Dateline Tuesday sometime in the early afternoon:
I had clearance to blow off work for some turns on Wednesday, so with the stoke of continuing a 3 year streak of October turns percolating, I began rounding up the gear, and packing up the car. That’s when disaster hit, my boss came home :rolleyes: She started in with the: “I know I told you could have the day off but…………….” Turns out that two other people needed some time off so they could attend their kids school Halloween functions. For a brief second I attempted to protest this gross unfairness and got as far as threatening not to show up but I got “that” look, which is the one that tells you that if you pulled a stunt like that not only, would you be sleeping on the couch for the next month, the locks would be changed and there’d be no forwarding address left for you to FIND the couch. :smile:
Bummed beyond belief, I resigned myself to the end of a nice little run, when a completely stupid idea crept into my mind. Grasping for straws, I threw it out for approval. I’d leave for Killington immediately, sleep for a few hours slope side, and get a REALLY early start and be back in time for work. To my great surprise, she actually went for it and within 15 minutes I was headed northbound and within 2 hours I was conked out slope side.
Wednesday, October 31 came FAR too early for my liking, but within 15 minutes of the alarm I was up, dressed and ready.
that would be AM, not PM :roll:
Not surprisingly for that early hour of the morning, it was dark and I remember thinking to myself, “this has gone beyond the bounds of ANYTHING resembling sanity.” But despite a strong urge to climb back into my warm sleeping bag I pressed on into the blackness with only a headlamp and my rapidly declining brain cells to guide me. I must have been quite a sight heading up the mountain as I tried to find my route up the hill while avoiding multiple, invisible water bars and other assorted knee wrenching pratfalls.
I’m sure that it must have been quite entertaining, but alas every other SANE person was sleeping. Finally after 45 minutes of the blind leading the brainless, I managed to successfully navigate myself to the base of the glades triple.
It was at that moment when the clouds broke and the stars and moonlight illuminated one of the most wonderful sights that I have ever seen. Looking uphill, a luminescent carpet of snow leapt out of the inky mire of mud and grass, resplendent in a silver glow. I tried every possible camera setting I could in an attempt to capture the shear beauty of this sliver road leading on into what appeared to be black oblivion, but alas it was to be a treat for my eyes only. I had planned on waiting until dawns light to attempt a run, figuring the snow would be the typical ankle breaking, grabby, Styrofoam that is a trademark of early season man made snow. But, drawn in by its moonlit radiance I decided to investigate the feasibility of attempting a moonlit, headlamp assisted decent. Upon reaching the fringes of the snowfield and poking around the snow, I elected to give it a shot. I used the lift tower to give me a visual cue as to where the snow changed over from solid snowpack to thin cover over grass. I dropped the skis off the pack and clicked in and begun skinning up.
I’ve read many accounts of hardcore ski mountaineers talking about the wave of relief that sweeps over them once they put their skis on. While my little escapade was in no way comparable to anything on the scale of hardcore mountaineering, a ripple of confidence and security washed over me. It was if finally my body told my brain, stop worrying, the hard part is over, you know what to do now.
Far from grabby crust, the snow underfoot had a hard icy consistency, and I almost wished I had brought ski crampons along for extra bite. I debated with the idea of switching back over to boots, but continued with skins as I was making fairly good progress and after 15 minutes I arrived at the terminus of the Glades triple. Turning around I peered down the slope following the beam of my headlamp for about 15 feet until it became lost in the darkness, I thought in my head, “yeah, this will work”.
Skins pulled and stowed, I made one exploratory half turn, as a test of the snow and my skills, much to my delight, I did not forget how to ski over the summer :smile: I re-adjusted the beam of light and linked 2 turns together, stopped and smiled as I took in the scene around me, the canopy of stars overhead was all the audience I would need. I jumped back into the fall line and progressed further down, but this time instead of a smooth glasslike surface underneath me, I ventured too close to the edge of the trail and ran into a maze of crusts, death cookies, and frozen chicken heads. Reminding myself to be more careful I kick turned towards the middle, and dropped back in to the intoxicating rush of toying with gravity. While moving, my world consisted of my ski tips, a 3 foot dot of light, and my downhill pole, and I was constantly reminding myself that those were the only things in the world that mattered.
chasing the dot
Any negligence in my attention to any of those three, had the potential to be more costly then I dared imagine. Every once in a while I would stop and soak in the absolute magnificence of the mountains at night. As always seems to be the case, I ran out of snow and time, and rather then spoil the memory of the shear magnificence experienced on the first run with a hasty, and truncated second, I came to a decision that I’d just head back down a little earlier then planned.
In hindsight this was probably the best choice I made, as I decided to return to the base via Great Northern instead of attempting to make my way down a steeper slope. Even on GN, the walk down in the darkness could only be described as treacherous at best and precarious at its worst. Ed Viesturs, always has said that mountaineering isn’t a one way trip, and just for this once I REALLY wished it was.
I arrived back at the car with plenty of time to spare though, and for my effort, and ability for once to actually come in before my drop dead time, I treated myself to a breakfast burrito at Killington Deli, which as it turns out made my late for work :smile:
But the streak of October turns lives on :smile:
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