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View Full Version : A St Patty's Day to remember..................



ahm
03-17-2007, 05:22 PM
St Patrick's day can be one of the best days of the ski season, whether it dumps big (as it did today) or it is an absolute bluebird. Late March can hold huge dumps or great corn bumps. We all have our favorites, whether they be growing up in the midwest and attending Boyne Mt Michigan's crazy days (the ski rags and Warren Miller have often talked about the the insane follies at Boyne), getting a super New England powder fest, which I am sure today was, or be they out west, Canada or Europe. Skiing on St Pats is always a blessing. I think St Pat was a skier! So, as many of you are making your way to your favorite apres ski spots, here's a toast to the great day's that are often had on one of the best ski weekends of the year. As I sit and think about all those great St Patty's ski days, here are a few of my favs. Back in the late 90s, there was a crew of Sugarbush skiers in Fernie BC. It was a huge dumper, over 2 ft. We'd hooked up with a Canadian Military Heli pilot, who lived in Fernie when he wasn't flying. Getting to ski Fernie with a "local" then allowed us to ski into the then out of bounds terrain of Currie Bowl and huge 3000 vert lines of BC fresh. Later in the day, on a tip from Powder Mag, we dropped into Fish bowl, a huge OB bowl that simply blessed us with waist deep turns to the bottom. We had no idea where we were going, but when we crested the boot pack that led to Fish, we were awestruck. We mined turns in Fish all afternoon (in the days of rope ducking with no understanding of avalanche danger). It was a day I will never forget. Then in 2004, we were in La Grave and had spent the day skiing fantastic couliors with marvy spring corn. After a great dinner, we decided on a night cap at Pelle Lang's Hotel des Alps. It was the best move we could have made, for the next 3 hours we listened to one story after another from Doug Coombs. Five of my best friends, eternal guide friend Keith Garvey, Pelle and Doug chatting about skiing. Could it get any better ? Finally it leads me to today, due to work, I have been spending a great deal of time in Europe this season (not a bad thing). Today skiing alone, and missing that big NE dump, I had the opportunity to ski Italy's Dolomites again. While riding a chair near the Marmolada, Italy's largest peak, I saw a pretty tasty coulior, however; it wasn't exactly easy to get to and I had to boot pack a knife edge ridge on the back side. Numerous times I peered over cornices, only to see some cliffed out shots, that did not "smile" friendly on a lone skier (no one was around). But as I made my way along, I finally found the entrance to the shot I scoped from the lift. Prior to dropping in, I thought about the crew at the bush: Bumper, Kempfer, Nez, Hayes, and Mr Big, some of the forum posters, like Tin, Castlerock, Bush Mogul Master, and SRO, all getting nice fresh lines. It was a great ski down the coulior, thinking that once again St Pat had smiled on us all. So, here's to the bevs in the bar, and a look at the coulior I found...............hope the turns were full of smiles.
http://upload7.postimage.org/252351/Venice_Alta_Badia024.jpg (http://upload7.postimage.org/252351/photo_hosting.html)

freeheel_skier
03-17-2007, 10:19 PM
Well said! 8)

skiladi
03-18-2007, 09:33 AM
Nice to know you are thinking of "some" of us. ; } We miss you too. And the storm left things pretty sweet for the rest of the week. You coming home?

ski_resort_observer
03-18-2007, 09:56 AM
Based on the snow we have gotten last night and today, it's really snowing hard at the moment, tomorrow should be awesome as well. Not sure if I'm looking forward to the deep freeze Tuesday night tho. :D

All this snow since Friday and some more the first of next week should really help for the rest of the season.

AHM, having all the years of NE skiing I hope you don't subconsciously head for the few trees I see in the pic. :wink: :lol:

ahm
03-18-2007, 10:51 AM
I had actually planned on taking a weekend off, since there have been none off since New Years, a boat load of travel, and a trip to Sorcerer lodge coming April 19 - 28. But, if it dumps, even though I land late on Thursday night, I will certainly be there. Just what I need really, jet lagged and a snow storm drive. It needs to hit Friday night, this way I can begin the drive on Friday noon. And, by the way SRO, I didn't head for any of the "few trees in the shot", but I did go back for it again today. So, here's to the dump!!!!!!!! Let it snow!!

Mike_451
03-18-2007, 11:22 AM
Epic 8)

freeheel_skier
03-18-2007, 02:34 PM
Just got in....WOW! Freaking WOW! :D 8)

win
03-18-2007, 03:58 PM
Yesterday was a 10! Today was a 10+, and tomorrow is going to be a terrific day as well. We groomed Stein's last night thinking we might get a couple of inches, and when I went down it first thing there was a good foot of soft powder (hero snow). By 7am we reported 13" officially and by 1pm another 7" had fallen, and it kept snowing all day. The woods were unbelievable, trails like Lift Line, Middle Earth, Twist, Morningstar, Sunrise were as good as it gets. Even the winds today were not as bad as we feared after a Nor'easter. This is the tale of Two Winters, and I think it is safe to say that today there was no better skiing and riding in the World than at The Bush. Just got to my house in East Warren and I only have an inch of snow! It was all on the Mountain.

Lostone
03-18-2007, 07:17 PM
What a weekend! :D

If we'd gotten the whole blast Friday night, it just wouldn't have been the same. This worked out incredibly well. The heavier stuff for Saturday set down a nice base. Then this light stuff on the top? Like frosting on the cake! :D

Saturday's skiing was just super. Went for Twist, but there were a bunch of people over there, as I got to it. Continued to Snowball. Most of the way down Snowball, and almost all of Lower Snowball were untracked, with having to crpss tracls 3 times the whole way. My legs were burning when I hit the lift. If the day ended then, it woud have been a good day. The day didn't end. :wink:

I mentioned Middle Earth to a lot of people, in the last two days, and all who went there immediately started suffering from superlative overdose! :lol: That was skiing! :D


And then today... All who left after Saturday's skiing should immediately kick themselves! :roll:

I have been noticing that people have more and more fallen into the habit of ski Saturday and leave Sunday. Sunday is often the better day. Today that was true in spades!

Heard someone at the top of Lower Ripcord yelling to a friend "Best Ever!" and there were a lot that agreed with her. Saw waist shots on Lower Ripcord, Spillsville and Organgrinder. Participated in some. :D

And then there were the woods. :D So much nice snow, when I had been wondering if they were dead for the season, for me, just a few days ago. 8)

I did get bit by a particularly angry tree, :cry: but most were much better behaved.

What a weekend! :D

HowieT2
03-18-2007, 08:26 PM
OMG!

Saturday night, I was going to post how great it was satruday, but my internet connection, or lack thereof, prevented me. Good thing because today was so much better. Where did all that snow come from? I skied Lew's Line on my first run and I would guess there was 8" of powder (at 8:10). And it just kept snowing. After lunch it was dumping. The woods were magnificent, but everything was great. If every St. Patty's day weekend is like this, well paint me green and call me Irish.
In the morning, on the lifts, I saw people cruising through the sweetest powder and those that were stopped were just exhaling. It was breathtaking.

I just got back to NY and shoveled out the mess from friday night. I think I'm going to pass out.

skigal
03-18-2007, 08:30 PM
Lostone...that may have been me you heard on Lower Ripcord...but I'm sure I wasn't the only one expressing my feelings!!! :D

Lostone
03-18-2007, 08:48 PM
If that is so, you were a tele-gal wearing blue, but you're right... There were a lot saying much like that. :wink:

skigal
03-18-2007, 09:17 PM
Nope...no tele skis for me.

castlerock
03-19-2007, 07:38 AM
Great read, and it fit my mood of the weekend. It was an extraordinarily special one. One that, like the Valentines day storm, changed the season for us...

AHM, here is my version of the facts.

The Friday drive was one that all who endured will remember for a long time. Absolute traffic hell until the hills of NH, then classic left lane "untracked" with huge expanses of empty highway interspersed with plugs of cars eating each others exhaust in the right lane. The trip left plenty of time to daydream about the turns to come.

Saturday Morning dawned with 14-16 of coastal storm 12-15% at my condo, which clashed a bit with the official report of 10". I was actually disappointed a bit as I had fantasized about higher numbers. I was an Idiot of course. I was sans kids and made the most of it. Woods left of Domino then Xmas Tree, then back to the Domino side of Grinder as those aspects got less wind. One more through those woods to the line at Castlerock. Got a single, and was maybe 30th chair. Poop Chute and middle earth woods. Top hundred vert were wind scoured, then beautiful creamy pow. Not blower, but just what was needed to support you over the old surface. Got in a couple of Slidebrooks, just fantastic powder skiing.

Sunday was the difference maker, the NWS, was calling for 1-3 wraparound possibly in Warren. So the attitude going to bed Saturday was, "nice dressing on the groomers, but it won't make a big difference in the woods" Again, I was an idiot. 16" up top, 8 at the bottom of blower. My kids were ready for this one and the Domino woods again were the first destination. This time the snow was blowing over my kids shoulders in the weighting section of the turns. At the bottom my 8 year old was high fiving everyone in sight. Frankly it made my year.

Then the day unfolded with 1" an hour snow till the lifts closed. Everything was perfect. Everyone on the hill was on such a high. One poster here, GratefulSkier, had a quote, " I just want to freeze time right now".

Well, to that end, we stuck around last night and will be farming the hill for tracks today.

The St. Paddy's storm of 2007, will go down as one of my favorites, for the snow, for the collective vibe on Sunday, and for the "one last fling" aspect to the snow.

Time to go out....

WWF-VT
03-19-2007, 07:59 AM
I have to agree with Win that Sunday was a 10+ !!

MntMan4Bush
03-19-2007, 08:05 AM
You know it really gets me angry. The forecasters all called for a only a couple of inches on Sunday and of course as usual they were wrong. I just wish for once they were right so we could start depending on them more....(OK. To clarify because it's been missed before if sarcasm were rated on a 1-10 scale with 10 being the highest my amplifier is cranked to 11)

I couldn't leave until about 3:45 on Friday because wifey couldn't get out of work until then. It turned out to be a 7 hour car ride from Boston(not including the time we stopped for dinner), which is usually done in 3. I will say though that every second spent in the car was worth it and I would gladly drive 7 hours every weekend for weekends like that. Saturday was unreal. We were all saying it was one of the best days of the year and spent as much time on Middle Earth and Spillsville as possible. Dipped into Slidebrook at the end of the day and it was great. When we got down Win was the last person getting on the bus and we had to wait for the next (was a bit of a bummer only one bus was running. I thought 2 usually ran on Saturdays, but nothing could take the smile off my face that day). Woke up Sunday to a few fresh at the house, remembered the report from the news and figured it was the same at the mountain and since my legs were a bit tired from so many weekends straight of skiing I'd call it an early day. As soon as I got to the mountain my legs turned form 1 o'clock legs to 4 o'clock legs. It was like popeye eating spinach, but spinach laced with crack. First run down Twist was getting face shots. Next over to Lews line through waist deep powder no tracks in site in the lower section. Then got about 6th chair up CR and down Middle Earth. Un-frikken-believable. There were times I had to stop because I couldn't breathe from all the snow. I joked the night before about taking my powder leashes, but I really could have used them. Lost my ski for a couple minutes. Some more on CR then over to Ripcord and Spillsville (aka Ripville). The powder was like Utah powder. Light and fluffy and oh so tastey. Then Slidebrook basin to North where Bravonator and Tumbler and all the woods in between gave us sweet sweet lovin till the day was done. Thank you St. Patrick.

ski_resort_observer
03-19-2007, 03:52 PM
Beautiful morning, no crowds and sweet conditions the day after St Paddy's weekend. Lots of powder still along the edges and in the trees.

Paradise
http://forums.skimrv.com/albums/album23/bushpara4.jpg

Birch Run
http://forums.skimrv.com/albums/album23/bushBirchRn.jpg

Sleeper
http://forums.skimrv.com/albums/album23/bushslpr2.jpg

BushMogulMaster
03-19-2007, 04:05 PM
I skied Mt. Ellen this afternoon. Too bad I didn't take my camera! It was amazing... powder still to be found in mass amounts on Lower FIS, Tumbler, Brambles, Semi-Tough, and the Poma line on Inverness. Everything is fantastic, except Exterm and Encore which were groomed right before the storm... they hardened and got icy underneath and they are now a disgusting mess, IMO (how many times have we seen that mistake this year :roll: ). Anyway... skiing was amazing. It felt like mid-winter again!

As great as the skiing was today, it made me genuinely sad to think that ME is going to close after April 1st... :cry: :x :evil:

Well folks... enjoy tomorrow and Wednesday, because Thursday's high is about 50 degrees! Let's get all we can out of our last two pdr/pp days (at least judging by the 15 day forecast :wink: )! It's truly epic. What a season it's been, and it continues to be. I'm still in awe at how amazing the skiing was this year, considering the slow terrible star to the season. We couldn't have asked for more post-Jan 15th!

smootharc
03-20-2007, 06:34 AM
....simply boggled.

I know you're supposed to look ahead at your line, but at one point Sunday I was looking down at my BELLY BUTTON parting snow. I'm 6'2". Best Eastern tree skiing I can recall based on depth, snow quality, and terrain.....as well as length of each shot which seemed 5, 10, 15, 20 turns longer than "normal" based on terrain suggested "logical" (or safety) based regrouping spots.

Very glad I stayed over Sunday night and "home schooled" my boys at SB on Monday. Teaching them proper values, priorities, and the rewards of a hard day's work !

madhavok
03-20-2007, 04:44 PM
Yesterday was a 10! Today was a 10+, and tomorrow is going to be a terrific day as well. We groomed Stein's last night thinking we might get a couple of inches, and when I went down it first thing there was a good foot of soft powder (hero snow). By 7am we reported 13" officially and by 1pm another 7" had fallen, and it kept snowing all day. The woods were unbelievable, trails like Lift Line, Middle Earth, Twist, Morningstar, Sunrise were as good as it gets. Even the winds today were not as bad as we feared after a Nor'easter. This is the tale of Two Winters, and I think it is safe to say that today there was no better skiing and riding in the World than at The Bush. Just got to my house in East Warren and I only have an inch of snow! It was all on the Mountain.

It took me 10.5 hours to get to Warren from Long Island friday night. I left at 4:30pm and arrived at 3:00 AM. Saturday was great, it was worth it even though I was a little tired. When I woke up on Sunday we had maybe 3" of fresh snow at my place in Warren. Then I got to the mountain, and there was a foot of freshies and still coming down. I skiied all day Sunday, the woods were literally off the charts. Best northeast ski day I can remember in a long time.

villager
03-20-2007, 08:08 PM
Lostone - great skiing with you on Sunday in the woods. We had a little crew and did run after run after run...

Couldn't get enough of it - I think it was one of my best ski days ever. :-D

win
03-20-2007, 08:18 PM
I went off the back side of ME into Jersusalem on Monday afternoon and had a couple of beers at MRG on the way home. Nothing more to say!

BushMogulMaster
03-20-2007, 08:23 PM
I went off the back side of ME into Jersusalem on Monday afternoon and had a couple of beers at MRG on the way home. Nothing more to say!

I'm jealous! I've never made that particular journey. :D

Lostone
03-20-2007, 08:54 PM
I think it was one of my best ski days ever. :D

Better than when we explored Jon's Trail? :wink: (Not many getting that one! :lol: )


But it was great making those runs with you and the crew. Ton's of fun! :D


And I still hate you for being one of the first on Lower Ripcord! :lol:

ahm
03-21-2007, 12:41 AM
Glad to see that someone hit the J-town route. Knew it would rock, first started doing that line in 1981. There is another backside run that is still pretty prime right now, doubt very much anyone has hit it. It goes to another "town" on the backside. I scoped it this Nov and walked it up to the "BS". It's got some very nice old growth sections and will be great today, maybe still tomorrow, but as the temps rise it will get soft and sticky, unless of course you are sporting a big board under the foot, just right for my Made'n AKs. Let's see if anyone figures it out. Hit it up, it's hanging just prime for you and might even sport a "coulior" at the top. Any ideas for you bark hunters, the clues are pretty obvious if you know the area well.......................Have fun!!!!!!!!!

ski_resort_observer
03-21-2007, 06:35 AM
Good coffee at the Starksboro General Store.... :lol:

HowieT2
03-21-2007, 06:57 AM
You people really know how to make someone at work in NY very jealous.

atkinson
03-21-2007, 11:15 AM
http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/WaiteySB8-0307.jpg
Chief Waitey on Monday at Sugarbush.

John

p.s. Don't bother asking. You know I won't tell.

Treeskier
03-21-2007, 12:43 PM
So that is where you where on Monday. It is exactly where I figured you had gone. Nice picture!

Commenting on Win's run to Jersusalem I've all ways said that put a lift and small base area on the West face. (Which would make Sugarbush one of the closest ski resorts to the airport) would be a great idea. Nice to hear him sniffing it out.

Strat
03-21-2007, 03:16 PM
http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/WaiteySB8-0307.jpg
Chief Waitey on Monday at Sugarbush.

John

p.s. Don't bother asking. You know I won't tell.
Wait, so that isn't on a trail? Looks pretty wide and cleared...

atkinson
03-21-2007, 04:35 PM
Nature is very powerful.

John

castlerock
03-21-2007, 04:41 PM
Nature is very powerful.

Whoa......Duuuude....

Mike_451
03-21-2007, 05:07 PM
Hell, devolop the backside and we would be 2x the size of K stinking mart, just as close to midlebury, and closer to Burlington. And if we are to ever have a gondola again, that would be the place.