....the mountains are right now. Just got back from Sugarbush and
gotta hurry, so I must be brief.

     I arrived at 1pm wearing windpants and an old cotton, faded-pastel
looking, plaid button up 'sweatshirt' with a hood. I had the hood pulled up
over my head and it hung over my eyes. Not unlike a Jedi Knight in ragged
attire, I played my mind tricks on the evil lift attendants before uploading
on the Super Bravo.

     After I got off that, I was treated to a minefield of concave, dirty
little puck-marks caused by warmth & wind. The snow was already starting to
set up and was getting firm near the top, and anywhere on the way down that
wasn't getting broken up by the handful of skiers that were there. What a
swing from a week ago- windblown, firm craters on snowmaking trails, and
muddy brown everywhere else. Some mud was even invading and tresspassing out
into random places on the trail. It was perfect...

     That is, perfect for testing out my new Igneous skis in totally crappy
snow conditions. Obviously, the terrain wasn't available to really put them
to the test, but it was a good indicator of what they will be like when
winter comes back (starting tonight...). Whenever I was stopped and someone
went by, there was that unforgettably horrid skidding-on-granular sound as
people winced, jarred & vibrated through the craters. They would gravitate
back to the "goat paths" of softer, broken up snow that wound around the
trail. I didn't experience any of that. My skis tore through everything like
a buzzsaw, complete with that piercing, high pitched whine as I really
leaned over and layed the steel into the firming snow. Jester was _really_
fun to run 'em on flats and scream around the corkscrews in long, speedy
carves. The feel to those things are totally different. Even on that
completely horrible surface, they go edge to edge _very_ smoothly & swiftly.
Also, as was the case everywhere & always, they were totally stable when
landing jumps. In the windpucked moguls, it was a little tougher to stay
right on top of them at first, but after a couple of runs I was doing so
comfortably. This may have been more of a case of getting used to the "snow"
than it was getting used to the skis. I am REALLY looking forward to using
them in GOOD snow conditions...  CHris, If you don't already know, you're
gonna LOVE em!


mpd

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