MRG 4 out of the last 5 days, 8:30 or 9am - 4pm all four days,  I'm toast.

I'm sitting in this chair here at work, staring at my computer screen
dreaming about snow billowing around me, taking small drops into face-shots
turn after turn,  I can't do work,  not today.

I skied most all weekend with Dan Barron and various friends from home or
our ski house. We spent some time watching the Unconventional Terrain
contest and skiing just about everything in sight.  I had the pleasure of
skiing a couple runs with Wes. In general we skied a very noisy and crusty
two days under beautiful blue skies to everyone's delight.

My friend Dave and I had tossed around the idea of staying in VT at least
another day with the word of snow on the way.  The typical nor-easter
forecasters were way off, as it should be, and it looked like MRG would only
get a few inches,  not worth missing too much work. So we drove back to
Boston sunday night, I went to work monday and found a one line email from
ski buddy Brian, "What are you doing ?" One look at the weather map, a call
to MRG, it's time to organize a few sick days on the hill. 9am the decision
was made, 5 hours later 5 guys had the cars packed and on the road.

Tuesday- 2 feet fresh, not bad.  8:40 arrival at MRG. Boots in 5 minutes, no
friends today, who's ready, 1 taker. We headed right to the double which was
still not turning. They blew the horn on the Single (wind hold), and the
masses joined in behind us.  First run was down Gazelle, it's show-off time
for the skiers who haven't had a run yet. I've never done this before but
now is the time, I got some good speed, checked my spotter, and lauched
myself off the top of Gazelle, air . . ... . . . . stiiiiillll . .  . . . .
. . POOOOF !!  a few turns later I was on the flat, this is skiing in 2 feet
of untracked snow. The only sounds you could hear was the noise from the
lift and my our breathing.  All day long.  What's Renson's line, "THESE ARE
THE BEST OF TIMES !!" I spotted Wes and Jim, but as I said before, I'm not
waiting around today. My tray for the lunch line was my helmet and we got
right back in line. It snowed hard all day. Skiied so much of almost
everything. By days end we were all a different size and shape of fine
leather luggage.

Wednesday - I demoed some 187 X_Screams, not bad. We got a few more inches
of snow and the bluest bright sunny sky I have seen.  8:50 arrival at MRG.
Boots in 10 minutes, I can wait today.  The sun shown so bright at the base
it felt like summer, a little more brisk up top, but beautiful. We picked up
what ever pieces we hadn't skied the day before and there's so much left to
do. There's no need to say exactly what we skied or where we went, it didn't
matter. We skied again until 4pm. Running on fumes.

highlights:

  skied from the top of the double to the top of birdland for first tracks
down the Rat. tough going in 2+ feet. once we got to the road we opted to
join traffic instead of trudging any more than we already had. We got some
funny looks as we skied off Rt 17 into the parking lot at the top of the
Practice Slope and continued on down.

  Waist deep, consecutive face shots, riculous air with even more ridiculous
landings in TNF.

  Gazelle Glade was ignored for most of tuesday leaving many untouched lines
wednesday. Same, all over Glade.

  Canyon had bumps like you dream of. turn if you want, but it's really not
necessary.

  Gazelle - saw some maniac pull a forward flip near Quacky crossover, it's
amazing what powder will make you do. I saw others complete 180's and 270's,
not ideal, but who cares when you land in a pile of feathers.

Well,  I got away with it at work, so life goes on and I'll be back saturday
to see what the next storm has for my birthday.

Todd, still trying to figure out if it was a dream or not.

pics to follow. . .





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