Day 6, Vermont Ski Trip

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January 7th, 2009

Today was our last day skiing. With my calves nearly non-functional, and Jess' knee partially swollen, we started our day off with two bowls of medicine cabinet salad and decided to take it easy on the mountain today. Both of these "injuries" proved more-or-less harmless, as my calves were rendered unnecessary by the height of the ski boots (as anyone who has skied will agree, you can't really use your calves for skiing), and the swelling around Jess' knee actually helped to hold it in place. (quick note of excited personla accomplishment from Jess: "I got both my boots on all by myself today!)


When we arrived at the mountain, we elected to spend the majority of our day on Spruce peak, Mansfield's sister-summit, so to speak. It is smaller, but still challenging. When we purchased our lift tickets, because the agent we worked through listed us as members of a group, we were provided with free passes for a quick tuneup at their repair shop. We took our skis to the shop for a grind, sharpening, and wax, while we headed upstairs to grab two humongous mugs of tea. I'm not kidding, a child's head could have fit in these mugs.


Once our skis were ready, we got on the lift. When we got off the lift, I was reminded how big a difference wax can make, especially when it's been a while since you've had fresh. My skis felt like they had little engines on them, as I effortlessly glided across what I previously thought was perfectly level terrain. I should mention that it had been snowing here all night, so for the first time we were introduced to skiing on fresh powder. We only started skiing around 10, but since Spruce is smaller and less intimidating, it is also less popular and therefore less tracked out. Powder skiing was a very different experience for both of us. I was surprised by how different it is, and how it seemed that, for myself anyways, you really needed to have some momentum to keep moving when you got into it. For Jess, the piles of powder that had been shoved around were a bit of a confidence shaker, as she caterpillar-ed over many of them as she practices turning. Otherwise, our final day of skiing passed with few surprises. We wanted to take it easy, so we did.


Towards the end of the day, we decided we should take one last run down from the summit, to bid farewell to Mt. Mansfield. This sojourn had, well, mixed results. It had been flurrying on-and-off all day, and that precluded the summit from sight, so we had no real idea what conditions were like up there, only a sign saying that the summit temperature was 3 degrees. So we got on the quad lift and took a ride, only to discover that at the frost line, the gentle flurries turned to rather a rather aggressive downfall of freezing rain. Couple that with the 20mph sustained winds we encountered when we got off the lift, and it certainly felt like the forces of nature had convened to make everyone on the summit feel like they were visiting an angry acupuncturist. Jess and I quickly decided to get away from the summit quickly. "Quickly" in this case meaning slowly and carefully given the wind, the precipitation, and the 10-yard visibility. I had to laugh, because these conditions were absurd. My goggles had nearly frosted over, and Jess' had too. Fortunately, we were on a trail we knew, so we weren't too worried. Once we got down in the trees, a little, the winds lessened, and we were left with just the freezing rain. Let me mention that no matter what kind of facial protection you're wearing, if any of it is made of cloth and you're skiing faster than walking speed, that freezing rain is coming right through, like it isn't even there. My face still stings, a little.


Once safely down the mountain, we both agreed on the crappiness of that run, and decided to make our last pass back on Spruce, where the conditions were more favorable. We chose a ride down our favorite trail, and it went a lot better. No gale-force winds, no ice missiles, and all the visibility one could ask for. We finished out the day with an incident-free ride, and packed up our stuff to head back to the hotel. Once we got back we both fell asleep for probably two hours, still half in our ski gear. We woke up, both surprised that we had crashed, and decided to go back to the Malt Shop for dinner, and this time we weren't leaving without ice cream! Our meals were as delicious as the first meals we had here, and the ice cream was wonderful. We came home, and Jess went right to sleep, with myself to follow shortly after.


News of our last whole day in Vermont to come soon!


Luke & Jess

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