First of all I have never made ten treks down a mountain before the “clock struck 10am” and that happened today. There was another surprise first for me today as Snowshoe honored me with my own personal First Tracks – before our SkiSoutheast Summit First Tracks. As I was waiting with our crew for the first runs of the morning at the top of Soaring Eagle I was told to “come with” the ski patrol. I asked if I should take my skis with me, thinking that he was going to give me a quick run-down of the rules. I was quickly told, “Oh, no, you’re going to need your skis.”
I’ve always said that those first tracks of the day with our summit peeps were special – and they are – but taking that first trek down Camp 99 with unspoiled, untouched terrain was nothing but spectacular.
With nothing but perfectly groomed lanes ahead of me I topped out at 57.7 mph on my Trace app. I knew that was fast (in fact my personal fastest run of the season) until I heard that Drew (of our Summit crew) had straight-lined a trip down almost exactly 10 mph faster! As I mentioned, I was able to make ten trips down the longer slopes at Snowshoe and we were even given early passage over to the Basin side of the mountain prior to Snowshoe’s rope drop – which was yet another surprise.
Needless to say, being able to make ten trips down before 10am with absolutely NO lift lines is pretty much the primo treatment and we all have Snowshoe to thank for that bit of first-class fun.
We’ve had some awesome, AWESOME Summit weekends, but this one ranks right at the top for fun on and off the snow. I mentioned it on my FirsTrax morning blog earlier, but it was as if every mountain op knew we were on the mountain and everyone made us feel VERY VIP.
Thanks again to Frank DeBerry, David Dekema (sorry we didn’t see you this trip), Sean Cassell, Denise Chestnutt, Ed Galford and the entire Snowshoe team for what was one of the very best weekends we’ve ever had. Thanks to Joe Stevens, Brad Panovich and David McCue (all members of the SkiSoutheast writing and content team) for coming and making this trip special. Thanks to the core SkiNCers (now SkiSoutheasters) headed up by the Don of the crew Jeff (AKA Captain America) and the rest of you WHO ARE SKISOUTHEAST (too many to list here) who make this all possible.
Also thanks to the NEW members of SkiSoutheast’s peeps who met up with us for the first time. I have a feeling that we’ve got some new/strong members who we will be visiting with for years to come.
I almost hate packing up and heading home as this was really a very special Summit weekend at a very special place for all of us – Snowshoe Mountain.
I hope everyone has a safe trip home to wherever that is for each of you. Until next time….
We will be posting some more photos, videos and more.
Email me if you like at [email protected]