Last day of vacation! I woke up early after a night of a lot of wine, but I was determined to get one more day of skiing in before I had to snap back to reality. I made it to Catamount around 8:15 - lifts were scheduled to open at 8:30, but people were already heading up - apparently it was a big ski race day. The parking lot was busier than I was ready for, but besides the lodge, crowds were nonexistant. Tragically, I dropped my Indy Pass somewhere in the parking lot and still have not found it, but thankfully the fail-safe is that you can redeem an Indy with just a license, so I was all set. I booted up at the car, and soon enough was on the Ridge Quad for my first run of the day!
Run 1: Ridge-Run - Upper Promenade - Lower Promenade - Homeward Bound
1.48 miles, 6:58, 1,047 feet, 29.6 mph max, 12.8 mph avg.
Starting off with something I know! I spent the majority of Ridge-Run questioning if I had ever skied before in my life, but eventually settled into it. I've noticed that I start every day sitting back in my heels, which is a habit I need to break. All was smooth sailing for this run, minus hitting the ski school crowd at the end of Homeward Bound, which caused me to stop and have to skate back to the lift.
Run 2: Ridge-Run - Upper Promenade - Upper Bobcat - Lower Promenade - Homeward Bound
1.38 miles, 5:06, 1,017 feet, 31.4 mph max, 16.2 mph avg.
I was feeling good after hitting the Ridge-Run for the second time, so in order to spice things up I hit Upper Bobcat on the later descent, which was quick and just a bit steeper, a nice way to dip my toes in.
Run 3: Catamount
0.34 miles, 1:28, 397 feet, 23.8 mph max, 14 mph avg.
Instead of skating all the way back to the Ridge Quad, I side-stepped up to the shorter Catamount Quad. I ALMOST made it before the little kid ski team, but they beat me. After the parade of children were up, the lifties jokingly (I hope) asked if I wanted help putting the bar down or if they should slow the lift down for me - I took it as "haha you know what you were doing poor guy got caught behind the kids" - but in hindsight, I guess they might have been able to see right through me! Either way, I took Catamount down which was super wide, and according to Strava, pretty steep (by my standards). I enjoyed being able to take big turns and the snow was super soft here.
Run 4: Ridge-Run - Upper Promenade - Mountain View - Holiday
1.25 miles, 5:02, 1,017 feet, 32.2 mph max, 15 mph avg.
Okay back up the Ridge Quad, I decided to play with some new trails once I hit the top of the Meadows Triple. I turned onto the, unfortunately, shaded Mountain View, which was pretty slick, which then merged onto Holiday, which was pretty rough. Lots of frozen chunks of hard snow/ice made for an interesting experience. I did not enjoy it much. Did not go back.
Run 5: Upper Sidewinder - Lower Sidewinder
1.27 miles, 8:10, 1,066 feet, 28.9 mph max, 9.3 mph avg.
Now back to one we know! The upper area of the Ridge Quad was starting to get busy as the ski racing was starting up, but crowds thinned out at The Chute. Sidewinder was in good shape with a few icy spots. Today was definitely a busier day than Thursday, so I did get caught behind people relatively frequently, but nothing too frustrating. I also had to pay attention to all of the parents hiking uphill to watch the race up top. Data for this one is a little wonky becuase I walked to the car to grab my mittens - it was chilly!
Run 6: Upper Sidewinder - Lower Sidewinder
1.11 miles, 4:10, 1,040 feet, 28.5 mph max, 15.9 mph avg.
Another round on this run! I rode the chair with a group I decided to call "the misfits" - two NYC-ers and one local who had been on the slopes since 7:30am (he "knows a guy"), and me. The three of them started chit-chatting, but I minded my own business. Apparently there's a few ski shuttles that run out of the city to Catamount, Belleayre, and another mountain... maybe Hunter? Either way, he said it was about $150 for bus and lift, which really isn't that bad if you need to escape the city. The run was status quo, yay!
Run 7: Upper Sidewinder - Shawenon
0.78 miles, 3:06, 981 feet, 35.6 mph max, 15 mph avg.
OH BOY. Okay, so the Glade Triple was up and running now, which was nice becuase I could go back to not sitting with people. I decided I would tackle Shawenon again, now that I know how steep it is, and my goal would be to ski it with more control this time. I was achieving that mission up until the headwall... when I started going down I quickly learned that it was basically a sheet of ice. I did NOT fall, I DID cry, and at one point I had the "stomach drop" feeling that you get on a rollercoaster. Terrifying. There were also a few people on the trail who had fallen, which added to the stress. Eventually, I was able to slow down and pull myself together. Yikes. Maybe next year I'll get it!
Run 8: Upper Sidewinder - Lower Sidewinder - Fisher's Fluke - Lower Sidewinder
0.98 miles, 3:42, 974 feet, 24.1 mph max, 15.9 mph avg.
Officially on the other side of that pseudo-disaster, I still wanted something new, but I was not about to head down the ice luge again. I went for the Sidewinder, but with the Fisher's Fluke short-cute, which was lovely! A little steeper than Sidewinder, but short. I rode this all the way down, took the skis off, went on one last hunt for my missing Indy Pass, did not succeed, and started my long journey home.
Total stats: 8.59 miles, 37:11 moving, 7,536 feet, 29.3mph average max, 14.3 average moving.
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