All in all, a very good trip. Naturally, Sugarloaf's vertical was less than what I'm used to but they had plenty of good runs. The snow was in pretty good shape when we got there and we had a powder day with about a foot of fresh on our second ski day. There were still some icy patches and rocks on some of the black runs but they were usually avoidable. The first day I was following one of the mountain hosts on a tour and skied right through a pile of rocks that was not completely visible. The rocks ripped the skis right off my feet but somehow I managed to not hit any of the rocks when I fell. I decided that wearing a helmet wasn't such a bad idea after all. I didn't get around to buying one until the end of the week but I'm set for next year. :)

The locals were all really friendly and seemed surprised that Texans skied, especially in Maine. Our club took 60 people up and the whole Texas Ski Council group totaled around 200. Kind of small for a TSC trip but it was about all that the resort staff could handle. Evidently they're not used to getting big groups. They did an excellent job with the parties, etc. and generally making sure everyone had a good time. Of all the resorts that I've been to on TSC trips they did the best job of interacting with our group.

The weather wasn't too bad, although we had some problems with wind. On Monday the wind blew hard enough to keep all but the main quad, the t-bar, and one "beginner" chair open. Still got in plenty of skiing. On Tuesday I skied a few runs with a local, including a nice tree run called Rookie River. It consisted of a gully running through fairly tight trees. Definitely not something to be skied alone. In addition to a few fallen trees crossing the trail, there was a pool of open water at the bottom of a 10 foot deep pit right in the middle of the run. You couldn't see it until you got right on top of it. Fortunately the guy I was skiing with had warned me about it. Falling into it would really ruin your day. I skied just about every run that was open except for a lot of the beginner runs. I even made one trip to the backside of the snowfields. They were not officially open and you had to check in with the ski patrol before hiking up. Jim, the group sales manager, took me and Gary Kuchcinski up there on our last day. We made some good turns on great snow but still had to dodge lots of rocks in near-backcountry conditions. The terrain back there was comparable to the North Face at Crested Butte, only with fewer cliffs. Fun stuff but too short. The gondola up to the top is an experience in itself. It is the oldest, most decrepit piece of machinery I've ever seen on a mountain. It was only working about half the time and is due to be replaced next year with a high-speed quad.

On Wednesday some of us took a 2 1/4 hour bus ride over to Sunday River. I skied by myself since I didn't want to waste any time waiting around for everybody else to decide they were ready to ski. Skiing with a group can get old when everybody keeps stopping every 100 yards. I skied nonstop once the buses pulled up at 9:45 and covered nearly the entire mountain. There were a few black runs that I didn't get to because of a lift being closed but I still covered lots of territory. I never got statistics on vertical rise for each lift but I probably skied over 40,000 vertical feet for the day [45000]. For reference, my last day at Sun Valley I estimate that I skied over 60,000. Sunday River was a fun mountain with some great tree runs. I hooked up with a couple of locals for those. I did ski one run with some people from our club. I caught up to one of my condo-mates and her boyfriend and his two kids (ages 7 & 10). He said they were looking for something a little more challenging than the green cruisers so I took them down a black glade run. Plenty of soft bumps and the tree were widely spaced. The kids loved it. Skiing with kids can be very energizing as they're so enthusiastic, even more than me! :) All told, it was a great ski day. I skied my butt off and had to sew it back on at the end of the day. :)

Thursday was our club race day. The wind that day was downright ferocious. The wind chill in the morning was somewhere between 20 and 60 below zero. After three runs I had to go inside because of frostbite on my nose. Ouch. A friend saw me in the lift line and said my nose was white so I headed in to get it warmed up. I put a band-aid on it and skied with my bandanna covering my face for a while. I had to go in a few more times that day and bought a "Turtle Fur" neck warmer which worked better than the cotton bandanna. My neoprene face mask didn't do me much good since it was back at the condo. The race was held on a very flat green run and the wind was blowing up the slope so hard I was afraid we'd have some people skiing backwards. I had a lousy start and just barely managed to get a bronze medal. More importantly, I qualified for the individual races the next day. My nose seemed ok the next day so evidently I went inside before any serious damage was done.

Friday was our last day. I spent the first hour or so giving skiing tips to a couple of friends. Hopefully I didn't screw them up too bad. They seemed to be improving, however. The individual races were held on a black run with a single GS-style course. The starting gate was actually on the side of the run so that you started perpendicular to the race course. It was a very challenging course with some tough turns. I was having a good first run and had just completed a hard fall-away turn followed but a sharp turn when I fell. I was looking down the course to set my next set of turns when I caught an edge and had to lay it down. I didn't release my skis or lose anything and was able to ski out of it but not until after I had missed a gate. Everyone else had problems with the same turns. For my second run, the course was developing a few icy spots and lots of ruts. I didn't ski it as cleanly as I would have liked but still finished with a decent time, although my previous run would have been a couple of seconds faster had I finished. I ended up with another bronze and a 5th place finish in the men's division and 7th overall. I think I had the fastest time in our club. Dallas Ives and Terry Lippold both finished in the top three of the senior men's and women's divisions, respectively. After the races Gary, Jim and I headed up top to the backside. At about 1:30 it started to dump snow like crazy and I spent the rest of the day playing in the powder. Fun stuff.

I never did get around to snowboarding. One of the women in our club tried it for the first time on our first day. She was quitting for the day because she was tired when she fell and broke a bone in her hand and possibly her wrist as well. I had convinced her and her husband to wear wrist guards so it could have been worse. She was still able to ski later that week and said she'll try it again next year. I demoed a pair of "shaped" (aka parabolics/super-sidecuts) skis (Rossi CUT 9.9 in 184cm length) for free one afternoon as part of a special program Sugarloaf has. They were fun on the groomers and in the bumps but were all but useless on the ice and at high speeds.

Unless I win the lottery it looks like I'm through skiing until next year. :(

Think SNOW for next year!!!