Last Ski Day of the Season!

Ski Day 16 of the 2009 - 2010 ski season. Not too bad considering the circumstances this year. I think we maxed out on skiing cheap this year with a free Sunday River visit , a $9 Wildcat day, a $17 Mad River Glen ski day and Killington got us there 4 times with the $50 ticket specials we bought. Plus a 2for1 at Cannon and a surprise 1/2 price FebVaca package to Jay Peak. And Sunday River got us there a total of 4 times too, just not so much on the cheap!








Well we actually got to May 1st this year thanks to Jay Peak. The 'BIG' 2 footer somehow disappeared by the time we got there 48 hours later but everyone up for one last ski day made the trip to Jay.



Basically only 2 trails stayed open, down from 22 2 days ago, but the coverage was decent, the snow was soft and some good bump lines were to be had.









Pete & Petee conquered the mountain with style and now stood ready for a cold beer.

Awesome Killington School Vacation Ski Day

The weather was finally looking like it would cooperate and serve up a nice day - so off we went to Killington - and got what we were looking for - Sun, Soft Snow and warm temps! It was Marielle's first late season ski day on Superstar with BIG bumps ;-)

I must say Killington looks pretty foolish these days as they can't even make it until May 1st anymore. They should change the name of the ski area becauase it's NOT the old "first to open - last to close" mentality anymore. As you'll see in the video, there's plenty of snow on superstar here on the 21st of April - and they couldn't get to May 1st? Let's hear it for Jay Peak and Sugarloaf.

FREE Ski Day @ Sunday River c/o 'first tracks jack"

Paul C & I knew the snow was going really fast & we wanted to Catch Sunday River before they shut down the rest of Jordan & OZ. We got the ultimate cheap ski day when I tried Jack to see if he had any comp passes left over from GateKeeping duties - & he DID!

The wind was blowing the clouds really fast and spitting snow at us over at Jordan. We were practically the only people out there - always a spooky feeling. Sunday River should figure out how to keep things open on this side of the mountain in the late spring and just give up on the warm side of the mountain.



As you can see they were barelly open on the South Ridge Side - but winter was still in control out in Jorday & OZ. We found great conditions up in the valley with few barespots and great snow cover. It was so much colder out there that I had to go get my coat.

Mad, Mad, Mad River on St. Patrick's Day Ski Day

The ultimate ski day blog kinda day - Sunny, warm, lotsa snow
and if you wore green...it was only $17 !



I missed those skier only Bump lines you get at Mad River










It was my first trip to Mad River this year and
Nick and Jake were first time evers. I think they
were impressed. (and completely beat up as well after 12,000 vertical feet of soft bumps)





When I told Nick on the ride up that we'd be lucky to get in 6 runs
he couldn't believe it. So when we (I) barely made it down Paradise for the
second time and the sixth run I knew I was done and it was time for a late
lunch in General Stark's Pub. As you can see it wasn't without some
spectacular wipeouts thruout the day...

Killington / take 2 with Nick Ski Day

What a difference a little SUN makes. Nick & I made the Sunday run to Killinton on the last 2 $50 lift tickets.



Killington got over 4 feet of snow the prior week and it was holding up quite nicely.





Bear Mountain got us off to a warm start. We had to take our coats off after a couple of runs. Devils Den is one of the best glades on the mountain.








But after a few runs we made our way to the top and over to the north side of the mountain. The conditions from one side to the other was amazing. We were back in the powder snow and had some amazing runs, especially on Dipper!







And then we met this guy at the end of the day....who the heck knows what he was up to?

Killington Ski Day - Take 1 with the Collinszizz

It was a pretty snowy scene all over the mountain. Over 3 feet of snow had fallen on the upper mountain.











It was time for me & Marielle to do a ski day together. She was ripping it up all day and doing her best to keep the ice off the chair lift.












The snow was so deep you could push your pole down to the handle on the natural snow trails.











It sure seemed like a dark day, I'm surprised it wasn't still snowing.

Jay Peak ultimate cheap Ski Day Adventure.

What a great trip to Jay Peak for a first time visit. The best part was when I called to book the trip, they were having a half price sale to fill the Hotel Jay. So we stayed for 2 nights, got in 3 days of skiing plus Bfast & dinner each night. It was awesome as was Jay Peak.



The snow in the many glades was excellent.
Riding the tram was so painfully slow but still worth the trip to go to the top.
















Here's one of the best pics that I snapped from the car as we first got a look at Jay...

Cannon Mountain Ski Day

Boysweekend comes to the Ski Day Blog.
Me & Petee escaped on Thursday for the Cannon 2for1 special.
Glad we did it!

Cannon is a great mountain. They had quite a bit of snowmaking going to recover from the January Thaw and deluge earlier in the week - and an inch of 2 of fresh stuff really helped smooth out the rough stuff. There is some awesome terrain there, we have to come back for a powder day. The glades and the run under the Tram look really interesting!

'Buck a Run' Ski Day at Wildcat

The Holy Grail of Skiing..."A Buck a Run", at least back from the old days... Not too easy to do these days, unless it's $9 for a lift ticket.

So who actually got a run count?

Pretty spectacular ski day - not too cold - sunny - & a perfectly clear Mount Washington!










The Collins Ski & Debate Team in a quiet moment.



Watch out for the gnarly snowmaking!


Here's a poorly (UN)edited video!
The fades & transitions would not save correctly--same goes for the titles, but I got the Y/T annotations to work - no time to add music this time - and now I know how to get the titles to SAVE before it uploads to YouTube...what 'til next time ;-)

Nick's First Ski Day RACE/Sunday River Weekend

The Sabbag Ski Team got out to Sunday River this past weekend to see Nick make his UMass Lowell Ski Team Debut. Way to go Nick! Good Job!

It was Nick's first time ever running gates. After a full week of Training at Black Mountain they competed on Obsession, the same course the NorAM racers used earlier in the week.

Nick got a taste of race record keeping as he got to help out the starter keep track of the racers.
Oh yeah, did I mention it was about 5 degrees and windy!





As for the rest of us - we did our best to stay warm and make the best of some pretty good Sunday River snow. Where the snow guns were going (and they were aplenty) the snow was fantastic. Best runs were on Wildfire and Tin Woodsman with really good man-made fluff.

Claudette was having a blast at the top of White Cap...a blast of wind that is, I'm surprised she wasn't going backwards here ;-)
















Here's a run down Dream Maker with great snow and sun. It was so good we went back and did it again.

Cross Country Ski Day with Special Guests

I talked Paul into a quick am scoot thru the Fells and our riding buddy 'Cairo' joined us too.









Cairo 'rides' with us when we mountain bike thru the Fells and he was pretty excited to 'ski' with us as well.





He proved to be a tough subject to get a good photo as he was constantly on the move & keeping an eye out for any squirrels who dared to show themselves.


I used my BlackBerry Storm to shoot these pics and I wasn't that impressed with what you get for photo quality.


Cairo was pretty happy he got to go for a run, you'll have to ask Paul what he was thinking --