"best skiing ever..."

at least so far this year! i went over to the skiway wednesday afternoon on the advice of an excited skip. he called tuesday evening informing me of the excellent conditions he found and highly recommended i meet him there after he got out of school. i was a bit early as the turnpike was in fine shape itself having had numerous loads of gravel recently spread over the muddier sections he bottomed out in last friday. he came along and we picked up a third, bob, for the first climb on the winslow side. he mentioned that he was meeting a few others, jed, whom i know, among them.

we scooted up and de-skinned and zipped down--the snow was indeed soft, plentiful, and as wonderful as we had seen out east this year! and there coming up the steep toward the bottom was jed and kelly. bob, skip, and i finished our run and turned to head back up for a second. their other friend, denji joined just as we headed up. the picture, taken by jed, is of all of the group at the start of the next run. it would have been nice to see jed as the guy is amazing--nearing eighty and still skiing up to ski down!

things were so sweet skip and i took a third run across the street on the holt's side. i was hoping that the snow was as good there and it basically was, save for the fresh cat tracks where they were working pulling fence/netting. upper worden's has a great headwall and they spray lots of snow as that is the super g course for the dartmouth racers. (thompson, on the winslow side, holds the slalom course and is why there is plenty of snow there. turns out, the dartmouth ski team did really well this year and ended up 5th at nationals out in colo.) it was totally worth the effort up--i planned to go back the next day, weather permitting.






having left his camera in the truck, i took a few shots 'after the fact' as we headed home. the one to the left shows skip in fine form busting a pile of crud. he looks just as good with skis on his feet, but that will have to wait. sitting here typing i have already packed up my gear--camera included this time--and will head out in a bit to try again for a second round of skip's "best skiing ever!" it is not raining yet and i actually see enough blue sky to get excited...too bad skip has to teach.