s amazing; ten hours later and the tea is still scalding hot.
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