We had a good turnout for the first day of the NEG Started out with some groomers that had a few death marbles which made them generally unsatisfying even to the substantial contingent (
@Tony S ,
@mdf ,
@James ) that were rocking slalom skis.
And then the Ministry of Bad Ideas got involved and we tried a bump run which was alternating frozen coral reef and ice. On the bright side, the groomers seemed pretty decent after that.
Worked our way over to the Kennebago quad which was thankfully running again after some mishaps earlier in the week. Took a groomer off of that which, due to the wind, gave us the experience of getting pelted by a sandblaster while skiing.
Tony led us to some ungroomed runs that were varying degrees of hellacious before taking a break for lunch. We found one secret to breakfable crust was to let the larger, heavier guys go first and break it up a bit. Thanks to
@mdf ,
@Guy in Shorts and some others for volunteering. After lunch things actually did improve, conditions wise.
Family Secret, under the Kennebago Quad was pretty good. Governor, also in the Kennebago area was good,
@AlanR decided to apply for the Ministry of Bad Ideas and suggested Casablance Glades which was really a bad idea. But everybody managed to get out safely.
We tried for a run at Muleskiinner but it was closed before we could get to it. The usual entrance to Family Secret was also closed but a patroller suggested a side route in by traversing through some glades, etc. We made it over there, everybody dropped in, and me -- going last -- got yelled at by patrol for being on a suppossedly closed trail. Hey, we were told we could do this! He let me go with a look that suggested I shouldn't dilly dally my way down.
And then, as the last run of the day, we managed to find some sun-softened bumps. We knew there were around somewhere!
Overall, a really fun day of Tony showing off his home mountain. Less than ideal conditions, but if it was good conditions, it wouldn't be the NEG. Sugarloaf tomorrow.