SKiNE.net

Never really thought that my ski season ended on Easter Sunday at Cannon Mountain! After a two month vacation from skiing I figured that jumping right back onto horse was a good idea!

Plus, my new sticker!!

There is some sad news that I have to pass along to you. Normy, my cat and best buddy for almost eighteen years, had a bad turn with her health earlier this month. Initial blood tests indicated that her kidneys were failing. Of course we did not want to give up and the cat had multiple visits to the vet to get hydrated and get anti-biotics. Even at home I had an IV bag of sodium chloride to give her fluids, as well as other medications.

Starting Saturday night through Sunday her health declined rapidly. The line of old/sick was passed into suffering. She no longer could drink or eat. Other signs were becoming very obvious that her kidneys were failing, and were beyond the point of being cured.

I know that she wanted it to end. You can call me crazy all you want, but she made a point to be in my lap and purr for hours on Sunday night (something she had not done in weeks), I promised her that her pain would end on Monday.

Normy was put down late Monday afternoon. Thank you to those who supported us, and I am sorry to those whom I did not inform until now. As you can imagine this isn’t the type of news I really wanted to talk about. It has been a long month, and I know that she has no idea how much she’ll be missed!

April is here, and with it a season is coming to an early end. Parts of northern Vermont got up to seven inches of snow last night! The White Mountains just got a dusting on the peaks. Tomorrow bring your raincoat as Mother Nature is going to deliver another blow to our snow pack. Good news is that colder temperatures return later in the week so we can have some nice snow to end at Cannon and Loon. Then we climb!

Sunday River is closing on the 26, Killington is going for May 2, and Wildcat is going for May as well again! This will be their third year in a row if they do so!

I will be dressed in black all week.

It’s spring time in New England! Longer days, warmer temps, hero snow conditions, girls skiing and riding in bikini tops, then tanning on the deck at Camp III…….. getting a little off track there! There’s still a lot of snow up here Cannon and Loon are almost 100% open with mainly the trees being closed. We still have some time left so get up here!

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were great spring skiing days at Loon Mountain! LSGR, WTSN, and CORN were the primary surface conditions. Hardly a cloud in the sky to boot! The party is coming to an end as rain and snow showers are coming in, and warmer temperatures are returning this weekend. So what does this mean? Get up here!! Long range forecast models are not showing any snowstorms on the horizon, and I booked my ski vacation for the first week in April, so that means there is a strong possibility of a meltdown before then!

There’s still plenty of snow!

On March 9th was the annual 100K Foot Vertical Challenge at Wildcat Mountain. This challenge raises money for the Make A Wish Foundation of New Hampshire. You collect sponsors and then meet the challenge by attaining 100,000′ at Wildcat, which means riding the HSDQ up and skiing down 48 times!

Arrived at the mountain at 7:30 and low and behold I was the last one! Everyone else was in line at the lift waiting to get started. Quickly I booted up, got on my neck warmer, gloves, number, helmet and off I went! Last in line but I got to ride up with a man named Al, he seemed to know everyone at the mountain, and a lot about the mountain! He told me the recent surface conditions, where on the trail it may get tough and the like. Also told me about some nice tree runs that I will try out sometime!

For the event we had our own designated trail, Lynx. No skier/rider outside could go down the trail. The first three runs I wanted to get a feel for the conditions and the trail. On the top part the first ‘hard left’ turn was going to get hairy as the 26 participants would undoubtedly push all of the snow off exposing ice. The bottom was for the most part PP and you could run faster than at the top. After each run I would gain a little more momentum as I grew comfortable with my line.

Once you finish your run, you skied right to the front of the line! Yeah, I felt special with the lifties holding back others so I could go right on. Though, I do have to admit, when my run count was up in the thirties I wanted to say, ‘No, they’re good, they can go!’

Temperatures were in the low 20’s and it snowed lightly on and off all day. By run number 10 the crew at the bottom keeping count were handing cups of soup for you to drink on the way up! That was a great treat! At noontime sandwiches were handed out for the ride up and at anytime water was provided. This was a well organized event!

It’s funny skiing the same trail over and over and over and over again. You could see the surface conditions changing with each pass, and where you would have to tweak your line just a bit to stay on the snow that is comfortable to you. Sometimes I would stray from my line to hit some fresh snow that accumulated up to three inches in the early afternoon.

When getting onto the lift throughout the day a little girl named Emily was there to give you a high five as you skied/rode by. Emily and her family visited Disneyworld through Make A Wish Foundation of New Hampshire. It didn’t matter that the weather was cold and snowing, she was our cheerleader for all 48 runs!

All day I never looked at the board to see my count, tempted but did not do it. Seeing the clock was at two o’clock, I checked to see where I was. 36 I was told, 12 more! Up the lift I went, off loaded to the left, skated to the top of Lynx. Everytime this was done a member of the Wildcat Ski Patrol was there to cheer you on! Greatly appreciated!

Lots of great skiers and riders doing this challenge, enjoyed watching them all. Especially the tele skier! I don’t think I could do 12 tele ski runs down Lynx but this young lady did all 48! The two riders I saw and sometimes followed are great on their boards, impressed by everyone!

Quarter past three I skied by the counters and was yelled to me, three more! Thank you, God! Rode up, skied down. Rode up again, skied halfway, made a call to nature, and skied down. Last one I was told by the Marketing Director of Wildcat. Rode up, off loaded, skated over to the top of Lynx, yelled to the ski patrol, ‘Last one!’ Received the last applause and began my final descent. Couldn’t help but smile knowing this was it, great fun, but my legs were about to go on strike and leave me!

Got to the bottom, and was told by the marketing director that I finished the challenge but had until 4:30 to accumulate more runs if I wanted to. Shook his hand and politely said I’m done!

Afterward the Wildcat crew fed us, and also held a raffle and gave everyone a prize. This event alone raised almost $30,000. for the Make A Wish Foundation of New Hampshire. That is is pretty impressive! Will be there again for next years event!

A particular prize we all received was a free ticket to Wildcat, I’ll see you in April!

Great but yet tiring day at Wildcat Mountain! So tiring that I will write more tomorrow!

Snowstorm early next week?

Now that we’re over getting shafted by the snowstorm, I have to say that the weather and conditions here are great! Primary surface conditions are FRGR, LSGR, and some PP. Believe it or not you caould find some fresh snow in the four inches that Cannon received on Monday! Mittersill is holding up well but could use another six inches.

Get up here, plenty of season left!

Cannot lie here. Many parts of New England received six to ten inches of snow from this past storm. Something got screwed up with our order to Mother Nature, we got two inches. Yes, two inches fell here in the Western White Mountains.

At least it didn’t rain and lose snow!

How can you help but get excited as our first snowstorm in March comes in? Snow has started to fall on Southern New England and is moving quickly north!

Radar by NOAA

First day of March and a snowstorm rolls in tonight! Eastern New England can expect up to a foot of snow, and three to six inches over the rest of New England! Great news that we will get some fresh snow to help recover from last Friday’s rain.

Time to get out there! Click below for an animated loop provided by Accuweather.com:

Wow, it is amazing how time flies, we’re at the last day of February! With March rolling in we get to look forward to longer days on the slopes! Cannon and Loon Mountain are still pretty much 100% open even with the rain from yesterday. Next week looks to be a good one complete with cold temperatures to preserve the snow, some light snow Sunday night, and some real sunny days later in the week!

Tomorrow we’re heading out to Cannon and on Monday I will be participating in the 100K vertical challenge at Wildcat Mountain! This is a fundraiser for the Make A Wish Foundation. Forty Eight runs to make that mark, this will be fun!

Enjoyed a great day at Black Mountain in Jackson, NH today! Byt the time we finished up at around 4 there was about four inches of new snow on the ground! Tonight through Monday afternoon the storm will slow down a bit over the Gulf of Maine depositing more snow in Central and Western Maine leaving them with a possible total of 18 inches! The White Mountains may see 12 to 16 when this is over!

Will be leaving for home pretty soon to enjoy Cannon tomorrow! Full trip report on bith mountains then!

Good news, after the snow bust last week, we have another chance tomorrow! A storm coming in Sunday afternoon will bring 3-5 in the afternoon, and an additional 6-10 in the evening!

We’ll be at Black Mountain tomorrow skiing in the storm, and we’ll celebrate some POW at Cannon on Monday!

Keep your finger crossed!

While in the middle of vacation week a snowstorm will be rolling in late tonight and will deposit 8-14 inches of snow by tomorrow evening! Residual snow will result in another 2-4 inches Friday!