I went skiing!
I went skiing without a car, and it was great!
I keep finding more things to love about Boston, and about this particular location in Boston where I live. The fact that I can roll out of bed and walk 5 minutes to get to the commuter rail station that will take me to somewhere to ski is so great! Also, skiing when it's 60 degrees outside is niiiiice. There was tons of snow thanks to the recent storm, and it had the texture of mashed potatoes.
Trail review:
Started on Ralph's Run kept wondering where the slope was. "Green/blue" Yeah, not really. Easy green by the Maine standards that I'm used to.
Hitchcock, NASTAR course, Challenger. "blue?!" Still green.
Tried the other lift, took a go at Conifer Connection first (blue/black) and I liked it. My goal was to learn how to ski moguls, and there were some nice lumpy patches with decent slope (just perfect for me). I suspect that these were moguls from not being groomed rather than moguls from mounds of dirt, but they got bigger and bigger as the day progressed, and it was fun. The snow was very heavy, and skiing this was the most work of any of the trails.
Since I could see 10th mountain trail (black) from the lift, and it didn't look that bad, I decided to try it. The trails at Wachusett are strange, in that they start off flat, and then hit slopier bits as you get farther down the mountain. It is very strange to see a sign for a black that looks more like a bunny slope. I think I skiied 10th mountain more than any other trail (with Confer Connection a close second). It was lovely and wonderful except for the steep part with the big moguls, which was hard. The trail had two sides, one with really big man-made moguls, and the other with wider, shorter, softer moguls. Needless to say, I wiped out a lot going down there, and most of the wipeoutage was psychological. I saw lumpy things and was like OMG going too fast and I can't slow down as much as I want because I have to make the next turn and keep going. So I often fell over instead, even though I CAN turn where/when I want to (often, I turned too soon rather than too late). Interesting, because I could do the less steep moguls much better. It was amusing how my brain worked, on the lift going up, I'd look at it and go "I can do this, I just did this, let's do it again" then I get to the top of the lift and turn to that trail and think "What did I just do, I remember how hard it was last time" and then progressing to "let's get down without falling this time!" (which I did at least 2-3 times). After that one part, the rest of the trail was so nice, and I really enjoyed it, so that was what I remembered most at the end of each run. There was part with moguls that wasn't as slippery/icy, and the moguls were forgiving, and I had fun with it.
Smith Walton was the other black trail and it was steep and lumpy. I only did it once, maybe I shoulda tried it again at the end of the day.
Salamander cutoff (black) really seemed no different from any of the blues, other than that it was narrower and kinda icy. It was actually refreshing to ski on ice as opposed to mashed potato snow for a bit. After our last trip to Sunday River, I'm not as afraid of ice anymore.
So whee, I skiied, from Boston, without a car, and I did every trail on the mountain, and learned a bit about moguls. The snow was really perfect for learning moguls, as it was soft and wet, so you'd go more slowly, and pretty good to fall into also. I was on the slopes for 7-8 hours, I think. I made two waffle stops, because I can't resist belgian waffles. The kind that are served hot with crunchy caramelized sugar? So yummy!
I'm thinking that I'll do this a few times next winter to get better at skiing. The choices for trails are kinda limited, because I don't want to get used to skiing on things that aren't steep, but it's a really nice day away from the city.
I keep finding more things to love about Boston, and about this particular location in Boston where I live. The fact that I can roll out of bed and walk 5 minutes to get to the commuter rail station that will take me to somewhere to ski is so great! Also, skiing when it's 60 degrees outside is niiiiice. There was tons of snow thanks to the recent storm, and it had the texture of mashed potatoes.
Trail review:
Started on Ralph's Run kept wondering where the slope was. "Green/blue" Yeah, not really. Easy green by the Maine standards that I'm used to.
Hitchcock, NASTAR course, Challenger. "blue?!" Still green.
Tried the other lift, took a go at Conifer Connection first (blue/black) and I liked it. My goal was to learn how to ski moguls, and there were some nice lumpy patches with decent slope (just perfect for me). I suspect that these were moguls from not being groomed rather than moguls from mounds of dirt, but they got bigger and bigger as the day progressed, and it was fun. The snow was very heavy, and skiing this was the most work of any of the trails.
Since I could see 10th mountain trail (black) from the lift, and it didn't look that bad, I decided to try it. The trails at Wachusett are strange, in that they start off flat, and then hit slopier bits as you get farther down the mountain. It is very strange to see a sign for a black that looks more like a bunny slope. I think I skiied 10th mountain more than any other trail (with Confer Connection a close second). It was lovely and wonderful except for the steep part with the big moguls, which was hard. The trail had two sides, one with really big man-made moguls, and the other with wider, shorter, softer moguls. Needless to say, I wiped out a lot going down there, and most of the wipeoutage was psychological. I saw lumpy things and was like OMG going too fast and I can't slow down as much as I want because I have to make the next turn and keep going. So I often fell over instead, even though I CAN turn where/when I want to (often, I turned too soon rather than too late). Interesting, because I could do the less steep moguls much better. It was amusing how my brain worked, on the lift going up, I'd look at it and go "I can do this, I just did this, let's do it again" then I get to the top of the lift and turn to that trail and think "What did I just do, I remember how hard it was last time" and then progressing to "let's get down without falling this time!" (which I did at least 2-3 times). After that one part, the rest of the trail was so nice, and I really enjoyed it, so that was what I remembered most at the end of each run. There was part with moguls that wasn't as slippery/icy, and the moguls were forgiving, and I had fun with it.
Smith Walton was the other black trail and it was steep and lumpy. I only did it once, maybe I shoulda tried it again at the end of the day.
Salamander cutoff (black) really seemed no different from any of the blues, other than that it was narrower and kinda icy. It was actually refreshing to ski on ice as opposed to mashed potato snow for a bit. After our last trip to Sunday River, I'm not as afraid of ice anymore.
So whee, I skiied, from Boston, without a car, and I did every trail on the mountain, and learned a bit about moguls. The snow was really perfect for learning moguls, as it was soft and wet, so you'd go more slowly, and pretty good to fall into also. I was on the slopes for 7-8 hours, I think. I made two waffle stops, because I can't resist belgian waffles. The kind that are served hot with crunchy caramelized sugar? So yummy!
I'm thinking that I'll do this a few times next winter to get better at skiing. The choices for trails are kinda limited, because I don't want to get used to skiing on things that aren't steep, but it's a really nice day away from the city.