here it comes again...I hope

Not much small mountain skiing yet. It got pretty cold right after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving morning, after the bird was in, I drank coffee on my south porch soaking in some sun. It was warm and beautiful. But the next day, about 4 inches stuck. I thought we were about to get it going and while the snow lasted a week in the hills around here the daytime highs were just a bit much for the mountain to start up the guns. It was killing me; every morning as I was leaving for work the temp was below twenty, every evening on my way home it was over 40. So, the first Saturday in December, my daughter and I left home at about 5 am heading for Gore. I was a too easy drive. The lowest temp along the way was 36°. We met about 20 other coaches, athletes and parents from our program in the base lodge at 8:30 am. Gore was relatively empty, the forecast was for rain, not much was open and the snow was pretty thin in spots. It was not so good but it was fabulous. I always love the first day. I always feel like I ski like an old fat guy, the conditions are often terrible but I still always love it. There are few pleasures in my life greater than the first day skiing. I think the whole group was really happy to be back to skiing again. As the snow deteriorated after lunch we headed to our secret early season stash; the green part of the Sunway lift (get off half way). It is really short and really flat but the snow was the best to be found (it seems it always is when I go there before Christmas). We ran through some drills trying to get bodies moving at (or with ) the direction of the new turn while making it look like magic. Everyone always tries to muscle the early season turns because they don't have their timing yet or, more likely, don't trust it yet. We were getting more comfortable and pretty tired with the rain got there about 2:15 so we quit before we got wet. The skiing was not worth taking pictures of but here a couple to look at anyway.

Early morning drive through the Adirondacks

We are there!

Getting ready

The forecast is terrible in Central NY for the forseeable future. It is raining hard and has been. last weekend my daughter opted for an indoor lacrosse tournament instead of travel for skiing but we will get out there somewhere this weekend.

The current dismal Central NY radar

Hopefully the weather will turn so I can come up with something worthwhile to talk about in my next post!

Changes

Well, my life has changed a bit. After a 21 month stint as a full time skier and unemployed job seeker, I have taken a full time position back in the IT world. I was a database administrator for 10 years when my job was outsourced in July 2010 and I am now a database administrator again for a large retailer instead of a technology company. Before trying any of this computer stuff in the corporate world, I was a free lance finish carpenter, cabinet maker and skier. During those years I was lucky enough to ski at least 100 times a season; most of it professionally as a race coach and educator for the Eastern Division of the Professional Ski Instructors of America. If you have looked at this blog in the past, my skiing background is fairly obvious. When I was employed (as opposed to self employed) I was still able to work for the race club and the PSIA but during those years I skied closer to 60 times and half of those were night training alpine ski racers. Sill, lots of skiing...and on small mountains, mostly. I have had two fabulous winters since I started writing this blog (even if this last one was a bit too warm). So, as I get back into the rhythm (or maybe no rhythm) of a regular job, I will again ski less days at fewer ski areas but remain a passionate small mountain skier

What all this means to this blog is not absolutely clear to me. Even though, I am pretty crumby when it comes to regular updates, I have enjoyed writing about skiing things. I will continue to write about my experience as a small mountain skier. I will be happy to keep writing about my experiences skiing around different places with different people. I also think I will try and comment more about skiing events and issues from my small mountain skier vantage point. I won't be traveling so much or so far but I will continue to enjoy every day I spend on the slopes.

I do have many other interests that I would like to or could write about; cooking, photography, woodworking, canoing, life in the middle of nowhere etc. but... there are not only tons of these kind of blogs out there already, there are tons of really good ones. I can never seem to keep up with the blogs I want to read. There are some great ski blogs too. I do read the ski blogs I follow more regularly than those of my other interests. After all, I am identified and identify as a skier first in most cases. Very few blogs celebrate small mountain skiing so, I will continue to do so. At small mountains I find friendly, enthusiastic, humble skiers, many of them excellent; really fair value for the service and very often some really good skiing. I am happy to call myself a small mountain skier....but in the back of my head I often believe that someday... that might change :-)

Off Season! Enjoy and get ready.

Late April, wish I was skiing..

It seems fitting that I update my skiing blog as the 7 inches of show that fell yesterday melts. It is still snowing on and off today but it is mostly dripping off my roof and my grass is again visible. My power went out at 3:35 am yesterday for almost 5 hours. I got up and out to see what things were like around Truxton. Down in the valley, there was power but a couple of lines were down about a mile down the road from me. When I went by, the tree service was just wrapping up clearing the road and the power company crew was getting ready to put things back together.

Truxton back road, April 23, 2012

It seems everyone in the East was saying all winter that our biggest snow would come after the season....almost true for me. I think this storm was 3rd or 4th biggest which is pretty pitiful but we all know what kind of winter it was. This storm was only a small problem here; most local schools were a couple ours delayed but a bit south and east they were all closed. The town got the plows back on the equipment and our road was plowed shortly after 8:00 AM (a few hours later than normal). By late morning all the roads were just wet.

The snow got me thinking about skiing. I did ski a lot this winter but it was not enough. I am not sure it ever is. This winter I skied at many areas. In addition to the ones I mentioned in previous posts (Gore, Killington, Labrador, Brantling, Ski Round Top, and Jack Frost) I also got to Song Mt, Greek Peak, Toggenburg, Holimont, Holiday Valley, Bristol, McCauley, Whiteface, Pisgah, Windham and Belleayre in New York, Timberline in West Virginia, and Camelback in Pennsylvania. The skiing at all of these places was pretty good. I realize Whiteface falls outside my self-proclaimed small mountain skiing but in fairness, I love skiing on big mountains as well so I will list it. Whiteface is never small even the day I was there when all lifts to the top were down because of high winds. You could get main quad from the bottom or the two doubles to get to the top of Mountain Run. This left a lot of the mountain unavailable but still, not small. I was there to coach at the New York State Championship GS ski race for 11 and 12 year olds. I did manage to get a some runs on Mountain Run after the race. While it was too bad I could not get to the summit of either peak I think I could ski on Mountain Run for years before I got sick of it. I love skiing on that thing and the snow on it was superb that day.

Today, while recalling some of my skiing over the winter, the fact that it seemed to take so long to get going and then it ended way too early makes me feel I did not ski enough. I am envious of my Eastern friends that are out west skiing and my Western friends that are still skiing this season. The pictures I am seeing from out west make it look fantastic...I should have gone out this year.

Greek Peak GS

Toggenburg GS

Safely finished second run!

I put new snows on my car this winter and hardly got to use them. Here I am heading into McCauley and enjoying the bad driving!

Last day at Labrador...still good coverage and skiing but no business :-(

Whiteface

Whiteface

Belleayre in 74 degrees

Even warmer the next day!

Second day hike to the snow from the lift

Fading fast

I seem to always get magnificent sunsets on my way home.

Jack Frost

Sunday (1/15), after skiing, I was off to Jack Frost in the Poconos for a Monday - Tuesday PSIA education workshop. As the weather started to warm late in the day, there was a forecast of freezing rain which, obviously, had the potential of turning a pretty easy 150 mile drive into something not so fun. As much as I tried to hurry, I did not leave until almost 5:00 PM but I lucked out. I ran into some rain about half-way there but drove out of it within 10 or 15 minutes of getting into it. Whew!

I woke up Monday morning to a car covered with ice. The temperature was near 32 so it was relatively easy to melt it off. The short drive from the Hotel to the ski area was easy and not slippery. If it were not for the PSIA event, the area would have been closed. Between the icy roads and the pouring rain, there was little potential for business at the mountain that day. The good part was that we had the place to ourselves, the snow was good (it usually is in a rainstorm) and the group was full of troupers that seemed to not care about getting wet. The bad part was that it did rain heavily and we all got soaked. My rain gear is good and I wear a helmet so with the exception of hands and face, I was pretty good. My goggles were useless and my fleece gloves weighed a few pounds a piece. The rain calmed down late morning and the afternoon turned out to be okay, just really overcast.

Jack Frost is a lodge on top area; kind of unusual. There is a lower lift that has a short but really nice steep pitch. It runs down to, what I think, is the Tobyhanna Creek although many in the group called it the Lehigh River. There are also some reasonable glades but again relatively short. The area points snow guns straight up and lets the snow drift into the woods to make the skiing really good in the glades.

After skiing on Monday, I went up to the upstairs bar at the mountain and had a very expensive but delicious local, semi hand crafted, dark beer. As I was trying to make my exit, one of the group members asked me to go over to Big Boulder, the sister ski area a few miles away from Jack Frost. Not really having any reason not to go, I agreed. The road between the two areas is essentially a gated community. There is a guard shack at both ends and there is a toll to get through. Anyway, Big Boulder was dead as a result of the dreadful, rainy weather. There were some snowboarders jumping off stuff but other than that, nothing going on and a really empty lodge. I learned that Jack Frost does not allow snowboards. The snowboarders have to go the Big Boulder. Again, pretty unusual..these days.

After one more beer and a detailed description of a new skiing iphone app being developed by my group companion and a couple of his buddies I was able to exit and find my way back to the hotel (thank goodness for my GPS). It was not too late but I was tired and since there were no other PSIA staff staying at the hotel, I found some take out Chinese and had a reasonable sesame chicken diner which helped get me back to my self imposed eating budget after spending a lot on 2 beers.

The next day was drier but still overcast. Skiing was pretty good and we went up and down or rather down and up a lot. As I drove up the Northeast Extension of the PA Turnpike, I was thinking I want to return to Jack Frost and ski there when the weather is better.

One small note: I realize it has been months since I last posted. I do have some things to report about the winter that has all but finished and will do so in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!

It is bunch some together time

Just as last year, I have fallen behind in reporting on my travels so, I will do a quick over view from Christmas to January, until the couple of cold days in the middle of the month.

I spend the week between Christmas and New Years at home every year. The race club runs a "camp" for all the athletes and a bunch of returning alumni (college kids). We generally ski 5 of the 7 days. This year was no exception except for the lack of open terrain. The skiing was weird to terrific but never bad that week. The mountain stared with 2 trails and eventually opened a third. There was just enough cold between the warm and rain to not only patch up what show was washing away but add to the overall. The nice thing about all of this is that everyone feels bad for everyone. In a more "normal" winter, there are pretty good crowds during the holiday week. The management is often stingy with giving the race club hill space to train on. The kids complain about the the lift lines, the "liftys" doing their jobs by checking for passes, the lack of training courses even if we are better served by free skiing to improve technique and whatever else comes along. This year there seems to be none of that. The mountain management has done everything they can to help us out. While lift attendants are always friendly to the coaches, they sometimes get frustrated with high energy pre-teens and start over reacting to any hint of an infraction to the orderly process of loading people on chair lifts. Again, there has been no complaints from the any camp and they all seem to be weathering (sorry) all this with a "this is what it is; lets just make the best of it" positive attitude.

Race Camp

Our first races were canceled to to snow depth so we got an extra week of training before the younger folks (12 and under) were racing. I sometimes wish we put off the race starts until late in the winter. When we start off skiing outside of training courses, we seem to make great progress. As we get into racing each weekend, and training in gates, things seem to stop in terms of fundamental progress towards really good skiing. It is frustrating to have such little time with the athletes (2 evening and weekends) but no one, including me, has more time to give. Because of my travel, I miss some evening sessions. Luckily, I have a great assistant. She is a bit under experienced but an alumni of our race program and happens to be in Syracuse doing a masters after 5 years of college and life in Colorado. Lots of energy, and the kids think she is the best. While she hasn't really said it, I think she enjoys my absences to a degree so she can teach and coach in her own style rather than with mine. I am a bit sorry she will achiever her degree and head back out west when she does. While I am a very avid small mountain skier, I always council younger folks to move to real mountains if they want skiing to be a big part of their life. While I love what I do and have always found great fun on small mountains, there is nothing quite like being able to ski 1500 plus feet of vertical without stopping for a lift ride.. Off to Ski Round Top for a Monday - Tuesday (1/9, 1/10) PSIA workshop clinic. Ski Round top is in souther Pennsylvania, south of Harrisburg. I skied all say Sunday and headed out after that. The drive for me is about 250 miles so, it took me a while. It is pretty easy as almost all of it is interstate. To get to the mountain itself, I would recommend just following your GPS. It was a bunch of back roads with pretty sparse signs along the way. I could not begin to describe how to get there from Harrisburg.

Despite being so far south, the ski area has done a remarkable job with the weather they have has to work with this season. There seems to be two approaches and maybe a forced approach; get some of the mountain open with good snow depth or get lots of the mountain open with not so much snow depth. The forced approach is both narrow in terms of the mountain and thin in terms of the cover. Ski Round Top was a bit of good snow on some of the mountain but were somewhat forced into the not so deep category as a result of the weather. There was a pretty good variety of terrain, including some short steeps, but overall, lots of the mountain was not open. That said, I had a great time. The group were pretty accomplished skiers that were all still teaching. PSIA Workshop updates are mainly organized towards what the group wants (as opposed to a more structured curriculum offered in other types of courses). We worked mainly on personal skiing improvement, so we went up and down a lot. It was a bit cold Monday night and the area sprayed an inch of man-made over all the open terrain. I have only seen this snow making style there and Bear Creak Mountain Resort (last season). It made for some good skiing Tuesday. All in all, Ski Round Top is a well organized and nicely set up ski area. There is a nice variety of terrain and a friendly family oriented approach to the business. Nice skiing, nice lodge, pretty good food and fun people. I hope to get back there when more of the terrain is available for skiing.

Driving into Ski RoundTop

Pretty good skiing

Pretty nice weather
Fun group but we did not like the background :-(

Heading home

Finally, a cold snap, even if short lived. The weekend of Jan 14th was cold. Sunday Morning was 17 below at my house. My daughter and wife were traveling to Snow Ridge for a GS race where it never got to zero, I was headed to Labrador to train with the JIVs (11 and 12 year olds). Labrador and every other eastern ski area was pumping out snow as hard as they could.

Snow making on the race trail

Brantling

Every year Brantling Ski area hosts a couple of slalom races Christmas Eve day. Brantling may be the smallest place I visit this year. The total vertical drop for Brantling is 250 feet. My daughter entered the races this year. We left home early that Saturday morning. The drive was about an hour and a half. When we arrived they were pushing snow to build a finish area for the race. The hill was thin an narrow but there would be a race (two actually). Apparently, the show guns were on until about 7:00 AM that morning. Race 1 was scheduled for 10:00 AM.

Brantling has a giant claim to fame. It was the home mountain for Diann Roffe. Among Diann's most notable achievements was an Olympic gold medal in superG at the 1994 Lillehammer, Norway winter games and World Championship victory in GS at Bormio, Italy in 1985.

The first time I visited Brantling was before Diann's Olympic victory. I took one look at the hill and understood how they had produced a world champion. The race hill is the main slope. It is short and not too wide with a sort of rope tow on the side of the trail. I say sort of because there are these metal things attached to the cable that you can put behind your back or seat to help pull you up the slope. The athletes are never out of sight. They are either on the course or on the lift and never out of ear shot. Racing and training on this little hill helps keep the hill interesting and fun.

My daughter's day was not so much fun. She took it a bit too seriously. She, like over 90% of the field had not had any chance to train in slalom gates this season. Go figure, who has snow. We tried to approach the day as just a training day. She did make the flip both races but was not happy with her skiing. The flip is the start order for the second run. For the second run of the race, the top 30 athletes are started in reverse order of first run finish and after those thirty race the rest of the field runs in first run finish order. So, she really did okay considering the circumstances of this really weird winter but she was pretty hard on herself. In the way home after thinking about it for the first hour of the trip, she did admit it was fun to race even if she hated the way she skied.

I have only been to Brantling 3 times over the years and all were for ski races. I have always had fun there. The people there are friendly, the food is pretty good and the bar seems to be as big of an attraction as the skiing. Everyone there seems to delight in how small and intimate things are. While they all seem humble, they are quick to mention Diann. If I lived close to it, I would probably ski there but luckily I live near a mountain with nearly three times the height; a whopping 700 vertical feet and almost as friendly and humble. We can't, at my fun little mountain in what I affectionately call (tongue in cheek) the Truxton Alps, lay claim to a world or Olympic champion but we do have many really good skiers. I believe I will never go to Brantling for a ski day but I will definitely be back for a race.

Plake

My last post was about the PSIA-E Pro Jam at Killington December 12-16 2011 with somewhere near 500 ski instructors from all over the East attending. The exceptions to the east thing are that some of the course conductors are from the PSIA National Team and are from all parts of the skiing country. The other exception this year was the Glenn and Kimberly Plake. They were enrolled in the event. Both are preparing for their level 3 certification. Glenn was in a Level 3 part 2 preparation group (part 2 is the teaching portion of the test). Kimberly was in the level 3 part 1 (skiing) preparation course. I believe Glenn decided last season to peruse the PSIA certification and should finish it up this season.

They are amazingly friendly people. I ski on Elan skis and am friends with one of Elan's National Sales managers. He informed me Monday that the Plakes would be coming in Tuesday morning. Glenn skis on Elan skis too. At any rate, fist thing Tuesday morning they walk in with no entourage or pomp, set their ski bags down at a table in the lodge, and begin getting ready to ski just as the other 500 attendees for the event were doing. The difference was that 45 minutes later, Glenn was still standing in his socks without his ski boots on. In those 45 minutes he at greeted everyone that approached him with a smile and a handshake. He was not too busy for small talk or to have his picture taken with anyone that asked. Both Plakes seem genuinely interested in meeting and talking to everyone. For me this makes sense as he has built a pretty nice career with a wild dyed mohawk hair do and apparently no trace of a "what if" in his brain. With a little help from Warren Miller, he has become as recognizable skier as there is and has spent over 20 years entertaining skiers both on and off the snow. In my opinion, he has mellowed a bit as he has grown older and has slowly morphed into a fabulous ambassador for the sport of alpine skiing, not just the off piste stuff but all of it. The Plakes continued to make time for anyone approaching them all week. On Wednesday afternoon Glenn spent the afternoon skiing with 10 lucky people that won a raffle for the chance. Glenn wore his mohawk up at the Thursday night banquet. He was the MC for the door prizes and began his remarks with and apology for disrupting the week and thank yous for allowing he and Kimberly to take part. I would find it hard to believe anyone found their presence a negative distraction for the event. I found them very non assuming. They each skied as a regular group member in there respective courses, sat with those groups at the banquet, and added a, sort of, excitement to the week. Their passion and enthusiasm are very infections for skiers they interact with. For me it was really fun having them part of the event. Yup, I got my picture taken with Glenn and Kimberly at the banquet. I am sure that the great percentage of people at the Pro Jam that went home with a picture of themselves standing with Glenn.