Riverc0il • Mad River Glen • February 26, 2012
Certain days come together easily, and on other days you have to work for it. My first time at Mad River Glen had a little of both.
The challenging parts included the driving, lack of sleep, and of course, the challenge of Mad River Glen.
The kismet was in the timing. On Saturday, I’d skied four inches of fresh at Gore. On Saturday night there was significant upslope along the Green Mountain spine. And on Sunday night, I was due in NH.
I had an ace up my sleeve. Sunday before dawn, I left NY heading east toward the Mad River Valley. When I arrived, I met Riverc0il, my guide for the day.
As a blogger, I love posting a photo of that iconic yellow Mad River base lodge. Each time I look at it, I remember the feeling of arriving at Mad River with new snow on a beautiful morning.
The signboard out on the road read “Powder, Finally.” We booted up and got in line. On the way up the single, we saw skiers coming down the liftline that were skiing in great snow.
Mad had a string of three days with 6, 8 and then 10 inches of snow. We arrived early and had two runs off the single before the line got long. River figured that we should do two runs off the single, A quick one, followed by a longer more adventurous decent.
Our first run was one of our best of the day. Our second run, through the 20th hole, may have been the the most memorable run of my season. It’s a long tree shot, that was in very good condition. For a few hundred feet of vertical where we were probably 3rd and 4th skiers through. I have to admit I was singing.
Afterward, we skied off the double alternating between low angle trees I could handle, and steep stuff. Later in the day, the lift lines got shorter, and we came back to the single for a final run. When we got to the top, Riverc0il took a sharp right and I followed. We sidestepped our way up and along the ridge.
Riverc0il: “We can take Paradise. It has a bunch of really tight turns and then a frozen waterfall. But after that the snow could be really nice.” I agreed and down we went. Of course River was right: a tough entrance, with a great reward.
I can say it now: “I skied Mad on a powder day.”
I skied over 40 years up and down the East coast until I finally hit MRG in 2010 (and again in 2011). Better late than never. It is truly a special place, especially if you enjoy challenging terrain and the old tyme vibe and don’t need the secondary amenities of a full service destination resort.
I love the view from the top – the best part is how it’s almost unchanged from when the lift went in. I could go for some of that pow right now, it was way deeper than 24″. I had to park farther away than I’d ever had to previously and it was a challenge to get through the woods and onto the slopes.
Beautiful. So nice reading about this. I was supposed to be at MRG that same day, but twisted my knee at Stowe the day before and didn’t want to risk a real injury. Glad someone got it!
Harv, I don’t know how you do it! This past season was one of the worst ever, especially at MRG with no snowmaking. They missed Christmas, then I believe they fell apart about 2 weeks after your visit, during the Great March Blowtorch of 2012. Maybe this next season I need to ski with you, because you certainly have a way to get Mother Nature to cooperate. I appears you hit MRG on its best day of the season.
Timothy! Stowe must have been rocking that weekend. Didn’t they get a few feet of snow?
Kid – never really thought of myself as having phenomenal ski luck. Not bad but not incredible either. Looking back on it though – that week of skiing was picked months in advance, and was generally one of the best weeks of the season. On the other hand I ended up limping home at the end of the week.