Epic & Ironical

   

Best snow ever after the big snow at Smuggs'.  Few skiers taking advantage.  Bumps are big & soft.   Skied on some Katanas. Rockered. Awesome.

Catching Up

Smuggs' skiing continues to be great.  Lessons have been quite busy and I've had students from Australia to Florida to Ontario and everyone made significant improvement in their skiing.  Several people made the leap from Morse to Sterling.   

The weather has improved from Monday also.  We had especially beautiful scenery today.  It seems a shame that Winter is nearly half over already.  

Excellent clinic tonight including: thousand steps drill and leap turns.  Thanks Tom.

Skiing with my brother tomorrow.  Hoping for some snow for a freshening. Saturday is looking promising

Smugglers' Notch: Brrrr! but Good Snow.

 

Believe it or not the temp on the bank sign in Jeffersonville, when I drove by at 8:45 this morning, was -27 degrees Farenheit!   Now that is cold.  I'm thinking nobody will want to take a lesson in that weather and maybe I'll be heading back home in about 90 minutes.   But I bundled up with extra layers (I lost track of how many) including an extra parka and full face coverage so that no skin was expose and headed for line-up.

I'm down at The Village this week so that means some skiing to get there.  Normally that's a ride to the top of Madonna and some great skiing.   However, due to the extreme cold the M1 lift was closed (good idea!) so it was Meadowlark for me.

Did you know that when it gets really cold the snow isn't very slippery?  That makes for difficult ski skating and slow going on flat trails.  Meadowlark was more work than skiing this morning. That was the worst of it though.  The sun was shining and thankfully there was no wind.  Plus, the skiing was pretty good on the steeper trails.

That made it tolerable and 3 people showed for lessons including a couple of old friends.  We tried to work on sideslipping skills but it really wasn't slippy enough so we wisely spent our time on edging skills and improving balance for better carving.  Good progress was made by everyone.  Tomorrow should be better and give us a chance to hit some Blue Squares for the 1st time.

It was too cold for me to ski back to the big mountain and lunch so I opted for some warm rest instead.

After lunch it was a bit warmer, and I got to ski with Christopher & Mosat and we started right from the top of Morse and worked on getting our core into the right position through the shaping of the turn.  This allowed for better control, more confidence, and best of all more fun! With any luck we'll head to Sterling tomorrow!  Meanwhile I'm sitting next to the fireplace and sipping some hot tea as I attempt get my core up to something approaching warm!

Cold Is Coming

It's cold today (Saturday) so I'm happy to be home.  Tomorrow and Monday will be bitter cold at Smuggs' and I admit I'm not too eager to be headed to the hill but I'm committed so I'll be there.  

It was a great week for skiing even if the temps were on the cool side.  I think we got snow everyday.  The skiing is phenomenal.  Freefall yesterday was much easier than it had been just 2 days before thanks to big snow and big bumps. It was a great way to wrap up the week.

My Friday lessons were excellent. My morning class was a Max 5 with Sal from here in VT.  He's a really fit biker (the pedal kind) so we were able to accomplish a lot and he moved up a couple of levels.  We finished our lesson with a couple runs on ungroomed black diamonds.   Nice!  Great job Sal.

My afternoon was with a doctor looking to gain some ground on his wife & kids.  We did just that.  Improving balance and edging skills means better skiing every time!   Great improvement in the heavy powder.  Wait'll next time!! It'll be bumps for sure.

After that I hooked up with some other instructors who dragged my tired carcass up Madonna for that final run of the week down Freefall.  It was awesome!  Then we hit the Brewski (packed) for a nice Sam's Winter Ale before heading home.  

Sleeping last night?  No trouble at all. 

Ski Days, Beautiful Ski Days

By Wayne Bombard on January 19, 2011 5:37 PM | No Comments

Oh the irony!  The snow at Smuggs'  is the best and the lift lines are nonexistent.  It's quiet at the mountain this week so I've opted to take advantage of the great snow and uncrowded trails and just ski.

Although it was breezy yesterday and I skied only the forenoon, it was still wonderful snow to be on.  Today was nearly perfect ( I really can't think of anything that could be improved but I'm leaving a bit of room anyway.) and quiet as a library most places.  

I spent most of the day on Sterling skiing Harvey's Hidaway.  It's one of my favorite runs and it was especially sweet today.  The snow was creamy and the bumps were soft and fluffy; the kind you dream about just before Thanksgiving when you've tuned your skis but the lawn still lingers green.

After a brief lunch and bit of warming, two very lovely ladies invited me to ride up M1 and investigate Freefall.  One took a detour (equipment problem).  We two remaining found  the snow was deep and soft and puffy all the way down.  

At the bottom my ski partner had to run and teach but I found the re-equipped detourer (is that a word?) and we headed back up for another workout.  It is that!  

One more trip to irresistible Harvey's and I was done for the day.   11 grand trips is a fine day, thank you very much!   

Tags:

• Freefall,
 
• Harvey's Hidaway,
 
• Powder,
 
• Skiing,
 
• Smugglers' Notch

Ski Days, Beautiful Ski Days

Oh the irony!  The snow at Smuggs'  is at its best and the lift lines are nonexistent.  It's quiet at the mountain this week so I've opted to take advantage of the great snow and uncrowded trails and just ski.

Although it was breezy yesterday and I skied only the forenoon, it was still wonderful snow to be on.  Today was nearly perfect ( I really can't think of anything that could be improved but I'm leaving a bit of room anyway.) and quiet as a library most places.  

I spent most of the day on Sterling skiing Harvey's Hidaway.  It's one of my favorite runs and it was especially sweet today.  The snow was creamy and the bumps were soft and fluffy; the kind you dream about just before Thanksgiving when you've tuned your skis but the lawn still lingers green.

After a brief lunch and bit of warming, two very lovely ladies invited me to ride up M1 and investigate Freefall.  One took a detour (equipment problem).  We two remaining found  the snow was deep and soft and puffy all the way down.  

At the bottom my ski partner had to run and teach but I found the re-equipped detourer (is that a word?) and we headed back up for another workout.  It is that!  

One more trip to irresistible Harvey's and I was done for the day.   11 grand trips is a fine day, thank you very much!














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Cold & Crispy

A little chilly at Smuggs' today. It was near 0 degrees f. today, so I left no exposed skin.  The snow was cold and not very slippery.  Since it's going to be warm tomorrow I opted to leave my wax unchanged and deal with it.  It got better as the day progressed. 

I had a nice private lesson with Betsy & Jeff on Sterling.  Balance was the lesson of the day.  It's amazing what good balance does for turns.  Great job today folks.  Thanks for skiing with me. We all had fun and improved our skiing.

Skiing was terrific.  The mountain is in great shape.  Lift lines: non-existent. Snow: packed powder, deep. Views from the top of the mountain: breathtaking.  Winter in Vermont: sublime.