I pick up my new Dynastar Sultan 94's tomorrow. I demo'd a pair and had ton's of fun here at Smuggs (My semi annual white xmas trek to VT). I tried the 85's as well and though they were nice, not much different from my two year old legend 8000's and decided I would go for something a little different. Wife wanted to get me a pair for my xmas present, so who am I to argue. Conditions have not been too bad, a little thin on steep frontsides, bu plenty of snow for December.

Congratulations on the new skis Bumps.

I headed up to Smuggs for my first time in a little over two weeks. Let me know if there is anything I should know about Smuggs or runs I must ski.

Keith

Best advice I can give you is to take a class early in week. They will take you to skill specific areas of mountains and they like to help push your comfort zone to next level. It really is the fastest and best way to learn the mountains and get a little better in the process. They have a range of choices from group lessons to private. My son(snowboard) did one called max 5, which was limited to no more then 5 folks at his skill level and goes for about 2.5 hours. One day he had 3 and another 2 total in his group. I did a 1 hr private lesson this week. If you are expert level they will take you to all the best trails and if you tell them you are interested in woods skiing they will even take you off trail. My son spent an hour or two in the woods during one of his lessons. I have been coming up here for about 15 years and always have a good time.

Wow ask for some powder and see what happens! 8-12 inches last night put a cover of pow pow on everything. I had some other commitments today including a few hours taking a snowshoe hike through the back country, but still managed to get a few early runs in on the new sticks. Awesome!! The hike was pretty cool as well. All the snow had the guide turned around a couple times.

Nice!! Bring that snow back down south with you when you come home!

Looks like I will be bringing snow home. Heading home tomorrow. Leaving very early to try and beat heavy snowfall, but would not surprise me if we get caught and have to get a room somewhere. Taking the western route home since it seems to be projected to get least amount and hit later.

Hey Bumps, did ya make it back in one piece? How was the drive?

I took the eastern route today/Sun (reverse blizzard route of CT - NY - NJ - DE - MD - VA), but fortunately I started out 4 hours south of you and left early enough (6 AM) to avoid the snowy drive. If you drive fast enough into a storm, it just disappears.

We left at about 4:30 to 5AM and hardly had a drop of snow until about last 20 miles into fredericksburg. Cut across 84 to 81 and came down that way. I checked traffic cams via web on way down to 84 to make route decisions. Missed the big mess in NJ. We would have hit it around 10-11AM if we had gone that way. Also it was the lightest traffic I have ever seen on 81. Not many trucks on road day after Xmas. Of course with Fredericksburg only getting an inch or so, now I am now going through snow withdraw. Thought of getting in car and driving is not pleasent, but may have to go get a fix soon.