Okemo : Conditions March 25 (or How 'bout some Gravy with my Mashed Potatoes?!)

Spring skiing in the East is usually not so great. Spring usually harkens visions of skiing in just a sweater and sunglasses, with sunny days and soft snow. But that's more of a Western thing, with corn snow or spring snow squalls, since in Vermont it's more likely that we'll simply either get slush or frozen over hard crud.

This Saturday was no different. It was too warm near the end of the week so when Saturday rolled around it was a soft and slushy. It's tiring to ski through the stuff, but there were very few people on the mountain (arrived late and still got to park at the top lot!), so at least you could go hurtling around easily. I poked over to the Solitude ridge area, hoping that its shelter from the direct sun might lead to somewhat better conditions, which was true, but it still was pretty weak. I did all the trails there and then a little on the main mountain, but the skiing was very tiring so I decided to quit around 2pm. These are poor conditions for taking lessons, in that one will end up fighting the snow surface rather than learning technique and building confidence.

(here's an old brochure of Okemo, btw)

Afterwards we went to the bike shop (Cyco) to pick up our two wheeled steeds. We had them tuned up for spring and also had new saddles and computers installed. Such is the turn of the seasons, as we exchange various locomotive devices for another.

I guess I might make a lame attempt to go Saturday April 8 for the last weekend of the year, but it will be somewhat pointless (or dangerous), so I might go biking instead. The tally for the year is looking like it will be only 23 ski days, which is somewhat low for me, but that's mostly due to the warm spell we had between New Years and President's Day weekend. If it had been more typical, I'd probably have had another 6-7 good days in Vermont during that time frame. To be fair, the early season (Nov/Dec) were stellar, the best I can recall since the great snow storm of 96 when Mayor Rudy Giuliani shut the city down for a snow emergency.

Still, every day that we get is a blessing and I am grateful.