Sky Peak and the Stash under brilliant blue skies a seen from top of Bear Mountain.

Sky Peak and the Stash under brilliant blue skies a seen from top of Bear Mountain.

Beautiful blue skies, crisp - not frigid - temperatures, no wind.... a perfect day to head back out on the mountain.

For my first day back since the holidays (and a concussion), I focused on Bear Mountain and Skye Peak. Everything I skied on today, except the trails with active snow making, were groomed flat and fast. Some were decidedly groomed better than others, but I suspect it was a function of snow depths on the trails versus the snow groomers proficiency.

After taking the Superstar Quad from the K1 Base Lodge, I started with a run through the Stash. Ropes were set up to keep people out of the gladed areas and trees. I would guess that they are left over from yesterday's ice storm, as even on groomed trails there was ice to be found very easily. The Stash was groomed flat. At 9:15 I did not see anyone hitting any of the features. Given the firmness of the slope, I don't blame riders for bypassing bone crushing landing sites in favor of a little cruising. My exit from the Stash was a fairly routine run down lower Bear Claw/Skye Burst over to the Bear Mountain Quad.

The Bear Mountain Quad.... how quaint... how slow! With the advent of the new Skye Peal Express Quad the age of the Bear Mountain Quad really shows. What for the last forever years was the must take lift on Bear Mountain now seems like a relic of a bygone era. How quick peoples attitudes change.

Taking the Bear Mountain Quad was interesting. Snow Making hoses are all laid out on Outer Limits, getting ready for a snow making assault. I was the only one on the chair...no the ONLY ONE ON THE LIFT... which was a little weird. The top of the quad, which used to resemble a mini Grand Central in the morning was obviously empty. That's progress for you.

I went down Bear Claw to Wild Fire. A snow making pipe had blown out on Bear Claw just before the pitch down to Wild Fire. Heavy equipment was being used to dig the pipe out. When the pipe blew, it was obviously charged with water, as a mammoth patch of brown ice was all down the left side of the trail. Lower Wild Fire was groomed beautifully. A few marbles on the steeper pitches, but they were easily negotiated.

A ride up the Skye Peak Express followed by a top to bottom run on Skye Burst made for a quick lap of the mountain. For the next loop I wandered over to Dream Maker. Upper Dream Maker was roped off and looked nasty. Snow making was in progress on Lower Dream Maker. By the time I had hit it, about 4 inches of soft powder had been blown over the groomed hard pack. It was a very nice run down through the guns.

I did the Skye Burst - Dream Maker laps a couple of times. My ski legs were coming back from my hiatus so alternating between high speed cruising and soft powder cruising was a nice contrast for the first day back.

I continued to work my way back to the K1 Base Lodge with runs down Cruise Control, Needles Eye, Bitter Sweet, Skye Lark, and Superstar. All were firm, flat, and fast except middle Bitter Sweet which was also getting some new snow made on it. Of this set of runs, Needles Eye was a little sketchy. After Panic Button, it became pretty clear that Needles Eye was basically ice on skiers right and left with a pile of marbles and small death cookies in the middle. Death cookies can be your friend as you can turn on them, versus trying to do skid turns on ice...so it goes.

On tap for tomorrow, it appears that some kind of snow storm is headed our way. Local news at lunch time was taking about 4 to 8 inches of snow in Rutland County, with some sleet and freezing r@!n mixed in. It sounds like this storm will be primarily cold, so hopefully we will miss the "wintery mix" stuff and stay all snow at the mountain. We can hope...let it snow!