Pretty Great skiing this weekend

[jim-ratliff]

LOL.  ......  But I know I'll love the final outcome.

Todd:  And how will you know when you've achieved the "final outcome"?  I think it's much like a never ending continuum, satisfaction at a certain step, followed quickly by the beginning of the next step.
I remember thinking that a 20 mile bike ride would be great -- that achievement was quickly replaced by 100km, then 100 miles -- now wouldn't it be fun to do RAGBRAI?

[ToddW]

That serves me right for answering in a hurry and with a lousy iPhone keyboard (pita for touch typists...and always battling the fubar spelling correction.)

But since you asked about my desired skiing final form, here goes.

Jay aims to one day ski inside Harald's left turns and outside his right turns before pushing him down as he speeds past Harald.  H says this would be a good thing because it would mean that J is the best skier in the world.  Well, I'm gonna be inside J's left turns and outside his right turns when he does that.  And I'm going to laugh as J goes down.  On that day, I'll be satisfied with my skiing.  (in my defense, this airport food may be affecting my judgment a wee.)

I have the New Testament (acbes II) with me and will be absorbing its emanations all week.  So you may need to avert your eyes on Saturday to avoid being blinded by my skiing brilliance.

[ToddW]

Dear friends,

Kindly refrain from informing J of his impending defeat until after Superblue and Hintertux.  I wish to still benefit from his excellent tutelage.

[HeluvaSkier]

Jay aims to one day ski inside Harald's left turns and outside his right turns before pushing him down as he speeds past Harald.  H says this would be a good thing because it would mean that J is the best skier in the world.  Well, I'm gonna be inside J's left turns and outside his right turns when he does that.  And I'm going to laugh as J goes down.  On that day, I'll be satisfied with my skiing.

Now, there's a proper goal.

As they say... every master needs an apprentice.

[jim-ratliff]

Liam:
A "Peak" Powder Day (ppd) at The B'East tomorrow, I bet.
To all in the northeast, take care of yourselves, and enjoy the snow if you can get to it.

[Liam]

Wow...ok, that was a day for the record books on the slopes of Massachusetts.   Best tree skiing ever this far south, the snow was a wonderful combination of deep (yeah), cold and light enough for floating, but just enough density to serve up a little speed control in the glades.  Perfect.

Video forth coming...

Just want to say, that conditions, tomorrow at Berkshire East (or any southern new england place) will be stellar, even for non powder hounds! But B'East will have no crowds or liftlines and will be under 60 bucks...

Wow

Liam

[LivingProof]

Liam,

B'east has produced some great days this season for 'ya!
Out of curiosity, on the groomed, how long did the pow last? For reference, on our recent NY trip, we had 6" overnight and within 90 minutes, it was pretty much gone, and, on a day when not that many people were at the mountain.

How did the wind treat you, it was screaming here all Saturday. Funny story, but, the race team I ski with had their annual main event scheduled for yesterday, but, it was cancelled by the mountain on Friday. The e-mails were furious, until, some tried to ski in the wind on Saturday and left within an hour.

[Liam]

Living Proof,

Keep in mind I am a patroller (and I slept at our very comfortable patrol house the night before) and got a few runs in before the lifts opened.

The Pow, in completely unbroken form (meaning that skilled skiers could lace together unbroken streams of powder turns) lasted until @ 11am (it was a Saturday)-though by 10:30 you really had to know how to look for it.

On a weekday it would have lasted all day.

However, when you are talking about 20+ inches, skied up powder still skis like powder for the most part, we had NO scrape-off areas all day.  It was deep, soft snow everywhere wire to wire.  The Glades still have powder shots available in them (and not just the secret glades) for the game skier as of this morning.

And, I'm biased here, but honestly, the average skier at B'east is a good deal better than at most mountains ('cept Mad River  in the east) and there are not that many snow boarders (cause we don't have a really ambitious park) so there is more proper turning happening in that snow than other places.

We did not get the winds they originally predicted and most of the mountain yesterday was a combination of creamy groomers that turned to easy moguls by 1pm and Big, soft, steeper mogul runs (and the glades still skied well...).  It was as good a day of skiing as I've had in the East in a long time.

We did have the biggest crowd I've ever seen at Berkshire East on Sunday (we ran out of parking!!!...That's never happened before--still, it never felt anything close to VT crowded (in numbers or in temperament of the skiers-which I mean positively!).

B'East will be a great for all of president's week (lower crowds and lower prices that jiminy or anyplace in VT-and solid skiing for all abilities).

[LivingProof]

And, I'm biased here, but honestly, the average skier at B'east is a good deal better than at most mountains ('cept Mad River  in the east) and there are not that many snow boarders (cause we don't have a really ambitious park) so there is more proper turning happening in that snow than other places.

Liam,

Great point. Last weekend at G's home mountain of Bristol, then later at Holimount, the quality of the average skier is just so much higher than my home mountain.
Great that you got so many runs in new snow.

[Liam]

A few of our patrollers used to patrol at Bristol, and they said it was very similar to B'East.