Powder Day!!!

It snowed a foot. Let me phrase that a different way. It snowed a foot in New Hampshire. On the east coast. Whoa, I thought, a powder day on the east coast. AWESOME.

 

It was awesome – in a different sort of way. We didn’t go to a ski resort (I bet you can think of the amazing Colorado resort that I’m thinking of) and ski billowing pow until our legs fell off. We didn’t even go to a resort. Because of the high winds and the southern storm, we decided to stick near Hanover. We got to the parking lot of Mt. Cardigan and were putting the skins on our skis as another packed car showed up. With the addition of five or six alums, we skinned up, first stopping to let one guy go back and get his helmet, then stopping to fix Hannah’s ski. By the time we rounded the corner to the shelter, we knew exactly what type of day it was going to be – a complete and utter whiteout. Instead of dipping down onto the Alexandria Ski Trail, we decided to continue up the slope towards the peak. So, I don’t know if you know what happens to snow when 80mph winds compress it, but it is something like skiing through really deep cornstarch. Smooth on top and completely thick underneath. On top of the, um, interesting conditions, the 80mph winds were still going strong. The skinning went from fun, to hilarious, to chilly. At this point everyone started quoting Lord of the Rings. At the peak a huge gust came up, and it just got plain old "frostbite all over your face" scary. In a hurry, we stripped our skins, skied back to the shelter of the hut and tried to warm up. The group coming up behind us took one look at us and decided not to summit.

 

Despite the frostbite and complications, the skiing ended up making it pretty worth it. It wasn’t billowing, and it wasn’t steamboat, but it was pretty gosh darned fun.