Titus Mountain: Cold Powder

In 2013, I discovered a valuable life hack: skiing on my birthday is a great way to forget I’m getting older. Ever since that day I’ve made it point to ski Plattekill on the anniversary of my entrance into the world. The joy of skiing drives out any thoughts associated with the inevitable passage of time.

In years when my birthday falls on a day when the lifts aren’t spinning at Plattekill, I’ll ski it on the closest operating day. At the same time, I look to one of my other favorite privately owned New York ski areas, to ski on my official date of birth.

I didn’t have a plan to ski Wednesday, and it occurred to me that this tradition/coping mechanism dated back 14 years. I didn’t want to break my streak.

At the same time, I’ve got a bit of a powder streak going, my last six days of skiing have had at least a foot of new and untracked snow. I figured if I was going for it, it might as well be pow.

I drove to our cabin Tuesday afternoon, and rose early on Wednesday to get to Titus for first chair. Midweek Titus has a lift rotation, and for Wednesday, Lift 6 was in the lineup. Lift 6 is my favorite as it serves much of my favorite terrain. Skiing Lift 6 motivates me.

The drive up was pretty uneventful. It was 10 degrees at our place before dawn, and zero at Titus two hours later after sunrise. The snow started to pick up when I turned on to Fayette Road. It snowed all day, lightly, moderately and sometimes it snowed hard.

I booted up in the Lower Lodge and dropped down Lift 6. There was one other skier waiting, he and I were the only skiers I saw for at least the first hour. At 9:50 the liftie said “you guys can ride up whenever you are ready.” We were ready.

Things looked pretty fat from above. Underneath was the lift line, it looked like a foot of new on top of a mogul field. To my right were the ubiquitous trees with the full depth of snowfall untracked. Farther beyond was Vern’s View, the steepest groomer served by Lift 6. It had a groomed swath in the middle with a foot on top, and full depth down the sides.

I skied alone for the first hour, seeing that just one other skier. I started in those trees. It was fun to be there, but the groomers were better. Floaty with zero chance of encountering bottom. I spooned 4 or 5 powder floatatious runs on Vern’s and then moved to the lift line. As mentioned it was bumped underneath, but still great skiing.

It felt cold, really cold. I rarely go in “just to warm up” but I did it this time. It texted Bruce Monette, kind of joking, kind of not: “I’m skiing alone out here, how do you expect me to get good pictures?” He replied, I’m bringing in a ringer, he’ll be here in 30 minutes.

It was Marco. A Malone NY kid, now finishing college in DC, and working for a well-known outdoor gear maker at the same time. He has at least two other jobs, but I didn’t write them down. I think it’s fair to say we bonded quickly.

First I took him through all the greatest hits I’d found off Lift 6. Then we jumped in his jeep, and drove up Johnson road, to the base of the upper mountain. I had a long drive home, and I knew I was pushing it, but this seem like a way to transform the day into an adventure.

Upper was beautiful and untracked, save one snowmobile track. The track made skinning a dream, and we were at the top in no time. There’s a lean-to at the top, it’s a perfect spot to do a skin transition and layer up.

We took in the view for quite a while. Eventually skied down the lift line. There were dreamy turns, and some well placed ski tracks and the bottom that got us back to Upper Lodge. Marco dropped me off back at Lower, and I headed off into the Franklin County night driving in steady snowfall. It was a long tough drive home.

Titus is one of those great little New York ski areas. Friendly and uncrowded with a chance for snow.