After sampling the local trails at Pine Hill Park , I may owe the good folks from Rutland an apology.
Showing posts with label Vermont. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vermont. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
-Trip Report- Pine Hill Park: Now There's A Reason to go to Rutland (November 2011)
Labels:
Gered,
Long Trail Brewery,
Mountain Biking,
Pine Hill Park,
Trip Report,
Vermont
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
-Trip Report- Ascutney: One Week Later (November 2011)
I have the urge to sculpt this out of mashed potatoes. |
If you hadn't noticed, we've already switched the graphics over to our winter offering. Like a department store, the Halloween decorations are already in the box and the garland and lights are up in the windows. Ski season is clearly on our minds. This weekend screwed all of that up.
Labels:
Mountain Biking,
Mt. Ascutney,
Trip Report,
Vermont
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Trip Report- Millstone Hill Trails: True Grit (October 2011)
One of the many bedrock spines. |
At the geographic heart of the Green Mountains, the trails at Millstone Hill near Barre are the embodiment of Vermont's stern and ingenious spirit and among its premiere mountain biking destinations.
While you probably won't need your climbing harness or pitons, you'll need to bring a heaping helping of true grit.
While you probably won't need your climbing harness or pitons, you'll need to bring a heaping helping of true grit.
Labels:
Brad,
Millstone Hill,
Mountain Biking,
Trip Report,
Vermont
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Christmas in October II
Zen shot of Brad pulling out his only real turn. |
This is the second year in a row that Nor'EasterBC has been making October schuss. We were on the slopes at KMart on Oct 16th last year for an epic high mountain Nor'Easter, and had a chance to do it all again this morning on Ascutney, every lazy BC skier's favorite private playground.
Labels:
Backcountry Skiing,
Brad,
Gered,
Kara,
Mt. Ascutney,
Trip Report,
Vermont
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Kingdom Trails: One More Ride
With the end of the mountain biking season around the corner, I ventured back up to Kingdom Trails last weekend for one more run on my favorite trails with Gered, his sister Kara, Justin and a couple new friends: Chris and Brian. Four hours and twenty plus miles later, we had made the most of our late Fall foray.
Chris brought along his helmet-cam, took some footage, and put together this video of our runs down Tap & Die and Sidewinder: some of my favorite runs of the year.
The Kingdom is closing for the season on Monday (October 31st), so it's time to get up and go if you've been putting off a visit.
The Kingdom is closing for the season on Monday (October 31st), so it's time to get up and go if you've been putting off a visit.
Labels:
Big Red Justin,
Chris,
Gered,
Kingdom Trails,
Trip Report,
Vermont
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Change in the Air: A Video
The end of mountain biking season is nigh. We recently spent a day soaking up every last bit of Fall in the air. Watch the video and come along with us for the ride.
Labels:
Brad,
Gered,
Kingdom Trails,
Mountain Biking,
Trip Report,
Vermont
Friday, September 2, 2011
The Green Mountain Showdown
If you like mountain biking and photography, boy do I have something for you.
Last weekend, before the unwelcome arrival of Irene, five photographers duked it out for the right to be the winner of the First Annual Green Mountain Showdown. Okay, maybe it was less of a fistfight, and more of an artistic display, but you get the picture.
Each photographer was charged with putting together a portfolio of work to represent Vermont bike culture.
While only one winner was named (Bear Cieri), we all kinda won with five stellar collections of mountain bike photography.
Check out the stunning final slide shows here.
Labels:
Mountain Biking,
Photography,
Vermont
Friday, July 22, 2011
Waterbury Trails: Video of a Group Ride with VMBA (July 16, 2011)
I challenged everyone in the middle to a ride to the death. Nobody was interested. Except the dog. |
Labels:
Mountain Biking,
Trip Report,
Vermont,
VMBA,
Waterbury
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Kingdom Trails: A Video Essay
This past weekend I spent a day with some friends roaming the byways at Kingdom Trails. It's hard to describe why this is my favorite place to go biking, so I made a little video to give you a sample of what it is like.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Adventures in Sidecountry Part II: Bolton Valley (Get It While You Can)
View of the Bolton Backcountry from Stowe View |
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Adventures in Sidecountry Part I: Burke (Ski the East... Bowl)
Birch Glades at Burke |
Sidecountry, slackcountry, cross country, backcountry, upcountry and no country for old men. Whether you like lift accessed glades, hiking a little beyond the chair, or hiking alot to get to that distant slide, we're all looking for the same thing: fresh powder.
After a late week storm that brought close to a foot of snow to the Vermont Northcountry, I decided to go back to the motherland for some lift-assisted backcountry skiing. I didn't leave disappointed.
Labels:
Brad,
Burke Mountain,
Gered,
Glades,
Sidecountry,
Trip Report,
Trout River,
Vermont
Friday, February 11, 2011
Jay Peak: Actual Views from the Top
If you've ever skied at Jay, you know there's no such thing as a perfect ski day. There are FANTASTIC ski days at Jay, but there are never perfect days because perfect is a tremendously subjective term. I've had fantastic ski days that my wife felt were horrible (see pic below) to be perfect and thus ruined the perfection by her thrice hourly coco breaks. I've also had fantastic backcountry powder days that were marred by 3 hrs of standing down in Montgomery Center on Rt. 242 waiting to hitch a ride back to the lodge.
A few weeks ago I did have a day at Jay that came pretty close to perfection though. -10 degrees. Free room and board at the Tram Haus Lodge. 6 inches of powder the night before. And 0 mph wind from no direction (that's almost the icing on the cake right there). To top it all off, visibility at the Tram summit was about 350 miles in every direction. Now there's something you don't get at Jay more than twice a lifetime.
Coco anyone? |
Labels:
Jay Peak,
Trip Report,
Vermont
Monday, January 31, 2011
-Trip Report- Mt. Ascutney: It's a (Terrain) Trap!
It's 4:30 . You've got about a half-hour of daylight left and one headlamp between you and your two friends. You ran out of water about an hour ago. You're staring at a 50 degree colouir to the bottom of a drainage that may or may not get you back to your vehicle. Above you is a steep slope of rock, ice and occasional evergreen bramble. Somewhere beyond that climb is a trail. Maybe. You have a decision to make. Do you climb up and risk running into an un-climbable rock face, or do you slide into the unknown facing a similar un-descendible face? You've been terrain trapped.
Labels:
Backcountry Skiing,
Brad,
Gered,
Glades,
Harpoon,
Mt. Ascutney,
Trip Report,
Vermont
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Things you Suck at OTHER than Backcountry Skiing
It sucks to be really really rediculously bad at things you want to be good at, like skiing. If you can't be good at the things you want to be good at, then there's nothing to lose trying new stuff. This is a great personal maxim that has led me into dozens of cool new experiences and awkward situations too. What I like most is the idea that, you never know, maybe the thing you've never tried is something that you are so naturally gifted at that it's been your life calling to do whatever it is. You just never knew it.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Epic Jay Peak Bloggers Summit: Day 2
So, there are a lot of great things going on in the world of social ski media these days. I learned or was present for the teaching of a lot of them today. I wont bore you now (boring details to come later for sure), but if there's one thing to take away from this experience, it is that things happening in the ski industry today are pretty epic, and today was certainly an epic day at Jay for the best and brightest North American ski bloggers. The fresh POW this morning on River Quai was epic. The secret back entrance to the Face Chutes was pretty damned epic. And an impromptu drop off of Timbuktu into no-mans-land and down to Rt 242 was freaking epic too. In case you were wondering, epic is the new rad. So start using it before it goes out of style.
Thanks to Tim at Meathead Films for showing this groomer Guru a few new places to get away at Jay. Oh, and thanks to that guy in the private-but-not-pedophile North American Tele and Biking Instructors van for giving us all a lift back to the Jet (best part - the driver changed his name to Jay back in the 80s when he moved to Montgomery Center to weave organic coffee mugs out of his own hair).
**And of course, thanks to Jay Peak Resort for hosting all of us. And teaching us how to curl. No, not the usual which-way-to-the-gym kind of curl. The Canadian kind. Played while drinking Long Trail and hurling a 42 pound stone carved out of Barre grey's finest granite. If that's not globalization I don't know what is!
Thanks to Tim at Meathead Films for showing this groomer Guru a few new places to get away at Jay. Oh, and thanks to that guy in the private-but-not-pedophile North American Tele and Biking Instructors van for giving us all a lift back to the Jet (best part - the driver changed his name to Jay back in the 80s when he moved to Montgomery Center to weave organic coffee mugs out of his own hair).
**And of course, thanks to Jay Peak Resort for hosting all of us. And teaching us how to curl. No, not the usual which-way-to-the-gym kind of curl. The Canadian kind. Played while drinking Long Trail and hurling a 42 pound stone carved out of Barre grey's finest granite. If that's not globalization I don't know what is!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
-Trip Report- Camel's Hump: The Hard Way (February 2008)
Does somebody smell burning gloves? |
The stop sign sailed by us as the staccato thumping of the anti-lock brakes broke the silence. The words "hang on guys" came out of my mouth so matter-of-factly that Gered and Brett wondered if I knew we were sliding out of control.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
-Trip Report- Killington: Skipping Purgatory (October 2010)
I feel like I've done something wrong. For me, Halloween is the official end of Fall and then there's a full month of misery (also known as November) before winter.
Put simply: I skied on October 16th. Before Halloween. Before Thanksgiving. Before Daylight Savings. Something's wrong.
Labels:
Backcountry Skiing,
Brad,
East Coast,
Gered,
Killington,
Nor'Easter,
Trip Report,
Vermont
Thursday, February 4, 2010
-Trip Report- Hunger Mountain: I Lovermont (January 2010)
It had been a while since I skied the backcountry of the motherland. A rainstorm from a couple weeks ago decimated most of the snowpack in New England, including my backcountry targets in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. While there was plenty of cold to go around, snow was at a premium. Earlier in the week, Bolton, Jay and Stowe had been hit by a storm that dumped upwards of six inches of fresh snow on each.
This gave me a perfect excuse to drive a little further, and get back in touch with the mountains of northern Vermont. I was quickly reminded why Vermont is the "Ski Mecca" of the East.
This gave me a perfect excuse to drive a little further, and get back in touch with the mountains of northern Vermont. I was quickly reminded why Vermont is the "Ski Mecca" of the East.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Update: Rudy Sidelined
It figures. After espousing the virtues of Rudy, Murphy and his freakin law would catch up with me in the mountains of Vermont. Alas, this last Sunday Rudy found his match in the glades of Andre's Paradise on Jay Peak.. I finished my first turn at the top of the glades, and lept into a second jump-turn when my left foot came flying out of the binding.
Labels:
Jay Peak,
Mt. Hunger,
Rudy,
Silvretta Pure Performance,
Skis,
Vermont
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