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!
