Ride Delaware ?

There will be lots of water park stoke this summer...

Messed up the other ankle last season, but that was everything including the Achilles. This time was just the outer ligaments on the ball of the ankle. I was hopping over a ghetto hand dug drainage ditch and my foot sank into the soft ground on the other side and it twisted.

I'll be back next year. I'm still here right now, but my season is winding down. I sprained my ankle this past weekend in a non riding accident and I'm trying to let it heal a bit.

The last 2 years have been earlier than that. Last year was the 14th with a bonus weekend not announced until Friday with one lift only operating. They have already shut down the side portions of the mountain and are keeping open the core. I had initially heard the 28th, but perhaps the weather has caused them to rethink.

It's been a tough year for deaths this season in the Northeast. I believe that is number 4? Mt. Ellen, Killington, Stowe, and Gore? Sorry to hear of a loss, especially of someone so young. Live everyday like it's your last and live life to the fullest.

You can get an industry hookup sometimes, but you never know what you'll get from mountain to mountain. Sometimes it's just easier to get a discount card and not worry about the hassle.

After an amazing spring day yesterday at Gore, I really wanted to keep the party rolling. Unfortunately, temps today were forecasted much lower than yesterday, and I was fairly certain that the top of Sugarbush would still be quite firm. Since I had the Fox 44 discount card, it included a day at Middlebury, and Middlebury has a lower base elevation, I figured I would give it a shot. Since temps dipped into the lower 20's last night and I knew Middlebury was a smaller mountain, I decided to give it some time to soften up and left the condo around 11. The GPS estimated a 41 minute drive, but I ended up making it in about 35. After driving VT 17 yesterday and VT 125 today, I am convinced that they may be the shittiest roads I have ever driven on. There were hardly 30 cars in the lot, and I'm convinced that half of those were employees. I was able to boot up, grab my lift ticket, and make it to the lift by noon. The thermometer read just above freezing and there were still plenty of clouds covering the sun. Middlebury is the first place outside of Plattekill that has ever questioned and required a leash. They even tried to make me sound like I was the weird one for not having one. Luckily I keep one in my pocket, but that's a total pain in the ass. I rode the main lift that services the full 1,000 ft vertical. The backside lift with 7-8 trails was closed for the season. There were 3 main runs off there, Proctor, Ross, and Allen's. They seem to only groom a trail every other day in the spring, so Proctor was pretty firm to start while Ross and Allen's, which are both diamonds, were super smooth. I was impressed with the pitch and headwalls. All 3 of those t2b trails were real fun and had some nice looking glades off the sides. Around 12:45 I decided to go over to the beginner double and check out the trails there even though the runs are very short. 12:45 also seemed to coincide with the disappearance of the cloud cover, and things started softening quickly. All the trails off the double have thinned trees between them that made for some fun little tree runs. Coverage is still prime in there and I witnessed 0 thin spots or obstacles. After about an hour I decided to head back to the triple to hit those runs again now that they had received some sun. They were phenomenal. The groomed runs were so smooth and buttery that you could rip them with almost no fear of catching an edge. It was so much fun to quick carve and really dig an edge in. Proctor still had some firm spots where the sun couldn't get through the trees, but it was much more enjoyable than it had been first thing. Overall, I had a great time. I really like these smaller change of pace places. Middlebury has a small but modern lodge that seems to be built to handle the crowds that would come with the amount of parking they have, which surprisingly was very little. The staff was friendly and crowds were non existent. I know I get crap for not taking any action photos, but there wasn't anybody to take pictures of. I would really like to get there during mid season to try out the backside of the mountain, but that didn't make the day any worse. They have already posted that this weekend is their last, and it is definitely because of a lack of crowds. They have enough snow to last another couple weeks. The mountain also has a bunch of fun looking glades and seems to be very mellow in off trail policy/closed trail enforcement. They also have a very unique mid mountain snowmaking pond to go along with their traditionally placed pond at the base of the mountain. The drive was easy and worth it. Put another great spring day in the books.

I haven't been to Whiteface, but both times I have been to Gore I have thoroughly enjoyed it. It has a weird lift layout since the mountain was developed in pods with no master plan, but the terrain and trees are pretty enjoyable. The Whites may be the prettiest mountain range in the Northeast. The presidential a are tough to beat, and mountains like Loon and Cannon offer some decent skiing. Cannon is more of a skiers mountain while Loon is definitely more for the newbies.

There is every bit as much beauty, even if it is different in it's makeup.

The Berkshires are small. They don't do much for me. I've been to Jiminy and it was ok. Nothing to write home about.

I could go for that. The mountains of NY, VT, NH, and ME are all so similar in their beauty and yet so different. I feel at home whenever I'm at any of them.

Relax Douglas Bubbletrousers. It's not worth getting worked up over and posting a vblog on it...

I knew people would say it wasn't in New England. All these regional lines are ridiculous. I think everything north of Albany in New York is New England. Whether that's true or not, I don't know and frankly don't care. I'm sure I can find an old province settled by the English somewhere up there to make my point.

When the season started and I made the move to Sugarbush, I had some pretty ambitious plans. My training took significantly longer than I expected so my ambitious plans to check out a bunch of new mountains were put on hold. A fraternity brother of mine has off every Wednesday, and with nothing open midweek in PA, we were looking for a place somewhere between us to get some midweek riding in. I had bought a Fox 44 discount card that had a day to Gore on it, so we decided to head there. I hadn't been to Gore since 2006, which was before they added Burnt Ridge and the North Creek Ski Bowl was rebuilt. I left the Bush after an afternoon session and made it to North Creek in about 2 hours and 20 minutes. We ended up staying at Heads in Beds which is a little hostel style setup a family made above their house. For $35 a head it was clean, affordable, and close. We woke up early, went into town to score a breakfast sandwich, and booted up in the parking lot by 9:30. It was in the mid 30s with a decent retiree crowd on hand. We stepped on the Gondola at 9:45 and headed directly to Twister which is what I consider to be one of the best cruisers in New England. It was firm up top and softened up about halfway down. It was clear that they had groomed yesterday right after closing instead of the morning shift because the cord was very firm. Once the snow softened halfway down, the snow was super soft and fast. Lots of fun. We went back up the gondola and headed over to the High Peaks chair for a couple laps while trying to find our way to the North Quad to get to Burnt Ridge. We eventually found the North Quad and the connector to Burnt Ridge, but the connector was closed. The only route down to Burnt Ridge was the traverse at the bottom off Twister. Unfortunately, the sun had come out, the temperature was rising, and the snow was softening quickly. The traverse was fairly flat and with the snow getting sticky, some pushing was required. It would have been easy during mid winter, but it was just too slow. Because of the shade, most of the glades were closed, so that only left two available runs off the Burnt Ridge Quad, one of which is the trail back to the main base area. We had to avoid some poor drainage to get on the lift, but we lapped Sagamore, the main trail under lift. The snow was soft all over the mountain by this point, and it was no exception. Sagamore is steep and mad technical with lots of fun rollers. After two runs down Sagamore we hit Echo, the connector back. It was pretty much straight down the fall line with some really good steeps. We eventually made it to the Straight Brook Quad to take some runs down Chatiemac, Hawkeye, and Cloud. The snow was starting to clump up and had made the transition from sweet and low into corn. It was the busiest lift of the day, so after several runs we headed behind the lift to the Topridge Triple. We loaded and after about 10 more chairs the lift stopped. After about 25 minutes they were able to get the diesel backup running, but it runs at about 1/5 the original speed, so it took another 25 minutes to unload. The lift wouldn't run the rest of the day. We had gotten a good rest on the lift, but we wanted a little relaxation, so we headed to the parking to to drink a brew before heading back out at 2:45. We rode until closing bell. My legs were shot. We loaded up and headed out at 4:20. It was 51 degrees at the base. Overall, it was a great day. It was great to finally get back there after being away so long. Its definitely a great mountain and the spring conditions didn't hurt. The lift setup is a little wild, and I was bummed that the trees were still too firm, but I'll definitely try to get back there next year midseason. Its worth the trip.

If you ever need any insider tips, hit me up. Outside of Jordan, the best variety of terrain, size, and lifts is Barker. On the weekends South Ridge and Barker will be mad houses. Whitecap has some good woods terrain, but the trails are so so. SR has phenomenal woods all over. It's incredible that it's taken them this long to clear them. The pitch and underlying growth is perfect. It would be a tree skiing mecca if it got the snow VT or even Sugarloaf got. On the weekends I stick to Whitecap, Aurora, and Spruce because the crowds all prefer the high speeds. It definitely has lots of spread out traversing, but I loved it there. Glad to hear you feel similarly.

It's either Plattekill or the now defunct Bobcat. There's nothing due west other than those. Hunter and Windham are pretty much due north. My guess would be on Platty, another awesome spring locale and vibe. Lots of bumps there as well.

Mad sweet and low up here today. Corn harvest should begin soon. Great spring day in the Northeast.

Because they are greener? Riding is riding. Glad Bell is delivering.

No stoke stomp. I really enjoy the place. It would just be tough to put in 100+ days there. Trees are fun and the deck there is a great place to lean back and enjoy a beer.

I couldn't spend a whole season at Bell, but it's never disappointed me. I like the vibe there and have had two or three fantastic spring days there. Enjoy!!!

There was some miscommunication there and I take the blame for that. However, I was there and was out free riding. I would have loved to have met up. I have tried to get up with Moe several times already this season. It just hasn't worked out.

That's true. I was just referring to the fact that the last couple of years none of those had been open this week midweek either. I think it was just Bell. After that it was either SoVT or the ADKs.

Either that or a PM will work. I'll shoot you a PM tomorrow just in case.

I was going to hit Jay, but I had a migraine last night and decided not to hit it. I took my time and got out for some afternoon turns. Everything above the HSQs was rock solid so I stayed low and hit some switch runs. It was starting to firm up so I called it a day. Tomorrow is definitely going to be Smuggs followed by Gore on Wednesday.