I have been on the road since last Friday when I left to head up to Vermont to ski. En route I stopped to see my old Navy buddy Terry Boone in Avoca, PA. We did our usual…head out with Terry’s boys and his dad for dinner and then went out for few drinks. Terry’s hospitality is endless. I always enjoying seeing him and his family.
Saturday I drove from Avoca up to West Addison, VT, to visit my friend’s the Devino’s. There’s another crew with endless hospitality. They put me up a couple of times a year with hardly a whimper. That night we got about 8 inches of snow. I was dying to be on the slopes for the freshies but was committed to making chili. Once that was going well and needed only the occasional stir, I headed off to do some snowmobiling with little Ed and then cross country skied for about two hours.
I had to cook the chili because everyone that tried it the the last time I made it there requested a repeat performance. Did this one with venison. I doubt most people would have known the difference but I could taste it in the cubed parts that I added. It went over quite well again. Linda made, at my request since it was my birthday, a pineapple upside down cake. I love that stuff and rarely ever have it. They all got me a six-pack of TB’s for my birthday…how well they know me.
Monday I had a good 2-3 hours of skiing at Mad River Glen before my legs gave out. Tuesday I drove down to Killington and tacked a half day onto my 3-day package. Once again I got in about 2-3 hours on the mountain. When my legs are in good condition, I can ski about about 5.5 hours a day. Yesterday I got about four hours in but it was in the single digits. Today it was -8 at the bottom of the mountain when I got started at 10:30 and -1 at the top when I headed down for my last run at about 3:45.
I managed to stay reasonably comfortable by doing some serious layering, slathering my face and ears with Vaseline, and adding a thin fleece hat on top of the the balaclava I wear under my ski helmet. Unfortunately, the toes are usually the first to get cold. Thankfully you don’t really notice that when you are pounding down the mountain. I did break down and buy some serious mittens at the end of the day today. My gloves, though quite a nice pair, just weren’t cutting it.
One last note on managing the cold…as in lesson learned. At one point yesterday I was moseying down a long cruiser trail. I didn’t have any wind breaking pants on. Take that as you will… Also, for some dumb reason I was going camo. Even though I had three layers of clothing on the lower half of the body, I darn near froze my you know whats off. It was mighty uncomfortable. Never again
Tomorrow it is supposed to be a few degrees warmer. I’ll get out first thing and stay on the sunny side and try to get 4 or 5 hours in before I call it a day and head back up to Linda’s. I’ll probably head out early Saturday to get back home. Then we are off next Friday for 7 Springs for three more days of skiing. Then I really have to start looking for a job.
Here are a few pics from the trip. There’s nothing special. Though all but one day on the mountain has been beautiful with views for miles, it has just been too damn cold to take pictures.
Leanto’s in DAR State Park in Addison County, VT. I was cross-country skiing from my friend’s house.
View across Lake Champlain to NY from DAR State Park.
Mad River Glen Ski Area.
View from near the top of Mt. Killington.
