Pico, VT 02/26/12

On my way up to New Hampshire for five days, I wanted to break up the seven-hour drive with a ski day somewhere in Vermont. Originally, I thought about rolling the dice with Magic to support the cause (I bought the t-shirt), but it sounded like southern VT got walloped with the NCP stick, so while Harv and a few others went to MRG, I decided to go to Pico for the first time in many moons. They were claiming 15 inches since Friday, so how could I argue with that:



There was very little snow on the ground in and around Rutland, but it got noticeably more wintry the closer I got to Pico. The parking lot was filled, but as is always the case at this mountain, there were little to no lift lines. The longest I waited all day was 90 seconds. There were also concerns about the summit chair, which derailed yesterday followed by a full evac of everyone on it; however, it ran fine and was ski-on all day. I love the old Yan's teardrop-shaped chairs:



Within a couple runs, I figured out what the deal was. The new snow was the driest pixie dust imaginable. Exactly what everyone claims that we never get back east. The blues and greens were like velvet, but on the upper mountain, you had to shop for turns on anything steeper than that or you'd have a close encounter with a hideous bottom from before the storm:



By 10 am, I headed over to the Outback chair, which hasn't run all season. All you needed to do was herring-bone or walk about two minutes up a groomed trail:



The cut trails were tracked out to various degrees. Still, very fun to ski (sorry, I was by myself, so no in-action shots):





But the woods... ah, the woods: untouched. I did seven laps in the Outback trees and none disappointed.



You gotta love Pico: the anti-Killington (that's what some guy on the chair called it).

Looking sweet, glad you had a good one.

No lift lines, no competition and new snow in deserted trees. Uh yea.