i set the alarm for 700 and was barely able to drag myself out of bed  
to check the forecast. upon doing so i immediately woke up though.  
4-5in?! i hadn't skied anything resembling powder since utah almost 3  
weeks ago. i quickly got dressed packed the car and nuked some  
oatmeal for the road. after cruising at pretty much top speed for the  
length of 89 i got to the stowe exit and  got behind a senile looking  
older gentlemen driving an old toyota pickup made mostly of rust, he  
had apparently decided that 29mph was plenty fast for him and the 16  
cars behind him. after turning bright red and getting 6 shades of  
furious i finally let out a sigh of relief when, after 5 miles, he  
finally took a leisurely right turn to wherever his life was taking  
him while myself and the rest of the cars stuck behind him got on  
with our business.

the snow had clearly stacked up significantly last night and i was  
twitching with the anticipation of finally being able to ski  
something soft after so long on the hardpack. i pulled into the quad  
lot jumped out of my car, got my helmet on, then my gloves, and then  
discovered that i had pulled a Wes R. and left my boots in burlington  
(he's done this twice this year already). after letting out a stream  
of obscenities that would make an irish longshoreman blush, i decided  
that my best option was to rent boots from the stowe shop.

If you haven't been to the DMV in NJ, this was pretty much a  
comparable experience. i ran in and asked them how much a rental was,  
"$28" they said, "fine" i thought, its better than driving back to  
burlington in shame. they immediately sent me into the hall to fill  
out a form on a computer, i thought this was strangely impersonal,  
but whatever i just wanted to ski. I ran back inside and was asked  
"what size boot do you want?", i wear an 11.5-12 street shoe but  
wanted to closest fit possible with these rental boots so i told them  
i wore a 10. this 10 turned out to be looser, softer and more  
uncomfortable than my size 11 denali XT's which i thought was quite  
amazing, but i digress. it took the shop tech, someone who  
professionally adjusts bindings, 15 minutes to adjust my naxo nx-21's  
which i consider to be quite possibly the easiest binding in the  
world to adjust. For comparison, it usually takes me about 3 minutes  
tops to adjust them from my denalis to my krypton's. I offered to  
help but he insisted that i couldn't for liability reasons, so while  
he played with my bindings i stood 10 feet away fuming and tapping my  
foot getting mad at all the snow i was missing.

as soon as i left the rental shop and the byzantine bureaucracy that  
dictates its rental procedure i stepped outside into the first drops  
of a light drizzle that would persist for my time there this morning.  
"!KCUF" i yelled to the amazement of a passerby. i jumped into the  
quad lift line around 915, possibly my slowest time ever from  
burlington to skiing. the snow was however quite good and quite  
untracked in most of the woods. i got first tracks down pipeline,  
goat chute and all the little ones in between on 4-5 in of creamy  
goodness. a smile appeared on my face for the first time since  
checking the snow report.. i ended up having a great time skiing the  
woods solo all day. Doing top to bottom, top speed woods runs without  
stopping for anyone can be quite fun from time to time. the boots did  
come back to get me a few times though as the tech's blinding  
adjustments caused a few r pre-releases mid chute.

the hi-light of the day however had to be my best tree explosion yet  
(when you're skiing woods, hit a sapling and due to icing/the force  
of the hit, it blows up). i came around a corner at top speed in goat  
woods and was surprised to find a downed sapling in front of me fully  
across the trail. i immediately headed right where it looked smaller  
and pulled the poles up for protection (i have a broken rib and  
absolutely can't fall or hit my chest). i went from top speed to  
almost stopped immediately, but didn't loose my footing and was  
somehow still skiing. i stopped and looked back. the top of a downed  
tree had fallen into a pine tree and suspended the downed tree across  
the trail, the spot i hit was about 3 inches wide and was now broken  
cleanly, opening up the trail. in addition there were broken shards  
of smaller sticks and branches from the pine tree spread out in a 5  
foot circle from the point of impact. my hood was filled with pine  
needles when i got back to the car.

in summary: stowe was fun, i can't wait for tomorrow.

sorry for the wordy write-up, this is a new style for me and i  
figured i'd jump in head first.

sam 

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SkiVt-L is brought to you by the University of Vermont.

To unsubscribe, visit http://list.uvm.edu/archives/skivt-l.html