Real Eastern Skiing

January 27th was roll back the clock day at Mad River Glen, so tickets were $3.50, the same as the day they opened in 1939. I've wanted to ski this mountain for a long time, so Dad and I headed up to northern Vermont, finding some excellent coffee and doughnuts at a village store along the way. Mad River is an old fashioned ski area that doesn't believe in things like high speed lifts, wide trails, or snowboarding. It also happens to be owned by a co-op (oh, Vermont). Several skiers had got into the spirit of roll back the clock day by showing up in leather ski boots and wool jackets.

We rode up the legendary single chairlift (that's right, one skiier per chair). And at the top: Many steep, twisty, mogul covered black diamonds, with one lone blue trail. It was brilliant.


To get to a few trails, I had to sidestep up a hill and traverse along a ridge, where you could see up to Mt. Mansfield and over Lake Champlain to New York and the Adirondacks. Mad River's slogan is "ski it if you can, " and a day spent navigating moguls and dodging trees and exposed rocks, and landing face first in the snow several times, proved this a fitting motto. Altogether a excellent mountain, although true to New England conditions there were some icy and bare patches.
Typically, the next day we got a foot of snow that would have covered up the bare patches. Since I wasn't at a ski mountain, I decided to hike up a logging road on a hill near home. I'd skied it before, and thought the foot of snow would have improved things. This turned out to be a mistake - the foot of snow was not fluffy powder but heavy wet stuff, and I kept getting stuck. On the roads numerous flat spots, I had to walk with my skis still on, which is just not an efficient way of getting anywhere quickly. It is a lovely ski run when the snowmobiles have packed the snow down though....