Jim Schley

Awesome sunshine on Saturday! I had a blast out on my new skis, driving them for the first time with my Garmont boots. We started the day on groomers, enjoying the nice corduroy.  Sleeper, Birch Run, and Hotshot/Waterfall were fast and fun. After a few runs, I started to really feel the turn radius on the new skis and began to carve, putting the substantial girth on edge. Once we got our group together, we jumped into Slide Brook for a really enjoyable run. Once reaching German Flats, we caught a bug over to North where we had some great runs in the woods off Brambles.

On a sunny day like Saturday, it would a crime not to head up to the summit of Mt. Ellen, and the views were as clear as I’ve ever seen them. Of course, you could see Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks to the West. You could see over a 100 miles to the North with views of Mt. Mansfield, Big Jay, and up to Sutton in Quebec. Eighty miles to the East stand the mighty Presidentials in New Hampshire with Mt. Washington presiding. From there, we descended F.I.S. which wasn’t all that fun until we reached the bottom third and the boilerplate ice was buried. Lower FIS was really fun. Bravo wasn’t as good.

After riding the Slidebrook Express back to Lincoln Peak, we finished the day out with some soft turns on Sunrise and a fast run down Stein’s. That’s a ski day!

Sunday wasn’t quite as sunny but was warm with wet weather forecasted. We stayed dry, but you could tell it was coming despite sun breaking through most the day. A groomed Middle Earth was a rare sight, and it was very popular. We jumped into the infamous “poop shoot” woods for a great run on nice snow and beautifully spaced trees. It was the highlight of the day. More runs on Stein’s rounded out the weekend.

111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 83 inches of snow so far this season. Next report will be from Telluride, Colorado!