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Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Apr 24, 2017
Posts
1,097
Location
Granby, CO
Time for a new adventure!
Well, I hope I'm not massively tempting fate (a la my last aborted Georgia trip back in March 2020, right as the Pandemic was declared!), but it's looking like I'm heading to North Macedonia on Wednesday after a near 2 year hiatus from running trips. These are exciting yet very nervous times. I'm keen to resume operating my overseas trips again butt I feel a lot of trepidation about heading overseas again, but I'm going to try. I really hope things go well, but there are no certainties during these current times. Financially I really needed to resume operations; not having a proper income the last 2 years have wiped out the savings and I have to start again...... it is what it is, I still have the business and I still have my health, there are many others that have been a lot less fortunate than me and I'm greatful I made it this far...... Anyway, enough of the violin playing, let's get into it.

Normally I would be heading to Japan right now, but Japan is still shut down for tourism (things were starting to open up, with business and student visas being granted and then Omicron hit and Japan shuttered their borders again) so I had to get creative and come up with some different destinations that had a better chance of being open. Later I'll be headed to Uzbekistan and then Georgia, but I'm starting in North Macedonia this time, with a couple of 10-day (6 days of cat skiing followed by a couple of days siteseeing in Skopje).

Originally I put this trip together back in 2021 but had no takers (very understandable). North Macedonia has kept their borders open this entire time during the Pandemic and the infection rate has remained pretty low. They've had 3 waves of COVID so far, with the highest daily new infection rate around 1,500 cases a day. Right now, they are sitting on a 7-day average of 360 new infections. They were starting to trend up slightly after the holidays, but yesterday came down a little to only 246 new cases. Will Omicron hit? Probably, when, I don't know. Could be this month, could be next (and that is a concern), but at least the hospitals aren't currently overwhelmed with Delta cases already, so hopefully they will be prepared for if/when it happens.

To travel to North Macedonia, overseas visitors from the US can get a visa on arrival and then the COVID restrictions for arrivals are either: a) be fully-vaccinated (not boostered) OR b) Negative PCR test (72-hours or less prior to departure)/Antigen test 48-hours or less) OR c) documented recovery from COVID in the last 45 days or less. So, still somewhat easy to enter North Macedonia. I'm double-vaxxed and boostered, so hopefully that will keep me safe from any serious symptoms of COVID.

I'm leaving Granby on Wednesday 5th and have to fight my way over Berthod Pass in heavy snow to get to Denver where I will stay overnight near the airport. Then I fly to Washington DC, then Vienna and then Skopje, arriving around 2:10pm on Friday 7th Jan. I'll stay overnight in Skopje on the 7th and then hit the road to the ski area of Popova Sapka, our base for the next 7-nights, with 6-days of cat skiing with our guests. This first group is all from the US, with most from NY state and 1 from Boulder, CO and another one from CA. I have 6 guests in the first group in a 14-person cat. Should be plenty of room. I have a second group starting on the 19th Jan.

So far Popova has been having a great season, with good conditions in early December and commencement of cat skiing a little earlier than usual. It has warmed up this week unfortunately and they have lost some snow, but hopefully we have a storm coming from the 5th onwards. Fingers crossed! This will be my first time in N. Macedonia and I'm excited to ski some powder again and be guiding (tail guiding really, plus photographer and videographer!) in some exciting looking terrain.

I'll be blogging live again, really looking forward to writing and documenting our new adventures, especially since this will be an all new trip, but thankfully with experienced local partners which makes my life a lot easier. I can't wait to meet the local people and experience their food, culture and hospitality. Please follow the adventure and I'd love to hear any questions or comments you might have. Expect plenty of photos and video's to come. I'll be there until the 30th Jan, so plenty of reports to come.

Cheers everyone, hope all goes well and here's to a return to international travel and writing about it again. Wish me luck, no doubt I will need some. Stay safe and well everyone.

- Matt
 

hollyberry

Putting on skis
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Posts
171
Location
Baltimore, MD
Time for a new adventure!
Well, I hope I'm not massively tempting fate (a la my last aborted Georgia trip back in March 2020, right as the Pandemic was declared!), but it's looking like I'm heading to North Macedonia on Wednesday after a near 2 year hiatus from running trips. These are exciting yet very nervous times. I'm keen to resume operating my overseas trips again butt I feel a lot of trepidation about heading overseas again, but I'm going to try. I really hope things go well, but there are no certainties during these current times. Financially I really needed to resume operations; not having a proper income the last 2 years have wiped out the savings and I have to start again...... it is what it is, I still have the business and I still have my health, there are many others that have been a lot less fortunate than me and I'm greatful I made it this far...... Anyway, enough of the violin playing, let's get into it.

Normally I would be heading to Japan right now, but Japan is still shut down for tourism (things were starting to open up, with business and student visas being granted and then Omicron hit and Japan shuttered their borders again) so I had to get creative and come up with some different destinations that had a better chance of being open. Later I'll be headed to Uzbekistan and then Georgia, but I'm starting in North Macedonia this time, with a couple of 10-day (6 days of cat skiing followed by a couple of days siteseeing in Skopje).

Originally I put this trip together back in 2021 but had no takers (very understandable). North Macedonia has kept their borders open this entire time during the Pandemic and the infection rate has remained pretty low. They've had 3 waves of COVID so far, with the highest daily new infection rate around 1,500 cases a day. Right now, they are sitting on a 7-day average of 360 new infections. They were starting to trend up slightly after the holidays, but yesterday came down a little to only 246 new cases. Will Omicron hit? Probably, when, I don't know. Could be this month, could be next (and that is a concern), but at least the hospitals aren't currently overwhelmed with Delta cases already, so hopefully they will be prepared for if/when it happens.

To travel to North Macedonia, overseas visitors from the US can get a visa on arrival and then the COVID restrictions for arrivals are either: a) be fully-vaccinated (not boostered) OR b) Negative PCR test (72-hours or less prior to departure)/Antigen test 48-hours or less) OR c) documented recovery from COVID in the last 45 days or less. So, still somewhat easy to enter North Macedonia. I'm double-vaxxed and boostered, so hopefully that will keep me safe from any serious symptoms of COVID.

I'm leaving Granby on Wednesday 5th and have to fight my way over Berthod Pass in heavy snow to get to Denver where I will stay overnight near the airport. Then I fly to Washington DC, then Vienna and then Skopje, arriving around 2:10pm on Friday 7th Jan. I'll stay overnight in Skopje on the 7th and then hit the road to the ski area of Popova Sapka, our base for the next 7-nights, with 6-days of cat skiing with our guests. This first group is all from the US, with most from NY state and 1 from Boulder, CO and another one from CA. I have 6 guests in the first group in a 14-person cat. Should be plenty of room. I have a second group starting on the 19th Jan.

So far Popova has been having a great season, with good conditions in early December and commencement of cat skiing a little earlier than usual. It has warmed up this week unfortunately and they have lost some snow, but hopefully we have a storm coming from the 5th onwards. Fingers crossed! This will be my first time in N. Macedonia and I'm excited to ski some powder again and be guiding (tail guiding really, plus photographer and videographer!) in some exciting looking terrain.

I'll be blogging live again, really looking forward to writing and documenting our new adventures, especially since this will be an all new trip, but thankfully with experienced local partners which makes my life a lot easier. I can't wait to meet the local people and experience their food, culture and hospitality. Please follow the adventure and I'd love to hear any questions or comments you might have. Expect plenty of photos and video's to come. I'll be there until the 30th Jan, so plenty of reports to come.

Cheers everyone, hope all goes well and here's to a return to international travel and writing about it again. Wish me luck, no doubt I will need some. Stay safe and well everyone.

- Matt
That sounds like an incredible trip! I hope you will do a trip report when you get back. I didn’t even know there was skiing in Macedonia.
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Granby, CO
5th Jan – 7th Jan – Travel Days

Exciting times! After a tough 2-year hiatus, international travel is back on the cards and I have a couple of groups heading out to North Macedonia for some cat skiing trips. I had this trip organized last winter, but had no takers, even though the North Macedonian borders stayed open the whole time. Thankfully, I have several takers for this year though and the borders stayed open, even though the Omicron variant is massively on the rise.

The first challenge was just getting to Denver from Granby during a winter storm warning, on the 5th. Thankfully I left early enough to avoid the road closures and Berthoud Pass wasn’t too bad, then fine as I got down to the I-70. I stayed the night at a hotel near the airport and then took a shuttle to DIA the next day.

I’m normally pretty careful about planning my flight schedule and like to leave plenty of time between flights, so there is no panicking, but this time I had a lot of flight changes to deal with and tight connections. The original plan was to fly Denver - Washington DC – Vienna – Skopje but then all flights from Denver to Washington DC were cancelled. They said it was due to weather, but it was more likely due to staff shortages. I spoke to a flight attendant on the first flight and he said he had a friend at Delta and they have over 6,000 staff out sick due to COVID right now. Crazy……

I was rerouted from Denver – Boston – DC – Vienna – Skopje, pretty brutal with several tight connections. My expectations were low to even be able get to Skopje and I expected to get stuck somewhere, but I managed to make it even with a few sprints to get to the next flights in Boston and DC. It wasn’t until I got to Vienna that I could actually sit and take a breath, with approx. 3-hours to kill. I got some nice breakfast at the Austrian Airlines lounge with views of a big, snow-covered mountains in the distance. I hadn’t slept on the DC – Vienna leg (7.5 hours overnight) so I was pretty tired in Vienna, but the last flight was only a quick one at about 1.5 hours and I did nod off a few times. There was only about 20 people on that flight and it was very relaxing.

I had met a couple of my guests in Vienna and they were on the same flight to Skopje. Unfortunately, one of them went on a bit of a walkabout and ended up missing that flight, but two made it and we were able to regroup in Skopje. Two more came in on a flight from Istanbul and we lost one more person to sickness just prior to the start of the trip. Hopefully he will be able to re-join us for session 2. That left us with 5 guests (1 from CO, 1 from Chicago and then the other 3 from NY).

Getting through immigration, baggage claim and customs was quick and easy. I was stoked to see my two bags arrive on the carousel, I wasn’t expecting that but very relieved to have all my gear (United’s bag tracking app only showed the bags waiting to be put on the flight to Vienna, I thought they had missed the connection as it was very tight, but there they were, awesome!). We had a driver from our hotel at the Alexander Square waiting for us (with a sign) and I was able to withdraw some cash from the ATM near the exit (dinars - $200 for 10,000 dinars in 1,000-dinar notes, about $20 a note). Then it was about a 20-minute drive to the hotel.

The Alexander Square Hotel is really nice, with big, modern rooms at a great price, English-speaking friendly staff and a great location in the center of the city. I had to wait up for our guys coming from Istanbul and help organize transport from the airport and then we had everyone together (minus our friend who ended up staying the extra night in Vienna; he had a great time in Vienna by all accounts) and had a few celebratory beers at the hotel bar to celebrate the start of the trip.
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Images from Alexander Square, statue capital of the word! A convenient 3-minute walk from our hotel in Skopje. Cool place!

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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Posts
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Granby, CO
Images from our arrival in Popova Sapka, our cat skiing base for the next 7 days....

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Thanks to Scott Silloway for a couple of these images..... skiing tomorrow from the cat!

- Matt
 

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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Granby, CO
Based on prior trips @Mattadvproject took, this thread IS the trip report, and will be updated regularly.

Will do my best. Right now, the challenge is that the wifi really slows down during peak times and downloading the photos has been a real challenge. I found it best to download the photos to Instagram, which shares to Facebook and then copy the photos from Facebook into a new, lower resolution file to then share here..... it's a bit of a pain but will try to experiment with the timing of the downloading to potentially quieter times (or will ask for access to another private wifi network that is quieter.....).
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Joined
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Posts
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Granby, CO
That sounds like an incredible trip! I hope you will do a trip report when you get back. I didn’t even know there was skiing in Macedonia.

Thanks @hollyberry will post as much as I can semi-live. I think the Balkan area has great potential. The Shar Mtns extends over the border into Kosovo, then there's good skiing in Albania too, plus Turkey (I looked at putting a trip together there, plus Kosovo) and Greece, I think it's one of the up and coming regions that I'm looking into with much interest, plus the former Soviet Republics (Uzbekistan in Feb, plus others later) have great potential too. I'm just really excited to be able to begin exploring again! Thanks for following the adventure!
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Day 2 – Sun 9th Jan

Our first cat skiing day! It had been snowing a bit during the night, but temps were pretty high, so snow was looking a little heavy and our guides told us we would be down low in the trees. When I got up, I had a great view from the ski area part of the mountain, with an amazing looking steep face accessed from an old double chair. The face had a couple of cliffs on it, definitely somewhere you would want to be careful of in poor visibility as there didn’t seem to be any ropes above. Anyway, not really a concern for us as we were not going to be in that area.

We were given strict instructions to be up by the cats by 8:45am. The cats are up behind the hotel, just a quick 1-minute walk up some stairs and in a snow-covered car park. They have at least 5 cats. Our cat seats about 12 people in 3 rows of seats, with 4 to a row. Plenty of room for only 5 guests, myself and our tail gunner (Bobo), with the driver and lead guide (Mihael) up front. The lead guide jumps out of the cat, puts the ladder down, gives a call on the radio to safe it’s safe to unload, then we scramble out one at a time (the ladder can be at different angles) and then help unload the skis as quickly as possible. The quicker we are, the more runs we can get.

We managed about 6 runs in the morning, with the clouds parting on a couple of them, to give us good visibility, at other times, we were skiing in pea soup. When we could see, we had a blast, with fun, rolling terrain and decent vert (will track vert tomorrow). I got a couple of runs that were film worth, might have to wait to share them when I get back to the US with better wifi…. The snow was nice and soft in the more sheltered aspects, but could be hard and icy where the wind had scoured it. You had to be prepared for changing and challenging snow conditions at all times. It was fine when you could see it coming, but harder when you couldn’t. The technique had to be spot in, be balanced over the outside ski and then you were ready for anything. If not, then be prepared for a crash or two!

We had lunch around 12:30pm, with a cold but very tasty lasagna, plus fruit and water/juices. We took one more lap after lunch but by 1:30pm, the guys were getting tired and the visibility was poor. It didn’t seem wise to keep skiing and potentially someone get hurt, so we called it (knowing that better conditions awaited us in the days ahead) and we still had a little more avi training. So the cat dropped us off at a nice flat spot on the way back and I set up more training.

This time we had a flatter but longer area and we finished off with timed single beacon, single rescuer practice, with skis on and gear stashed in the packs. The guys did awesome, with Scott finishing with the fastest time of 3:10 and everyone was really hitting all the main marks of the AIARE avalanche checklist. Well-done team! I don’t think we’ll be moving on to multiples as we have 3 guides to look after these guys, now we really focus on the skiing. We were done by about 3:30pm and we skied back to the hotel and had a couple of beers in the restaurant plus some tasty snacks. Then dinner at 7:30pm with more awesome Macedonian wine, plus salads and then a huge meat/roasted vege platter. As always, the company was great and the guys were really blown away by the hospitality and quality of food.

It was snowing hard in the evening so conditions should be awesome on Monday. We had a little earthquake as I was lying in bed, thankfully it was a quick one (5.2 on the Richter scale though!). The bed was definitely shaking for about 10 seconds….. exciting way to finish the day!
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Day 3 – Mon 10th Jan

The powder gods were smiling on us! The storm that had been teasing us the day before, decided to get serious and we had a temperature change overnight that delivered copious amounts of soft and dry powder. When we got up in the morning and then went outside to the cats, the snow was above our boot-tops. Sure enough, when we got to the top of the tree zone, it was almost knee deep in places and visibility was a lot better. This was going to be the day to truly show us the potential of the skiing in North Macedonia (or as we now call it, North Powdonia).

The guides delivered the goods and we had 6 quality laps in, before lunch. The terrain is really nice, with decent vert and wide-open trees, with rolling terrain. There are a few steeper sections where you could get some proper faceshots, the guys were really having a great time. We skied untouched lines each lap, despite there being another cat group out in the same zone, there was plenty to go around.

We had a nice lunch (flat, flakey pastries filled with beef and lamb) and then chocolate-filled crepes. We were well-fueled again and headed out for 5 more laps after lunch. The winds picked up around 2pm and then the more exposed aspects started getting a wind-slab and loaded. We had to be more careful around potential start zones.

As soon as we got off the ridgetops, then the snow was still nice and soft. Over 8 inches fell during the day whilst we were out skiing. An amazing day! Now we hope for a bit more snow to fill our tracks back in and then the sun will be coming out so we can look at lines up higher in the alpine zone. Can’t wait to finally see the view! Loving North Macedonia and Popova Sapka, what an absolute gem that we have found. Love it all, my expectations have been exceeded already…..

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- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Day 4 – Tue 11th Jan

It kept snowing through the night and we awoke to a refill of the snowpack. We jumped in the cat and headed up the steep initial track to our tree zone and as we got higher, we were back into the clouds and another whiteout. The track was filled in again and the cat was struggling with the amount of new snow. Unfortunately, after a lot of effort by the driver and guide, it was decided that it was too dangerous to continue if they couldn’t see anything, so we made the collective call to turn around and head back to base and hope conditions would improve. No problems…..

Thankfully by noon, visibility had indeed improved and we were able to head back out. We skied in the same lower zone as previously, but it was filled in again, so we skied 7 runs of untouched snow. We had a blast and for the first time, got a few quick views. The scenery is awesome! Up higher in the zone, the snow was definitely wind-affected but in the sheltered parts, it was still nice and soft. We skied hard for the afternoon and headed back to base, tired and happy. The sun is forecast to come out tomorrow, we’ll see if we can head higher up the mountain and start to push into big mountain terrain. We’ve reached the half-way point for session 1 and there’s still a lot more to come. Can’t wait!

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- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

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Love that powder!
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Day 5 – Wed 12th Jan

The sun was out as I headed to breakfast and I could actually see the ski area just outside my bedroom window. This was going to be an awesome day! The plan was to head up higher/further out as much as possible. There was really good skiing to be had close to the ski area and the double chair. There are several steep faces in that zone that look great. We headed up the cat road but another one of the competing companies’ cats were already putting in the road to the first zone, so we settled for a lap down low in the forest area. It had filled in again and the windslab was mostly buried, so the skiing was really fun.

Then we headed back to the resort side and a long ride up to the top of the double chair zone. We had a long ski down through somewhat mellow terrain before coming to s steep open face. This was untouched and looked like it hadn’t been cross-loaded, so I jumped in first. The top only had an inch of fresh on it as I straight-lined into the face and on the first turn, turned to about 8 inches of soft settled powder. It was awesome. I felt confident to let the skis run and made a series of high-speed GS turns down the steep face. I think I hooted on every turn; these were the best turns of the trip so far for me. Then the rest of the group dropped in one at a time and the stokemeter was high! A great start to the day. There was a long mellow ski down through really nice snow, to get back to the cat.

We headed back for a second lap and I skied a more technical line through a gully and out into an open but very steep chute, further to the skier’s right. We tried a face on the other side of the peak, but that had really hard, wind-effected snow, so we headed straight back to our original zone. This time we headed further skier’s right, on the other side of the double chair and there was a steep rollover and untouched snow.

The snow felt a lot more wind-affected than the other area and I felt there was a slab. I was hesitant to ski it. Mihael still wanted to give it a go and he skied just fine with a long run down to a safe spot. I went next and tested the roll with a ski cut to the left and got no result, so I gained speed and went for it. After about the 3rd turn, I saw a shooting crack to my right and then the slope started to buckle and collapse. Oh no, avalanche!

Thankfully I still had plenty of speed so I went for the straight line, trying to get off the slab and outrun it. My safe zone was a bit down to the right. As the snow buckled, it kicked up a couple of waves of snow. I had to jump over those and keep going. I was going really fast and had to fight to hold it together as I was fully-committed. I was quickly off the slab and had a moment to look over my left shoulder and saw the powder cloud developing behind me as the debris continued down the slope. I got well out of there and finally came to a stop on top of a knoll, signaling to Mihael that I was ok.

It wasn’t a big slide, only 10 inches deep or so, but run a good 80ft wide and ran across to the next chute. Seeing the initial buckling of the slope, I had no idea how big the slide was, it was a time to point it and go. I steadied my breath and headed down to where Mihael was. All was good. He had eyes on the whole time and no one else was nearby. The rest of the group pushed much further to the skier’s right away from the slide.

That was a close call and the first time I have been in the middle of a slide when it broke. I’m thankful that the slide was very small but happy that my instincts had been to get off that slab as quickly as possible. I always try to carry speed whenever I am entering potential avalanche terrain, for this very reason. I wasn’t happy with myself for not listening to my gut reaction about the snow, compounded by the fact that I did not know the terrain (it had rolled a little steeper to the left where I went and then there was a rock outcrop and likely shallow/trigger point). I don’t want any more close encounters like that…..

We skied another mellower tree run with great snow, before having lunch from the cat near a hut. We skied that first steep face near the chairlift again, then headed over for a long run down through the trees, with a stop at a rock ledge that Jon had wanted to huck off. It was a nice easy launch with a beautiful backdrop.

Finally, we finished with a long ride back up past the chairlift and way out along a ridge that got very steep and needed to be cut with the cat’s blade. That was pretty unnerving as I held on with a tight grip as the cat struggled to make it up the ridge. I’m definitely not a fan of steep slopes in cats this one had us perched on a ridgetop with steep slopes off both sides. The views from the top were stunning and gave us a chance to scope our lines for the next way that were miles away. What a huge amount of terrain they have here in the Shar mountains, I was blown away.

We finished the day with a really long run all the way down to the ski area, down a very steep but open chute, past the infamous rock that was featured in a TGR movie from back in the day where Eric Roner (RIP) did a ski base jump off, along with the Macedonian guide! Our legs were smoked by the end and our beers at the end of the day were well-deserved. What an amazing day, it had it all! A few in the group said that was the best day of skiing they had ever had. It was certainly up there for me!

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2 more ski days to go with the group. Full sun is in the forecast for tomorrow. We'll be pushing way out..... can't wait.

- Matt
 

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