2nd Best Day of Season (by Kevin)

The Snow Gods have been very favorable for sure these last couple of days. A melt down in the Valley region did not cause any problems with higher elevation snow. The mountains have been getting an inch or two of fresh snow every night since last Wednesday's big storm. It has kept the mountain fresh and the woods very deep.

Saturday I headed back off to Sugarbush to try to find some more powder stashes three days after the big storm. I was skeptical that I was going to find anything being so many days removed from the Powda Day. None the less I was off; determined to find something. On my way down I made plans to hook up with Mike Weston, or Westy as his friends call him. He happened to be in the lodge when I arrived sitting with his friend Tom and John Egan. John Egan is an old school extreme skier and probably one of the best skiers I have every skied with before. I have had the chance a couple of times to ski with him on First Track days but this was going to be a totally different experience to say the least. By the time I arrived at the mountain Mike and Tom had hooked up with Egan and made arrangements to ski / take a lesson with him for about 3 to 4 hours.



We saddled up and headed up the mountain. I have not taken a ski lesson since I was little but after a day with John it was way over due. Just the initial ride up the chair I learned something new and I knew this was going to be a great day learning new techniques for the steeps, deeps and bumps. We started off on some moderate steeps learning some new step turning techniques and attacking the down hill slope. We then ventured into the deep woods and I skied areas of the mountain that I did not know existed. I have been skiing Sugarbush since I was 4 yrs old and he took us into some terrain that was amazing.



I found new hot spots for steep and deep skiing and John lead us to untracked 52" deep snow three days after the storm. It was fabulous. I had not skied that hard in a long time and it was great to get a refresher on some things that needed tweaking and fine tuning. I feel as if I regained an edge that I had lost in my skiing. I found a new sense of control and aggressiveness that maybe was put away in the closet since Sapphire was born.



So I would recommend spending some time and brushing up on areas of your life that may need a tune up. You are never too old to learn.

John Egan and I in the backcountry off of Castlerock, First Tracks await ahead of us. Don't ask me how to get there because I wont tell you. Yes that is a shit eating grin on my face. There were open tracks of runway between these covered pines that allowed for great deep turns in the snow. It was amazing. Not another person around for miles.
Beautiful Flora and Fauna covered under 52 inches of fresh snow