West Mountain 4/5/12

The day's schedule: Class 9:30 to 11. ??? 11 to 3. Work 3 to 11. Decided I would fill the void with some skiing.
What I went to school with


The face was pretty Bare.


Booted up to the bottom of the Frolic, where I shed my fleece, raincoat, pack, and camera.
This was all I thought I was going to be skiing.


Until I realized there was a bit more snow above this first pitch, accessed via a small choke.


So I got the skins out for my next run up, rather than just booting it. Grabbed my pack and camera (thankfully!), but left my shoes, rain coat, and fleece behind. Shoes intentionally left on top of coat and fleece so they wouldn't blow away.

Looking back. The choke is behind a small knoll where the snow disappears on the top right of the photo.


And looking ahead. Another small grass patch with a pitch above it.
I tried skiing the grass patch. lost a ski. Whoops. The guy with the dog in the first pic was sitting just above the pitch and watched it. I think he enjoyed the show.  (my toe-height adjustment screw keeps backing out on me. Anyone have experience with this? black/gold Dukes. I'm thinking loctite should do the trick.)


I wasn't planning on skiing much past here, but I wanted to see how much farther I could go. If it was possible to get to the top, I was all for it.

End of the line.


Looking out to Glens Falls. Hudson river to the right.


What I was greeted with when I got back to where my stuff was
Note the lack of Orange Marmot rain jacket and Black fleece. And somehow I DOUBT that my jacket and fleece would blow away, with my shoes sitting in the exact same position as they were in when I left.


I walked down to the marketing office and asked them if anyone had turned in my stuff. They said no, ran over to the other office and asked there. still no. Weird. They took my name/number and said they would ask around a bit.

Off for a bike ride with the brother tomorrow on his minty new Stumpjumper, while I ride his beat up, old Trek. It'll be his first ride on dirt with it. So far, he has just used it for his mile commute to work down in SE CT.

Nice = first April TR this season.

What was the length of the longest string of vert?

I'd like to say congrats on the day, but what a drag to lose your gear.  The way it was laid out too... it has that "I'm just setting this down here for a moment" look.  Hate to think bad of people but come on. At least your econ homework was still there.

First two laps were about 150 vertical.
Third was probably 450.

Econ homework was in my pack, which came up with me for the last lap. Again, I'm just REALLY glad that I didn't leave my camera behind. I was very close to doing so.

Apparently the shoes were the wrong size...

That's exactly what I said!

Nice TR, sorry about your gear, that sucks. I almost skied West Mountain this year. I was at Whiteface March 25th. Everything was on wind hold. I decided to hit a smaller place in the Daks. They're so small, my GPS doesn't know they exist.  I ended up driving towards West Mountain. The natural trails were brown. I saw not a soul skiing from the road. I cut my losses and headed for Vermont. I drove past Mad River Glen. The cars were parked up and down 17 one quarter mile in each direction. They had received two feet in two days. I drove to my motel and went to sleep. I was crestfallen.  The next five days made up for it.

Generally, I don't see West as much of a destination place to go. They don't get much snow at all, no real interesting terrain. Just a place for moms to drop off their high school kids for the night. Probably not a bad idea to skip it. I would have stopped by the Middlebury Snow Bowl or something, though, instead of skipping VT all together.