Yesterday at Whitegrass, WV.
I had skied on Thurs and it was good. About 8" of light powder had fallen and I skipped work to ski it. In late PM flurries turned to a full on snowing sideways blizzard. I had to go back to work on Fri. but Sat. was beginning to look like a good idea. I loaded the car and drove out to WV on Fri. night after work, stayed at the Blackwater Falls State Park Lodge and started up the Whitegrass open slope a bit after 9 on Sat. It looked very promising. The WG lodge was jammed. Word must have gotten out. (At the end of the day there were well over 100 cars in the parking lot.) There were no tracks in front of me as I neared Round Top. But, back in the lodge the young guns must have spotted me and said, "he's headed for the National Nordic Reserve for first tracks, let's catch him." Well, I am old and slow; 20 skiers must have passed me by the time I reached Bald Knob. No matter; I know how to farm a slope even if it's tracked. It was deep, let's say at least 20" at the 4000 ft. level. It was a slow stately floaty aim and go kind of run. Speed control was not a problem, keeping speed was. I did one run on Bald Knob and headed for the most distant part of the layout, Weiss Knob. The north facing slope was perfect. Most of the powder stampede had not gone that far. There were 3 sets of tracks ahead of me. After a couple of runs and still feeling strong, I reluctantly decided that the better part of valor was to start the long trip home before my legs turned to mush. I got back at 3, totally wasted, totally happy, had a late lunch and started the long drive home. What a day!
Day 3. What a start to the season.
