smith walton

smith walton
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I started out skiing Ralph's Run, a green trail. After regaining my "ski legs," I tried the blue Challenger a few times.

While riding the lift up to Challenger, I asked a perfect stranger on the lift how bad the black diamonds were. He assured me that I'd have no trouble with them whatsoever! (Funny how people can be perfectly confident in this kind of snap judgment). He told me I could take Mass Pike on over to where the black diamonds were, and if necessary I could always come down a blue trail. That was true, as I verified it on my trail map before trying it.

Anyway, it turned out he was correct, sort of. I actually took Mass Pike over to Salamander Cutoff, which I thought was a blue trail, and skied down that. I thought it was a little difficult.... When I reached the bottom, I saw that on the trail map it is listed as a black diamond, although when I turned onto the trail I thought the sign was blue.

I decided that having taken a black diamond unknowingly, and survived, I would try all the rest. So I did Smith Walton a couple of times, and then tried 10th Mountain. Both were very reasonable. They were about the same difficulty as some of the more difficult blue trails that I've taken in the Alps, but were by no means the most difficult trails I've ever skied.

I also did some practice runs down Indian Summer, which is a short green trail. To get there, you take the Monadnock Triple Chairlift, which is very leisurely. And I interspersed my black diamond runs with some skiing down the blue Conifer Connection to Lower Conifer, meandering through some of the smaller trails, like Lower Balanced Rock.

It was a great day! I only spent about 3-4 hours skiing, because I got tired. I wish I'd gone skiing earlier in the season. I'll be bummed if I only get to go once this year. Everyone I talked to seemed to think that the "end is near." I'm hoping for a few more giant snow storms, though.

It's especially fun skiing where you know that you've been hiking over the summer. Although I honestly didn't recognize a thing!