bcXcd 18-19

Blueberry Hill VT 12.12.18

Staring out the window at the rain has me reminiscing about last week's fun:

My wife was attending the PSIA Pro Jam at Killington last week in preparation for her Level 2 exam so I decided I would head up to join her for a few days to take advantage of the primo early season conditions. The plan was to do a day of bcXcd and a few days at the big K.

Wednesday morning I set off from PA for the  Blueberry Hill Inn Outdoor Center, a network of ungroomed trails in the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area, about 40 minutes northwest of Killington. I had done a trip here last year to check out the Widows Clearing and Radio Tower trails and do some recon for a future Mount Moosalamoo excursion.

Arriving around lunch time I signed in and dropped my donation at the Outdoor Center. Someone was doing some painting as evidenced by the brush atop the can on the counter, but no one responded to my “Hello?!” to point me in the direction of the trailhead and an appropriate afternoon loop. I went outside and walked around a bit but there were no ski or boot tracks to be found in the few inches of fresh that had fallen over the last couple of days. I started to boot up the bcx11’s/Epochs figuring I’d start out in concentric circles when a gentleman came out of the Inn and directed me to the trailhead right behind it. “Good coverage but no ski track” he said, and that Hogback / Catamount would be a good loop for the afternoon, so I set off counter clock wise.



The coverage was confirmed with some soft new snow on a denser base, no crust! On the ascent the drainage crossing were a little sketchy and I was concerned there may be some of the same on the descent back down but it was not the case.  



The very well marked trails led me to a nicely pitched field  with great snow to practice some turns.



I wished I had brought the cables but still managed to avoid the brush and rock obstacles.



The trail down from the snowfield led to some great views and the Catamount trail.



The early season coverage made for a bit technical but fun ski back to the Inn in the long shadows of the afternoon sun.



And of course my obligatory tailgate de-booter parting shot.

Awesome!  I approve of this thread

How's the turns going G?  Are you working on Tele or sticking with Alpine stuff?


I find even if my Tele's a little shitty, I usually don't faceplant.

Working on the tele - I try to get out on them once a week on "Tele-Sunday" lol

My turns at Blueberry were not really tele by any means but i felt much better with fore/aft balance that I'll attribute to my tele sessions

At dinner that night listening to all the PSIA mumbo jumbo the only thing I had to add was "The half dozen turns that I made today were some of the ugliest but most fun I've ever had!"

Great - good to hear.

I feel the same.  Tele has a way of being very inventive.  Adding in more sloppyness in the system makes it extra interesting.

This is why I say if I ever get bored on a green run, i can always throw leather boots on and make it a lot more exciting.

The hardest thing I find with leather boots is keeping that front leg tucked in.  It has a tendency to slide away from you and put you in the back seat.  It's not like a plastic boot with has a pre-set foward lean which helps minimize that.

Yes! This is seriously awesome.

Beautiful, classic New England photos.