East Coast Silly Skiing Attempt #1 (10/3/08)

By:  Sam
October 3, 2008


SOME SNOW WILL BE POSSIBLE ACRS THE HIGHER TRRN. FREEZING LVLS DROP TO 1800 FT
BY 00Z FRIDAY WITH 85H TEMPS AROUND -3C…AND STILL PLENTY OF DEEP
LAYER MOISTURE…SOME LIGHT SNOW ACCUMULATION WL BE POSSIBLE ABOVE
2000 FEET…ESPECIALLY DACKS.

…the NWS had practically guaranteed that it would be dumping Thursday night into Friday so Allen Taylor and myself set our alarms for an early wake up. In the pre-dawn moonlight though, aataylor could see from his house that the mountain had gotten no snow. So, somewhat disappointed, but feeling smart for saving the drive and getting to sleep in, I rolled over and slept until the crack of 10 when I had to get ready for class. Like any normal day of class, I got up and checked my email. That day however, I was stunned to find a link to the MRG webcam; it was showing a layer of white stuff starting about half way up the mt.

What had we done?! Was this, the first blessing from Ullr, to go un-skied and un-appreciated? How could we have made such a grave error and doubted the all-knowing NWS? Unfortunately for the next two hours our error was to be punished. There was nothing either of us could do, we were condemned to the purgatory of classes with mandatory attendance until noon.

After class got out I ran home and frantically assembled my stuff. Then I sat, staring at my gear, shaking with nervous anticipation as I waited for Allen to show up. Soon however we were underway.

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Clouds on the mountain looked ominous, we weren’t sure what they were hiding.

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After road-rage-ing it the entire way to the Stowe exit, we got stuck behind traffic, our snow was likely melting but no-one else seemed to care.

GET OUT OF THE WAY!!! MOVE !! GO GO GO GO!!!

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The clouds would still not reveal the top of the mountain, and by this point we were shaking like gamblers with big money on long odds.

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Even as we started out of the parking lot, we were confident we’d find something skiable near the top

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“Hey man, does that look like snow up there? its kind of white… or maybe it’s just the cloud?”

Then, just when we had given up all hope and were getting ready to write the afternoon off as a total waste…

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The clouds parted and Handel’s Messiah blared down out of the heavens.
HELL YEAH! FIRST DUMP OF THE SEASON!!

We had not hiked in vain, and soon we felt horrible for ever doubting the generosity of Ullr and the National Weather Service.

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If you look closely you can see Ullr riding out on the last cloud, seemingly exhausted after blessing us with such a big dump of light October pow.

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The summit of Mansfield burried in snow.

MT washington, the first real skiing of the season;

(^not us)

Sam

Read about the author:   Sam
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