The cold – and I mean cold – continued over the north east, making perfect conditions for the gun pows gods to deliver their targeted blizzard across the ski hills of the eastern USA. A brief but damp warmup made our first day at Mount Snow a little variable. The main run down off the wondrous Lech-like covered 6-pack chair was littered early with the frozen-off gonads of skiers past, making for a really rough, bally ride. We soon transitioned to the Carinthia zone, where gentle manicured blues, a terrain park and some ferocious snow guns gave us two fine runs to lap, and a lodge at the base to warm up in (it was -10/15C without wind chill).
The snow guns were eventually turned on to Exhibition, smothering the frozen gonads in creamy gun pow ejaculate. It wasn’t orgasmic, but it made for a pleasant end to a fun ski day. There’s lots of terrain here. What we saw seemed gentle, but I reckon it could be easily ridden for a day or two when fully open. Easily.
Not far north lies Stratton, our destination for the next two days. A $78 2 day lift ticket, progressively opening terrain, and somewhat frigid but magnificently sunny weather delivered two excellent days of skiing. The crew do an amazing job here, opening well pitched groomers that snake through the forest, providing variety and decent vertical, even with only a 1/4 of the mountain open. The ‘bear’ runs off the Ursa chair made for ripping early morning skiing on firm but highly carvable corduroy. Later, top-to-bottom runs on the excellent Upper Spruce and its various lower branches down to the village generated enough heat from burning leg muscles to stave off the cold. And with no lift lines, racking up the vert wasn’t difficult.
With luck the powder gods will soon come along and join the gun pow gods, blanketing the mountains of the east with both new and old school snow, making a season to remember. By all accounts, we’re due one. But in the meantime, gunpowmageddon will hopefully continue …
Pacific Northwest Ski blog (and a few other places!) 
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