A Couple Days from 1/16-1/22

A Different Set of Descending Skills

Last Thursday I scraped the storage wax off the alpine boards and headed to Pittsfiled to try out my ski legs. Searching through a collection of old lift tickets I discovered the last time I went downhill skiing was March 24, 2007 at Smugglers Notch in Vt.

Bousquet, a small ski area in the Berkshires, has a sweet deal on Thursdays; $10 for a 3-9PM lift ticket.
I made the trip out late afternoon and got a couple runs in before the lights went on and I was joined by my daughter. We had fun getting in a half dozen more and she was kind enough to save me a spot in the lift line as I tooled in about 15 seconds behind.

Snow conditions weren't the best for rusty legs but I had taken the file to the edges so the skis held on the boilerplate neve.
All in all a fun time but a wake up call to the fact that I need a lot more lift service area work before heading off piste. Given the way winter is going I should luck out and be able to postpone that for yet another year.

Greylock

The snow gods had dusted the 'Shires with about 3" on Thursday night so I headed back over to Bousquet on Friday morning. Wind packed powder over boilerplate didn't look too appealing so I decided to drive up to Greylock for a more aerobic outing.

I parked at the Gould Trail lot, put on my microspikes, grabbed the pocket camera, and "ran" up to the Thunderbolt Shelter. I had the trail to myself save for three hikers I met just before the summit road crossing. Once I hit the road I opted to run it to the summit. The first thing I noticed were the V tracks from a nordic skier who had skated up. Our paths crossed while he was descending a short time later.

At the shelter I met up with a member of the T-Bolt ski patrol who had just skinned up. We chatted for a bit about trail conditions and the like before heading out for our respective descents. His skin up was about double the time of my run but he'd have me by a long shot on the return.


Winter - Enjoy it while you can.