recharged.

man, it pays to go in with low expectations.
not sure about conditions, the welcome cold
air was maybe a bit tooo much and pushed
the big cell to the south of us. I was hoping,
hoping, for maybe 2" over a thin rain infused
shiny hardpack base.

when it went to corn last wknd, that was the
hint I missed...the 2" in my mind, that was
the anti-jinx spell I was casting. What I woke
up to Saturday morning was something different.
It was storming, cold storming, blowing out of
the east, filling in the not usual spots.

Eat breakfast, messages come in, my touring
crew is pulling up lame, physically from the
Foofdom, mentally from the commuting 'cakes.
Overslept? phhhht, cupcakes just aren't
skiers I guess...

So I busted out solo, pre-9ish into 4ish deg
brisk easterly puking snow. East? hmmmm,
that's different. Skin up Rountop to Bald as
usual, and gametime it out to Nat'l Nord.
Northside? Laneville is on my mind, but I
can't resist, feels like I've got the place
to myself, tic. Good feel for the snow,
the turn comes easy, feeling the flow
once again, a welcome change. Lap back
up thru the saddle forest a second time,
see that the previous uptrack is filling in
with freshness, niiiice.

Options at the top and curiousity gets the
best of me, drop the south side towards
Laneville, couple nice pitches, could use
more snow below 3800'...turn to climb
back up before the conditions exceed
marginal and try to get my bearings on
the shoulder of Birches/Red Oak/Great
Eastern.....no idea where I was exactly,
well, by local name at least. But I did
etch the location of some sweet glades
that dropped off in the opposite direction
of where I was heading...more on that at
a later date.

So keep poking around, found some fun
little shots of terrain, nothing as sustained
as I'd hoped for and ended up back on the
pipeline. Beelined it back for a dreamt of
GardenBurger and cup of chili, then hot
lapped a mainslope run on the big Bro's
before a qwik switch of stix & chase up
the hill in order to tag along on the evening
staff ski.

In all these years, that's that first time I got
out for a ski with Chip, what an inspiration,
what an incredible person. Good times & we
ended up back at the lodge well past dark,
super enjoyable apres', then a sampling of the
newly opened Sarriani's in the Valley, how
convienient.

And Cake!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANA!!!!!!

Sunday, slooowwwwww start to the day,
25k XC race was a slim to none on the
motivational scale. The sky went bluebird, it
was gonna be up in the 20's, springtime POW!
Had a FOWG errand to run first, move a bottle
of special berry juice from RT up to Bald, check.
Grab the big stix & skins and start hiking.

Got to Bald shelter, bump into TJ & KK & fella
I need to meet two more times in order to put
face to name...felt bonked, empty, done.
Sat down, donned a warm jacket, slug or two
of Coca cola and trail mix and eventually head
out to the overlook for a looksy....

It looks good enough, maybe thin in that one
spot, or two, so what the hell? Sweet jump turn
action, find my game, solid turns, then carnage
on a 20' section where there is no base, just thin
snow over rocks and grass, ooops. Tell myself
it's just ptex and get on with it. The apron
opens up into hootin' and hollerin' shin deep
blown in love then work the drift line freshness
on down to a sunny respite at the Springer Shelter.

Reskin, hike direct back to Bald. Put in a
challenging skintrack right up to the tippy
top of where snow gets good and hit it again,
only this time stay on the left side of the fence,
meadow skippin' at it's finest. Finish with a
glory run down the mainslope then lend a
hand to Chip and the racer folk.

So glad I pulled the plug on that endeavor.
The bell clanging, timing, cheering, feeding,
supporting the racers, it all seemed like so
much more fun than suffering for maybe
2hours. Nice work all you ponies!

Then I lucked into an instant Pork BBQ sandwich.
Right place, right time, damn that was good!
Thanks Gary.

And of course hugs and kisses and vibes and
thanks to everybody, each and every one of ya,
ya'll rock, good night.

(clicky make biggy as usual, and once I head
down & back again, should have some GPS data,
I, uhhh, sorta left my skipack at the lodge...
thanks Chipper!)