First EC roll call thread

**lionelhutz** · 02-22-2008, 01:13 PM

Somebody needs to poach highmount tomorrow- it will be good-....
I would do it if I wasn't a loser living on philly.

**skiingsamurai** · 02-22-2008, 02:19 PM

im heading to bolton to screw around. I dont have high hopes

jtran, i doubt im skiing tomorrow. Im gonna be drinking by 8am

**lionelhutz** · 02-22-2008, 03:54 PM

I was going to post this is the main thread but the picture quality isn't great and I'm sure I'll just catch flack since these pics aren't of first descents, faceshots, nekkid sisters or 25 foot hucks.
Nope- These are just some simple pictures of the most fun day of skiing I have ever had and an evolving love story.

So My Girl and I have really loved skiing together. We've grown with our love for the sport and have started to seriously question how we can live as attorneys in flatland Philly for more a few more years before we move to the mountains. In our growing love for skiing we've begun to want to merge it with our love for hiking and the Adirondacks.
Well last sat. we finally got our chance.

This was our first tour in the backcountry and we were just so excited to learn anything we could. To make sure we a) didn't get lost and b) got some good gear we hooked up with High Peaks Cyclery in L.P. They were great- they lent us some dope dynafit gear, ski mountaineering packs and set us up with a super guide. Jeff- you rock!.
Anyway- so we set off to find some learning and in the process found a new calling.
I've never had so much fun in my life - I felt like I was at peace and at home.

I know- shut up already- get to the pictures

Ms. Hutz

Me and my chicken wings

I fell. It was deep.

We hit some snow filled wide open low angle glades between 2000ft and 3800 ft. The snow was dope. The better half passing next years xmas tree.

STOMP THAT LANDING!

No really I had no idea there was that drop. The rest of the photo sequence is a state secret as it involves some tail riding and lots of white powder up my nose.

I think Jeff just missed with this picture

Is that bigfoot?

So all in all we're hooked and we can't stop thinking about our next tour.

In fact we're so hooked the next day we tried to teach ourselves to tele.

-Disclaimer- sorry for the photo quality- this was my mom's camera and it stinks in low light action shots. It's very slow to react. So unless you buy me a SLR this is all we got

**jepilot** · 02-22-2008, 04:21 PM

Nice TR...I'll have to show the girlfriend so I can get her out

**SheSkisTrees** · 02-22-2008, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by jtran10

I'll be enjoying the bulletproof-fest with some jong-types (read: cute girls) on saturday at jay. Gimme a call if you head up. We'll be there no matter what the conditions are like.

I skied Jay today. Flurries started around 9:30 AM, by lunch it was starting to amount to something, after lunch, we had 3" freshies down Vermonter and Valhalla. By the end of the day, about 4 inches at the base, 5-6" at the summit and still snowing pretty hard. Trees skied pretty well, spent all day skiing 'em. (Note: Jay is under-reporting snowfall right now, saying only 2 inches and that definitely ain't so.) There is a crusty layer underneath, but you can edge in it.

Anyone who's already up here, it's worth going out. Anyone who can CHOOSE to go to southern areas, keep with that plan since you certainly have more snow down there. Everyone enjoy the weekend!

**laseranimal** · 02-22-2008, 06:28 PM

Just got back from Petersburg in the Taconic's

3-6" of ultralight blower on top of a locked up solid base

it skied BEAUTIFULLY

stayed out with the headlamp for a couple extra laps it was so good

still snowing when I left the parking lot at 7 pm so I'm guessing another .5-1" overnight perhaps

**steeplechamp** · 02-22-2008, 08:02 PM

I'm curious to see what the conditions are on Mt. Greylock. Anyone know or have any beta on it this season? I'm planning on skiing it via the cheif or thunderbolt in march.

**scarlet begonias** · 02-22-2008, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by PearlJam09

What's Magic's base look like right now? Thinking about heading there tomorrow instead of dealing with the crowds at Mt. Snow.

The base is firm in the ungroomed areas but you can get an edge in for sure. I skied Twilight and it was kind of like skiing firmish moguls with 5-6 inches of fresh snow. Groomers are in good shape as well, especially with the new snow.

Originally Posted by snowsprite

Plattekill is a GEM and should be completely wonderful this weekend. Drive safely...and enjoy!

Sprite

Thanks! I am excited.

**macdadmorgan** · 02-22-2008, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by laseranimal

Just got back from Petersburg in the Taconic's

3-6" of ultralight blower on top of a locked up solid base

it skied BEAUTIFULLY

stayed out with the headlamp for a couple extra laps it was so good

still snowing when I left the parking lot at 7 pm so I'm guessing another .5-1" overnight perhaps

Nice, I skied to 7:30 at berkshire east, and it was good. I am planning on going to greylock in the mourning, I am shooting for 8:00 am on gould rd. with dfinn, and another non mag freind. laseranimal, do you still plan on going?

**laseranimal** · 02-22-2008, 10:03 PM

I'm game

**macdadmorgan** · 02-23-2008, 05:30 AM

Sweet, just got of the phone with dfinn, and our time frame looks good, hope to see you up there.

**samthaman** · 02-23-2008, 07:16 AM

Originally Posted by buckethead

whatever falls in VT, the roads should be well cleared - they do a much better job than in NYS.

what?! the roads in VT are awful pretty much all the time after a snow storm. if it snows at night they dont start plowing until the morning, during a storm 89 usually has just one lane open with intermittent plowing. in NYS i've seen them pre-salting the highways in anticipation of storms and you regularly see the phalanx of 2-3 big plow trucks plowing the entire highway at once, rather than the lone VT truck scraping away at one lane going half the speed limit.

in summary vt plowing sucks almost all the time on 89 all the time in burlington

**buckethead** · 02-23-2008, 07:31 AM

Originally Posted by samthaman

what?! the roads in VT are awful pretty much all the time after a snow storm. if it snows at night they dont start plowing until the morning, during a storm 89 usually has just one lane open with intermittent plowing. in NYS i've seen them pre-salting the highways in anticipation of storms and you regularly see the phalanx of 2-3 big plow trucks plowing the entire highway at once, rather than the lone VT truck scraping away at one lane going half the speed limit.

in summary vt plowing sucks almost all the time on 89 all the time in burlington

i guess up north they don't clear the roads as much as the south for gaper drivers from CT, long island, NYC etc ...rts 4, 22a, 17 - my entire route to MRG is usually in better shape than the roads i've left behind in NYS...though i have witnessed spin-outs on 89 when heading in from burlington - on really light dustings of snow.

**lionelhutz** · 02-23-2008, 08:24 AM

In the adirondacks they do a great job on the roads- I've driven to LP many times in snow and 87, 30, 73 are always clear and full of plow trains.

**Aldo** · 02-23-2008, 08:33 AM

so where's the most snow fall from this one? Magic softened up a bit?
Maybe Sunday is time for a lil red lift action?

**buckethead** · 02-23-2008, 08:51 AM

aldo: pm sent

**Snowbeaver** · 02-23-2008, 10:15 AM

Originally Posted by lionelhutz

Somebody needs to poach highmount tomorrow- it will be good-....
I would do it if I wasn't a loser living on philly.

Need to do this at some point. Think this snowfall on top of basically zero base was enough? Went up there about a month ago to check out the area... I really just want some snow on top of snow because if it's possible to hit rocks, I'll hit them...hard. Where do you start the hike lionel? right by that old lift or whatever it is? experiences? (i've seen the TR, it looks sweet, i'll keep poking around.)

**laseranimal** · 02-23-2008, 01:37 PM

mini TR of sorts

Friday after watching the snow come down all morning. I decided to head over to the NY/Mass border for what I thought would be a lap or two. I'd been out almost a week ago and found the place COATED in ice, which made access to the trail network nearly impossible. The weight of the ice had forced even the massive trees to bend to positions that I would have thought impossible had I not seen them with my own eyes. Ice fall littered the snow like glass shrapnel and the sun made the place look like an ice fortress from a childhood book. I managed to push through the initial blockage, but found the skintrack was clogged with bent trees that blocked any chance of further advance. Looking to my right I did find a small bushwhack leading away from the main trail network and decided to do some exploring. I quickly discovered that skinning anything steeper then green pitch became nearly impossible as the fallen ice acted like ball bearings underfoot. I found a low angle seem in the fortresses armor and made my way up. It was not to be however as within 5 minutes I reached a clearing and found no way of continuing my upward ascent. At this point I decided to pack it in and head back to the car.

I fretted that with the downed trees and ice there was no chance the area would recover for the rest of the season. I was glad to be proved wrong, Friday afternoon I arrived to find the place deserted as usual and 3-4" of new snow. Not only that but the recent warm snap had morphed the place from a bizzaro icy labyrinth back into more familiar terrain. There were scars in the form of downed branches, but those were easily moved aside. Anyway, what had been a shrapnel covered crust was now a locked up solid base of skating rink smoothness and it was frosted with some of the most ultralight blower I've skied in the Taconics. This was pure unadulterated hero snow, the base layer allowed you to easily set an edge, and the 5" on top just seemed to float into the air as you went by. I had planned on only a lap or two but decided after the 4th lap it was good enough to warrant staying out well past sundown and do a final few laps with a headlamp.

I awoke the next morning tired and sore from the previous nights adventures, I'd been battling the flu bug for the past week and my body was NOT a happy camper at having to wake up early and climb a mountain.

But the Thunderbolt beckoned, and so I dragged my sorry carcass out to the car and hit the road. I met up with Dfinn and macdadmorgan at the Gould Rd parking area and we started up. Like a non doper in the the Tour my sorry ass was quickly dropped from the peloton and I wouldn't catch up with the two of them until near the top.

As we reached the top, a fine, cold mist engulfed us and the temperature dropped noticeably. I took a short jaunt up to the summit where I was not surprised to find that the view was somewhat obscured

I retreated back to the shelter of the thunderbolt hut and we all got ready to to drop in. Coverage was good, and we found the same 3-4" of new snow on top in spots, but there were several semi-exposed stream beds and, the heavy traffic left scrapped off spots and made the crust underneath potentially tricky.

Dfinn showing perfect form

macdadmorgan with the reverse/reverse steeze

It wasn't all scraped off

Tips UP!!

**gravitylover** · 02-23-2008, 02:05 PM

I need to see some more P'burg pics.

Maybe after the snow coming Monday night/Tuesday the Thunderbolt will fill in a bit more.

**i killed judas.** · 02-23-2008, 03:44 PM

today i skied blue mountain in the wonderful PA poconos.

it reminded me exactly why i dont ski the poconos.

an [inexperienced] young woman passed me brushing my elbow and says "excuse me" at a hap-hazard high speed.

who the hell says 'excuse me' while skiing?

i guess she was just being polite.

and i didnt get to see if she was cute or not, or i would have given her a ski lesson or two

</rant>

thank god those tickets were free...

and lionelhutz - i feel your pain. us philly folk have it really hard i suppose. i cant wait to move away from this place.

**Jonathan S.** · 02-23-2008, 05:09 PM

Nice to see everyone up there today! (Well, except for Drommond, who was once again being a wuss, having deserted us New Englanders to fly out on Thursday for his fourth major ski trip this season.)

I was determined to get fresh tracks this morning, so I woke up at 5:00, and was skinning at 6:40, but of course someone had already beaten me up there (which always seems to be inevitable at Greylock), as he had woken up at . . . 2:00. Seriously. (Turns out I'd emailed and talked with him in the fall about getting together on his home turf in southern VT -- guess we were bound to meet up eventually one way or another.)

Skiing down on my second run I stopped to talk to macdadmorgan -- we'd never met before, but the combo of Praxis & Duke was kind of a maggot beacon. Right behind was DFinn -- if I'd known he was going to be up there, I would have brought my ailing laptop for him to check out.

Just then some guy came ripping down (I think GRides, Crossbows, and some sort of Diaxo, so pat yourself on the back if you were skinning up sometime before 7:00 this morning and meet that description), showing apparent disregard for some of the funky countours in the post-deluge/refreeze base, with his snowboard buddy close behind, so I had to zip ahead to preserve the relative pristineness of my second run. I said hello to Laser Animal on the way down, but didn't have time to stop, although he was nice enough to point out the hidden rock I almost hit.

Given that the T-bolt was about to be trashed from the intense maggot infestation, I skinned back up the Bellows Pipe again but this time took a couple laps -- pitch is not much, but snow was nice.

Then back up the Bellows yet again and to the trail junction, but this time all the way to the summit, mainly for the view, or at least the aura of it all.

By now at around noon all manner of snowsports enthusiasts were out and about (i.e., AT, tele, snowboard, snowshoe, posthole, probably snowlerblade too), although the conditions were still okay. Toward the bottom I left the main route and meandered around the old never-quite-built ski area, which was kind of neat-o. (Previously I'd skinned across it on two different routes, but never tried skiing the trails, which are still very open in places.)

Then I had to drive back so I could go out for some real skiing

**Dexter Rutecki** · 02-23-2008, 06:00 PM

Skied Magic today, was actually a bit disappointed with the amount of accumulation--I think there was more (before the rain) in NYC. But still, coming into the Black Line in the morning it looked almost pristine--just one track, and full coverage.
But what lurked beneath was different, and very difficult to deal with at any sort of speed. Particularly when I pre-released on the downhill ski halfway down (barely skied out on the remaining ski).
Still fun, but good edges were nice to have. Got to jump in some GS they had set in the afternoon until they pulled it, which was also sort of fun. And witnessed the end of bizarre altercation between patrol and some kids at the bottom at the end of the day with a kid yelling at patrol, "My name is 'suck my dick.'" He then went on to talk about how Magic isn't a 'real' mountain since it only has two chairlifts. Guess he's heading back to Killington?
Back to Mt. Slow tomorrow...

**macdadmorgan** · 02-23-2008, 06:17 PM

It was fun seeing/skiing with everyone today. After Greylock, me and dfinn went to Berskshire East and met up with a few people including my wife, and a ton of family I have over there. Most of the trails were great, a couple that were scraped down to the boiler plate, but all were decent. The woods on the other hand, well... They were alright if you were getting freshies in a flowing manner, agro edging was not a good idea.
When we went out to a not so secret of a stash we cut, we found it all slipped off, and when we got to the good cliff at the end their was a J3 race squad out there killing all of our snow. I told there coach, or what ever he was it was not that cool to take kids out there. Getting over that, we had a good afternoon of lift access, and apres.

**Blurred** · 02-23-2008, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by Dexter Rutecki

Skied Magic today, was actually a bit disappointed with the amount of accumulation--I think there was more (before the rain) in NYC. But still, coming into the Black Line in the morning it looked almost pristine--just one track, and full coverage.
But what lurked beneath was different, and very difficult to deal with at any sort of speed. Particularly when I pre-released on the downhill ski halfway down (barely skied out on the remaining ski).
Still fun, but good edges were nice to have. Got to jump in some GS they had set in the afternoon until they pulled it, which was also sort of fun. And witnessed the end of bizarre altercation between patrol and some kids at the bottom at the end of the day with a kid yelling at patrol, "My name is 'suck my dick.'" He then went on to talk about how Magic isn't a 'real' mountain since it only has two chairlifts. Guess he's heading back to Killington?
Back to Mt. Slow tomorrow...

Pathetic guy with a pathetic story. Have any more of those dirt patch TRs?