Lincoln's Birthday 2-13-2017 Mt Peter (eventually)

I had big hopes for Monday. I am one of the only people I know who gets Lincoln's Birthday off. This usually makes for an epic day of skiing for me. This year I had been scheming to get to Vermont. I was leaning towards Sugarbush but shifted my attention to Magic when it started to look like they would declare a powder day. Then one of my kids came down with a runny nose. Magic is about three and a half hours from home, not completely undoable for a day trip but it would be a lot easier if I could wake up already at the mountain. I started thinking about Hunter or Plattekill. On Monday morning my son said he felt okay and wanted to go to school. So I dropped him off at school. I had my doubts so I figured I shouldn't go too far.



No problem. I've wanted to climb the hill and try out my new touring bindings at Silvermine, a closed ski area in Harriman State Park, for a while now. I convinced myself that the freezing rain which hit my home town might have come down as snow on that side of the ridge. No such luck; it got the same freezing rain I had at at home. I skinned up the crusty hill anyway and skidded back down for one sketchy run. My AT boots and new bindings worked great together but the skiing wasn't good. I fooled around on the lower part of the hill a little, then threw my stuff back in my car.






I had one option left. Half an hour later, around 10:45 I think, I parked at Mount Peter in Warwick and before you know it I was carving fast laps on un-disturbed corduroy. Yeah, I know, 450 feet of vert? Come on right? But listen, skiing at a place like Mount Peter on a Monday morning is a lot like having your own personal ski resort. There were maybe seven or eight people on the hill. It may not have been my first choice but I can think of worse ways to spend a day then doing fast laps down Mount Peters freshly groomed race trail. It was a reminder how lucky I am to have Mount Peter so close to home.








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