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Since I was running a snowshoe race in Greylock Glen today, I packed ski clothes and gear and went for the double header on a wonderful sunny day in the Berkshires. Snowshoe race was tougher than expected but luckily reduced to 3.8 from 4.5 because some of the open areas lacked snow. Struggled a bit more than usual on the hills, then changed into ski gear, luckily it was warm enough that I did not freeze doing this. Received a tip to head to the end of Gould Road past the farm to begin and this removed a bunch of short multiple marked decision points and made the initial ascent much more direct and simple. The track was pretty worn in by snowmobile until the Bellows Pipe , Thunderbolt junction, then it was mostly snowshoe tracks, saw a few heading down Bellows Pipe on snowshores and one guy on normal cross country skis. Only about 3 kick turns needed to ascend the steep bits but I was really feeling it, either because of the earlier effort on snow shoes or else lack of fitness or lack of virtue. After about 90 minutes hit the AT which is the indication that you are just about there, even though the summit was .5 miles away and then the crowds of all stripe emerged. I guess no one read the memo about ascending Bellows pipe because they were pouring up Thunderbolt (about 10 folks, post holing and snowshoing, in fact I did not see anyone else skinning the whole time) I did not have summit fever so I found a sunny spot to get ready for the descent. As I de-skinned about 10 people passed on the way down, skiers with dogs, snowshoers and 3 postholers without a non-cotton garment between them. Eventually started down and it was well covered except for a few odd rocks, and the sun was having an effect on the surface. The initial descent is fairly steep and dodging ascenders is always an issue but had some good turns. There is a snow fence about halfway down to hold snow and (a guy who will patrol the race told me thought they do not like to admit it , to catch skiers during the race) If you are going to straightline it from the top you really will be going fast by the time that curve is reached. They are hoping no one will break the record but if someone really goes for it they can get down real fast. The runout held up pretty well as I leapfrogged two groups of skiers. A wonderful day in the sun with the crowds on the commenwealth's tallest peak. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SkiVt-L is brought to you by the University of Vermont. To unsubscribe, visit http://list.uvm.edu/archives/skivt-l.html