After a week full of work and success at kicking a nagging cold, the Skimeister and I headed over to Smugglers’ Notch Resort for part of the day today. We weren't alone; quite a few families and groups of friends also got outside to enjoy the day. The base lodge was bustling but luckily you couldn't tell in the lift lines. We nearly skied right up to the lifts.
A few of our favorite runs on Madonna Mountain included Lower Drifter (we got off at the mid-station), which had been groomed during the midday. We were among the first to mess up the fresh corduroy and they were some of the best turns of the day.
After making some challenging turns on the hard-packed Upper FIS, we ducked into lower Doc Dempsey's to enjoy the softer natural snow among the trees. We always like this trail. We also tested the natural snow on Ruthie’s, but found that the recent ups-and-downs in the temperatures had made a lot of icy spots to avoid. We headed back to trails that had snowmaking bases and enjoyed McPherson’s and Father Bob’s.
We zipped over to the Sterling Mountain double chair (not much skating needed as the snow was rather fast) and we had fun on one of our favorite runs: Harvey’s Hideaway and then up and over to Full Nelson. We found the best snow on the sides of these steeper trails.
We enjoyed some nice views from the summits today, even though sometimes small snowflakes were falling. It was winter up in the mountains while back at home at lower elevations, the sun was out and ice was melting off our lawn and walkway.
