On Sunday, I headed of to Sugarbush with my friend E.  We
started off in the morning at Lincoln Peak; my thoughts were on doing a
nice top-to-bottom run and getting a good long warm-up out of the 2400
vertical.  First we had to get to Heaven's Gate, and after getting off
the Super Bravo, we opted for Murphy's Glades.  Despite the fact that
you have to traverse at the end to get over to Heaven's Gate, this is
becoming one of my favorite alternatives to the icy Downspout.  On
powder days, nice snow collects on the skier's right of Murphy's, and in
general the trail is much less icy than Downspout.  We found the snow to
be excellent, grooming had served its purpose in this case.  Even though
last weekend it was dumping buckets on us in our time at the 'bush, the
groomed surface underneath was incredibly slick.  Now, with all the new
snow of the past week, they seem to have blended it in and created a
nice packed powder surface without the scratch.  We decided to take the
Jester / Valley House Traverse / Snowball / Ravenna's Way / Snowball
(again) / Racer's Edge route with a little bit of secret thrown in to
check out the powder that was still hanging around ;)  We found great
snow almost all the way, and although powder at our stash was a bit
tracked up, there were still lines to be had.  The powder had settled
though, and temperatures were not too cold, so it was a thick powder
that took a bit of hopping to get up and out for nice turns.
        Next it was over to the Gate House Quad and up the North Lynx.
We hadn't skied Sunrise all year, so we decided to check it out.  On our
way, we passed a group that looked like they were heading toward the
Slide Brook via an access point near the top of the lift.  There was a
patroller, a couple of instructors, and some other skiers that seemed to
be taking about it but I'm not sure if that was their plan.  Sunrise had
a few slick spots, but was mostly filled with excellent packed powder,
especially at the bottom section with the trees.  The bottom of Sunrise
dumped us right into the Slide Brook Express and we headed over to check
out Mt. Ellen.
        After a trip up the North Ridge Express, we headed to Upper
Looking good; great snow, then crossed Lower Rim Run; snow was a bit
scratchier there.  We then headed up the Summit quad in preparation for
a big old top to bottom run on Mt. Ellen, time to see how much vertical
we could pull out of this mountain.  The route was Rim Run / Upper
Looking Good / Looking Good / Zip / Spinout / Lower F.I.S. / Easy Street
with a little special powder thrown in.  Looking Good had great snow,
and Lower F.I.S had a few scratchy spots, but bluish bumps and all
natural snow.  As usual, the softest snow of the day ws on Easy street;
man could you lay a trench on that if you wanted to.  The powder we
checked out was getting kind of mushy, still untracked but you really
had to work to stay on top.  Total run on the vertical counter was
2670', not too shabby.  We took the Green Mountain Quad (slow and low ;)
while we had a quick snack and watched kids / patents playing on the
slope below, then it was back to Lincoln Peak to finish off the day.  We
hit Pushover / Lower Pushover / Easy rider and practiced synchronized
turns, great soft snow and lots of fun, I had to tear myself away but we
wanted to get back.  Finishing off past the Village Double Chair we were
able to ride the snow banks all the way back to the car, nothing like
skiing right to the front door ;)

J.Spin