We received about 3″ of semi sticky snow on the picnic table with Jay reporting 7″ , Smuggs 4″, and Stowe 2″, but I couldn’t motivate myself to drive anywhere this morning so I stepped out on the porch and into my backcountry telemark skis for some exploring… It started out pleasant enough (32F), but as the temperature kept rising (36F), I found myself stick-slipping more than sliding, so instead of looking for more fun turns, I decided to follow wildlife tracks, and check what was happening in the deep woods.
While meandering from tree to tree to clean off the sticky snow from my bases, I came across deer tracks, deer feeding spots, deer poop, deer beds and finally, I saw about 8 -10 deer running down one of my favorite lines and flashing their little white tails at me while trashing my powder stash… but it’s not powder today, so they can have it!
Watching them made me wish I could move through the forest like a deer.
In the short span of a couple of hours, the snow conditions changed from powdery to silky to sticky, and I came back home with about 6″ of snow stuck to my skis and decided that this day was going to be best spent doing other things than skiing. So I decided to watch a ski movie while enjoying a frosty beverage.
Manon Belzile 