Small Mountain Skier: 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.