Pour Some Sugarbush On Me

On Monday morning, Buddha, Kent, Vrettacos, and I left the hotel at 6am in order to get to Sugarbush right as the ski shop opened at 7:30. We anticipated that there would be a fairly good crowd at the mountain because of the holiday weekend (Presidents' Day). We made excellent time, and arrived at just after 7am. Parking was not a problem at all, and we parked right up front. When we exited the car to head over to the ski shop, we were immediately blasted with arctic air that seemed to cut right though all the clothing we had on. Now, the pond the day before had been right chilly, but this frigid gale-force wind was painful. Nevertheless, we rented our gear, and headed out. The resort at this time almost seemed deserted, and we had no wait at all when we got in line for the lift. On the ride up, we once again were treated to the wrath of the mountain wind, as it threatened to freeze us to the chair lift. When we finally got off the lift and were able to get moving, we warmed up some - except for our faces, which were numb by the time we reached the bottom of the run. The skiing however, was really good, and this resort is fantastic. Kent, Vrettacos, and I did take a time out to get something to cover our chins and nose, then were right back on the slope.

Warming up at Allyn's Lodge on the mountain

The night before, Vrettacos suggested we wear our hockey jerseys over our ski clothes, and, in addition to offering some further protection against the cold, it also made it really easy for us to keep track of each other. And and as added bonus, we received a lot of comments - something I've come to expect when traveling with this group.

As anyone who has been skiing knows, there is one moment during the trip where, standing at the top of a run you probably have no business even looking at, you say, "What the heck". My personal opinion is that the combination of cold weather and constrictive nature of head garments leads to reduced blood flow to the brain, inducing an state of euphoria causing the individual to experience feelings of invincibility and instilling delusions of grandeur. It was around 11am that we fell victim to this condition. Standing at the top of a run called "Stein's Run", I remember uttering the words, "Well, see you at the bottom, boys", and I headed down. Now Stein's Run is technically a double black, but it really didn't seem that bad. No moguls, no severe cliff-like dropoffs. What it did have is a very steep grade, and ice. Lots of ice. Ice deceptively disguised under a nice looking, but very thin layer of powder. It was maybe about a third of the way down that I fell victim to a long patch of this ice. Now, being the experienced skier that I am, when I knew I was losing control, I did the smart thing and laid back down into the mountain, which is much preferable to going over high-side. Everything was going according to plan, except that I didn't stop. I kept going downhill, picking up speed, despite the fact that I was laying on my side, skis downhill, breaking as hard as I could. About the time I was thinking "this isn't good", my ski tip caught a small patch of powder, spinning me 180 degrees. I was continuing in my previous path, only now, head-first. As the trees were whipping by me at about 100 miles per hour, I remember thinking, "this is really not good". Luckily, I finally came to rest in a pile of powder that was located at the end of the strip of ice. Snow filled every open pocket and flap on my person, but, hey, I was not moving any more. Okay, so here comes the best part. As I'm laying there trying to figure out how to stand up, some little 10 year old kid snowboards over and asks, "Are you okay, mister?". I tried to hit him with my ski pole (I miraculously managed to retain all of my equipment affixed in the proper place) but he was out of range.

The rest of the run was fabulous. The snow was much better on the second half of the run, probably because all the powder had slid down there off the top half. I figured the rest of the boys would be down soon. They weren't. I kept scanning the slopes for signs of a snowmobile headed up with a stretcher, but saw nothing. After about twenty minutes, I finally spotted them on the way down. Apparently, being reluctant to follow my stupid a** down Stein's Run, they opted for the cutoff trail labeled "easiest". I believe someone was playing a cruel hoax, because Buddha affirmed that it was definitely not easy. They were briefly in the woods, dodging Vermont's fine sampling of hardwoods and evergreens, then were dumped out onto a trail just below the lift with some mild moguls. Well, mild moguls covered in ice. As they navigated their way through, Buddha had a similar experience to my wild ride, although he had the fortune of having a kindly tree stop his progress. Once he collected his gear and hiked back out of the woods, the group continued down to find me waiting at the bottom.
One good thing did result from my extended wait for the guys at the bottom. OS and his crew found me. We decided it was a good time to break for lunch, trying to beat the crowd. Having satisfied our need for sustenance, and having shaken out all the snow from my camera bag, we put all the warm stuff back on and set out to shred some more (that's young, cool talk for skiing or snowboarding well). The runs, though still passable even late into the afternoon, were steadily growing more icy and tricky. Also, five games of pond hockey in three days was beginning to show in our tired legs, and we were all happy to climb back in the car to head back to Burlington as the sun set behind the mountain.

The sign in the bathroom at Allyn's Lodge. They are very green, here in VT.

Once we got back, we enjoyed a quiet dinner at the hotel bar before turning in. Buddha will head out early in the morning with his dad. They have plans on visiting some family/friends in the next few days as they make their way back to NC. Kent, Vrettacos, and I have a 11:40am flight out of Burlington, connecting through New York on our way back to Charlotte. If all goes well, we should be back in NC around 5:30pm.