Smugglers' Notch, 12/26/03

[duph]

Talk about deja vu. I was standing at the front of the line 20 minutes
before the Sterling Lift opened on a surprise powder day.

Some of our Colorado friends picked on us before we left. "You're driving
to the east coast to ski??? Why??? Hope you have sharp edges!"

Well, they're nice people and all, but also quite ignorant. They've had a whopping one inch of snow this week and while they were
skiing limited & crusty Summit County terrain, we made lap after lap in a
foot of untouched powder, in Vermont.

The storm started out with a few inches of warm, dense snow, then the
better part of the 12" was topped with colder drier stuff that billowed
about in a constant smoke show. It was the perfect cure for the rained-on
and re-frozen base. A base, btw, that did survive the recent monsoons and
kept those obstacles covered.

Started out by skiing a twisted line in dense forest beyond a trail, taking
blind turns top speed relying on memory and good karma. Whoosh!

The hunt was on and we picked 'em off one by one. Old secret shots. Hidden
chutes intersecting each other. Secluded places deep in the woods. Places
impossible to see until you get there. Whispers of a nameless run.

Intricate evergreen cuts that go on and on. Spilling into vast hardwoods
great and wide open save for the young growth. Those little sapling
clusters whipping and snapping as you pass them through; as if they weren't
even there. Surprise drops over ledges and those omnipresent icefalls, some
yellow, some green and aqua blue. All the while kicking up a cold cloud
behind, leaving those whippets waving while weaving out swerves and riding
a hovering high speed blanket of powder. With ani-gravity boots and magic
skis. Whoosh!

While I won't call it a top ten personal best powder day, I will call it
sentimental and uniquely satisfying to come back home to Smuggs and ski
untouched powder all day long. Talk about deja vu.

Skiing away (2 part sequence):

http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall.../10790/SN1.jpg
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall.../10790/SN2.jpg

[iceman]

Was the ladyfriend with ya?

edit: I just saw the "we" in your post, so I guess so. She liked it, I hope?

Nothing sweeter than a surprise EC powder day.

[iskibc]

Nice work! I would give up a few pow days out here to get a 12 incher in back at the home mountain.

[powderfarmer]

Nice, if I had known I would have come up for the day, I was 30 minutes down the road doing the same thing at Sugarbush. First chair on heavens gate on 12/27, first time it was open after the storm. First tracks down Paradise, pretty nice. Then some ripcord spills laps, man was spills steller, only non windblown open trail for the day. Then it was off to the sugarbush woods tour, was awesome in the woods, opened up the travese for the first time in my life, and had first picks for all the woods between heavensgate and castle rock. Bear trail it was all the way down, legit knee deep New England powder all the way, with some "base" under it all.

[schuss]

nice man, got some similar stuff at Cannon (of all places) on Saturday. Spent the morning skiing with friends family through the ice and exposed rocks (my bases look like crap now), with a few short rope ducked powder trails mixed in. Afternoon, they opened up the peak quad and its only my best friend on a board and I, so we skiied/hiked over to Mittersill and oh my fucking lord. Take some turns down the main gully, all soft stuff, then take off toward the right down the liftline, all fresh pow with 3 sets of tracks in it. About 5 minutes later we catch up with those tracks, some guy and 2 kids killing it in the fresh forest powder. After hopping a few streams, we take down this wicked narrow powder trail which has obviously not had tracks on it ALL YEAR. Pure heaven. Just bouncing down the trail in ridiculously deep powder. Finish the day off with some nice summit rope ducks and hit up a bunch of closed trail for some more freshies and stream hops, then its off to home. Probably number 2 powder day ever for me, would be number 1 if my skis weren't so torn up and I had found the pow in the morning.

[Vinman]

I knew it, damn, Every time I leave for a holiday it pukes on VT. Sorry I could not have skied with you Duph. That would have been cool.