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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This is less of a TR and more of a realization. The great early season skiing, and especially New Years Day have changed my approach to lift service skiing. Not sure if approach is even the right word. Actually it started last year on Valentine’s Day after the first of four or five major storms that made Winter 06/07 one of the best ever. I was driving North after the storm and I decided that I was finally going to get something “fat.”

By phone, I spoke to Jan at The Mountaineer in Keene Valley – a great, professional shop. After 45 minutes on the phone I ordered a pair of K2 World Pistes with G3 bindings to be shipped UPS. These skis are only 80 mm underfoot, but coming from a cross country skiing background — to me — they were fat. Probably more important…these were the first skis I’ve had with significant sidecut.

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