Rolling Along

I was underdressed yesterday. It was just cold, especially with the wind blowing at the top of Summit Chair, and the additional breeze created skiing quickly down a groomed slope. Today, I dressed for cold weather. It was 10 degrees early in the morning, but it warmed up into the 20s not long after the lifts opened. It was not as windy this morning, and the sun was shining. Bright sun just makes it seem warmer. An extra layer under the heavy jacket, which was pulled tight at the waist, kept cold air from blowing up onto my upper body. My heated socks seem to work well enough to keep my toes warm. I was nice and toasty standing atop Summit Chair at 9:08. In truth, it just felt warmer today.

The day started out with bright sunshine. However, clouds appeared, out of thin air, later in the morning. They hung around for a while, but they disappeared in the early afternoon, leaving a clear blue sky for the rest of the day.

The word on the street is that a good-size storm is on the way. The Palisades App, if you believe it, indicates 4 to 8 inches of snow falling tonight with an additional 21 to 31 inches of snow falling Thursday into Thursday night. They are even calling for another 4 to 7 inches of snow on Saturday. Get your powder skis and powder cords out so you’re ready for the steep and deep coming your way. I spoke with a number of local skiers this afternoon who were pretty excited about the possibility of a good dump in the next few days.

Excellent corduroy graced the slopes this morning. Sunspot, Terry’s Return, D8, Wolverine, and all the lower trails were in fine condition. Off-piste, a number of areas sported slopes that were relatively smooth and chalky. Almost everything held an edge well without making too much noise. Tower 19 was one of those slopes that held an edge on its chalky surface. Bobby’s and Ridge were groomed to perfection, as was the main run on Sherwood. These trails were perfect for making wide, fast, controlled turns. In addition to the excellent surface, the slopes were relatively uncrowded, helping the locals enjoyment level rise.
There are a number of ways to increase the smile on your face when you are on the slopes. Sunny days with good visibility usually make me smile. Cold, soft, winter snow under my skis also makes me smile. Plenty of off-piste skiing puts a smile on my face. Some people smile when they have a pint of beer and a warm cinnamon bun in front of them on the deck of a bistro that might be located on the slopes.

Some people smile when they look at their daily stats. The more chair rides and vertical feet attained on any particular day can put a smile on your face. I am sure there are many other ways to paste a smile on a person’s face. Today, we put smiles on our faces by playing a little game called Snowball. It is a simple game that involves picking up a small snowball and moving it to a somewhat steep slope (void of skiers and/or snowboarders). At some point the snowball is let loose to roll downhill.

The person’s ball that rolls the farthest wins. Below is a link showing a couple of us acting as fools with smiles on our faces.

https://youtu.be/-u0gfo2Qp-w?si=g-oi02K6ZCiAQG66

https://youtube.com/watch?v=G6ofadmwMk4&si=hbfiQhxFd69oFnlv

The reason we took a few minutes of our precious time on the slopes to play this silly game was that one of our group members serenaded us on the chairlift the other day. He sang us the snowball song. Below are the five verses to the song.

Snowball Song

I pushed a snowball down the hill, while I was a the top,
It was so cute and tiny, I thought that it would stop,
I skied along beside it, and soon it was a race,
But it just kept on rolling, while I fell on my face,
Rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, he fell on his face.

I pushed a snowball down the hill, it grew with every yard,
It used to be quite fluffy, but now it is quite hard,
I went racing past it, I tried to slow it down,
By then it was enormous, and made a rumbling sound,
Rum rum, rum rum, rum rum, rum rum, made a rumbling sound.

I pushed a snowball down the hill, someone call a cop,
The skiers saw it coming, it made their eyeballs pop,
They saw it from the chalet, they heard it in the town,
And even on the bunny hill, folks were racing down,
Race race, race race, race race, race race, folks were racing down.

I pushed a snowball down the hill, by the ski lift operator,
He pointed to it and he said, “Folks, I’ll see ya later.”,
It gobbled up the moguls, and launched into the air,
It took out three gondolas, a rope tow, and a chair,
Bye bye, bye bye, bye bye, bye bye, rope tow and a chair.

I pushed a snowball down the hill, and so it was my fault,
I guess that leaves it up to me to bring it to a halt,
I stop and stand there stiffly, and I thrust out my hands,
Soon I’ll be a hero, all throughout the……oooommpphhh!!

Enjoy your day,
Andy