Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2013 10:37 pm
Since I could not make it to WV I opted for a day trip to Sugar today -- first I took a detour up the parkway... it was snowing hard and I put on chains by the flashing sign otherwise I never would have made it here
Of course the logs in the van loaded the night before for added weight helped. I used to use buckets of rocks, then I got to thinking that in a wreck I would be in an enclosed space w/ 500# of rocks flying around
It was pretty quiet, surprising lack of crowds
The skin-up took me about 40 min, I was able to stay on thin cover on top of ice so I was rarely breaking trail. I love my set up, if I were in good shape I could really fly up. My camera ran out of battery (oh the irony, hoisted on my own petard) on my first ascent so I have no in-between pics just at the top, I warmed it up to milk these three pictures out of it before it completely died -- visibility actually deteriorated after this anyway
Patrol, I left a couple of mini refreshments (not the sort that can freeze) on your threshold for when one of you gets up there next
General impression -- I was a little spooked, it was so deserted and white-out windy (although bizarrelly a groomer went by next run over at one point, I swear he waved to me before I got swallowed up in a windstorm) It was long patches of ice with huge heavily compacted drift dunes between and along the sides, I navigated around the ice for the most part but the transitions were abrupt -- it was worth it
Leaving and heading out for Sugar
So got to Sugar at 1:00 and had a good half day, it was was crowded enough to be thoroughly tracked but no real lift lines.
Speaking of liftlines, it makes me feel old, I don't expect to do that again
The top three were good, Whoop being the funnest but the stuff right of Tom Terrific is always a cool duck in and I found a fun but short pocket of trees I didn't know about. Random mix of that side:
It was a good day -- I'm still hoping not my last of the season.
Hit it tomorrow early if you can I bet it will be a spectacular morning
Of course the logs in the van loaded the night before for added weight helped. I used to use buckets of rocks, then I got to thinking that in a wreck I would be in an enclosed space w/ 500# of rocks flying around
It was pretty quiet, surprising lack of crowds
The skin-up took me about 40 min, I was able to stay on thin cover on top of ice so I was rarely breaking trail. I love my set up, if I were in good shape I could really fly up. My camera ran out of battery (oh the irony, hoisted on my own petard) on my first ascent so I have no in-between pics just at the top, I warmed it up to milk these three pictures out of it before it completely died -- visibility actually deteriorated after this anyway
Patrol, I left a couple of mini refreshments (not the sort that can freeze) on your threshold for when one of you gets up there next
General impression -- I was a little spooked, it was so deserted and white-out windy (although bizarrelly a groomer went by next run over at one point, I swear he waved to me before I got swallowed up in a windstorm) It was long patches of ice with huge heavily compacted drift dunes between and along the sides, I navigated around the ice for the most part but the transitions were abrupt -- it was worth it
Leaving and heading out for Sugar
So got to Sugar at 1:00 and had a good half day, it was was crowded enough to be thoroughly tracked but no real lift lines.
Speaking of liftlines, it makes me feel old, I don't expect to do that again
The top three were good, Whoop being the funnest but the stuff right of Tom Terrific is always a cool duck in and I found a fun but short pocket of trees I didn't know about. Random mix of that side:
It was a good day -- I'm still hoping not my last of the season.
Hit it tomorrow early if you can I bet it will be a spectacular morning
Nice late March snow