Winter 2005 Event Summary

Boys Weekend

Winter 2005

March 11-13, 2005

Summary

By Bob Gifford

Well we took off around 9:20am on 3/11. Four of us met at the Taj (Stan, Joe, DP and Bob). We ended up in the lot at the end of Beaver Pond road at around 10:30 and were under way by 11:00am. Steve (Bob’s friend from Mass) was ahead of us and had broken trail for us. Steve skiing down the trail interrupted our trek in to Burling cabin. Steve had broken his toe of his binding, just shy of the cabin and had decided to come out for parts if possible. We continued the trek in which this year seemed to be tougher. Our sleds where pretty heavy this year and all the new snow made it harder to drag the loads uphill. Some of us were moving more then 80 pounds between the sled and the backpack. We eventually made the cabin and found it in great shape. Not a track anywhere and a good pile of fire wood inside too. It was a good 2 hour walk in this time. We cranked up the fire and ate some lunch. Around 3pm Stan and Bob suited up for a ski across the valley. Right about this time Steve showed up dropped his pack and came along. The Three some traveled across the valley and found a nice line to ascend and ski back down. This was a real nice area to ski in with well-spaced trees and tons of untracked snow. Joe and DP stayed back at the cabin and cut firewood. We were all back in the cabin by 5pm. Friday night brought a pile of fresh lake perch cooked up by DP and a game of pegs where Bob and Steve beat DP and Stan! Joe will not play pegs. Our cannon was fired a number of times Friday and we had one visitor stop in for a moment. He left after seeing the cannon.

It snowed all night so Saturday morning we had some fresh stuff to play in. Stan, Bob and Steve headed out to the same area we were in Friday. We did 4 runs on that hill and were joined by a bunch of folks. Shane showed up on snowshoes. Steve’s friend John showed up. A pack of day-tripper backcountry skiers including Jake Nealy’s math teacher also showed up. It was pretty busy in this remote corner of Vermont. We skied the hell out of that line. We headed back to the cabin and bid Steve and John farewell around lunchtime. The cannon worked a bit and we ate and drank a few beers. Around 2 Jon Nealy showed up. He was soaked and showed us his stretched out cotton long underwear. A sight I could have done without.

A little later Stan Bob Joe and Jon headed out for a ski. Joe and Jon did the little loop and Bob and Stan took off up the backside of Morris Mountain behind the cabin. We found some real steep snow and pretty open areas up high. The lower part was steep with lots of junk to slap you in the face. Cool terrain not likely skied much by anyone. Stan and Bob skied back to the cabin just as Jim Chick and Shawn showed up. We were now 8 for Saturday night. Dinner was a spectacle with steak, shrimp, Pot roast and many other nibbles. Nobody was hungry. A couple games of Pegs with Stan and DP the victors. Some jamming by Jim and Joe and soon the cabin was quiet except for Jon’s snoring. DP abandoned the top bunk claiming hearing loss. We all now wonder how Mimi sleeps.

Sunday it was still snowing lightly we fired the cannon on last time consuming the last of our 2 pounds of powder. Stan made up another round of awesome omelets. We slowly packed up and dragged our lighter loads back down the mountain. We were in the parking lot by 10:30am.

A very successful and well-attended winter event.

Highpoints: We had the cabin to ourselves. We ate like pigs. We had good skiing conditions. No injuries. Low Points: Shane not being able to spend a single night. DP's joke telling.

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