2006 Stratton and Okemo, Vermont
and Sunapee, New Hampshire
Ski Trip Report
Excellent! I believe that is the general consensus of opinion regarding Harford Ski Club, Inc.'s first trip of the season. We began referring to this trip as SOS for the sake of brevity, and now those letters seem to stand for so many more things than just the names of the three ski areas we attacked during our three days of skiing & snowblading.Supremely Outstanding Snow, Superbly Outfitted Saloon, Succulent Over-abundant Suppers, and Simply Outrageous Skiing are a few other possibilities that come to mind.
Our trip leader and her husband take to the slopes at Okemo.
On Friday, everyone arrived at Klein's on time, and with the expertise of our driver, Pete, we rolled up to Vermont in slightly under 7 hours, arriving at the hotel at a very civilized 8:45pm. With the exception of the trip leader & her husband, all of us were housed on the same hall. (Pat & Hanns somehow managed to finagle an upgrade to a suite with a whirlpool. For those of you considering running a trip, this is one type of perk!)
After an early breakfast at the hotel, we headed off to Okemo on Sat. for a full day of skiing & blading. Conditions were very good, with well-groomed slopes & sunny skies. Our new member, Paul, showed a bunch of us how to tear up a hill on a pair of snow blades. Not to be outdone, Terry skied backwards down the mountain for a while before tossing in a few turns. They both get a score of “10” for style.
Evan takes in the view from atop Okemo.
Snow cover was a bit sparse in the glade areas, but the rest of the Okemo & Jackson Gore runs were great. Evan, age 7, gave Pat & Hanns some expert advice on ski techniques for the double black diamond Loose Spruce glades, but they quickly discovered that the end of the afternoon of the first ski day of the season is not a good time for people with legs as old as theirs to try navigating bumps & trees. They bailed out to the nearby blue run as Evan & Tom zipped down the mountain.
Lead by Dennis, much of the group headed over to Jackson Gore early in the day in search of shorter lift lines (which really weren't much of a problem anywhere). Some of us were fortunate enough to discover the Asian Food area for lunch break, which featured a choice of several dishes such as General Tso chicken at a price more reasonable than the normal mountain hamburger.
Dennis and Paul prepare to board the lift.
At 4:30, we regrouped at the bus; everyone accounted for, uninjured, and smiling. Little did we know that dinner would be just as good as the skiing had been. The hotel conference room was transformed into a private dining room for us, and the food served up by the caterers was delicious and abundant. Over a 2 night period, we feasted on buffets of haddock stuffed with seafood, pork with apple stuffing, steak tips with mushrooms, turkey with all the trimmings, fresh salads & vegetable dishes, gigantic turnovers, apple crisp, chocolate & carrot cake. We celebrated Tyler's 7th birthday with candles in a piece of cake and a round of Happy Birthday.
The woman who owned the catering business also owned a tavern only 5 miles away in New Hampshire. Lured by her friendliness & hopes of drinks as delicious as her food, we abandoned our plans to return to Okemo for some nightlife, and headed to the Heritage Inn instead.
The bar after a good day of skiing.
Club members enjoyed the Open Mike Night entertainment and cold beer before calling Pete for a pickup and early return to the hotel.
Mother Nature smiled on us, dumping 2-3” of fresh snow throughout the night, so we arrived at Mt. Sunapee early Sunday morning for some fresh tracks. The sun peeked through the clouds intermittently, allowing for some great views of Lake Sunapee. Gary, Danuta, Hanns, and Pat made a quest of skiing every open trail on the mountain. After accomplishing this by mid-afternoon, they joined Matt and Paul in the terrain park, where Pat and Danuta showed the younger guys that the half-pipe, box, and some of the smaller jumps were not just the domain of youngsters. Kevin and Paul viewed Pat's flailing landing from the lift, and agreed she got no style points, but high marks for staying on her skis.
Back to the lift at Sunapee.
It was back to the Inn in NH that evening, where we decided to get a bit more adventurous with our drinking. We each drew 5 cards from a deck that featured a different drink on each card. We then picked one of the drinks & ordered it.
Monday had us packing up the bus and heading off to Stratton for our final day of skiing. We dropped the 3 youngsters off for lessons, then headed over to the Sun Bowl to meet our mountain ambassador, John. The fresh snow, combined with a 2-hour mountain tour made for a very good morning on the mountain. Our guides gave us tips on avoiding the more foggy areas, and the vast choice of terrain provided lots of good skiing for everyone. Lisa, Gary, Kevin & Kristen decided to take advantage of a discounted ski lesson, and had high praise for their instructor following their generous 2-hour lesson. Wade and Pat introduced Danuta to glade skiing.
Part of our group somewhere on the slopes of Stratton.
Tom was proudly watching Evan skiing double black diamond moguls, but didn't immediately notice that Evan continued to ski into the woods & disappear. After a while, Evan returned to the trail and managed to find Candy & Bob who took him under their wing and guided him to the bottom where Mary was waiting. Tom, who had returned to the top, was left to search for a child who was no longer on the slopes! Not to be outdone by the rest of the family, Caren (in her cute pink snowsuit) got her picture in the Baltimore Sun.
Late afternoon saw a shift in the weather to a light rain. Most of us took it in stride & skied back to the bus. Unfortunately, we had been misinformed about the availability of shuttles between the main area of the mountain, and the Sun Bowl area where our bus was parked. This left intrepid Candy with no choice but to pick up Tyler from his lessons and hitchhike over to the rest of us. What a gal! Pete informed us that he had lost all of the antifreeze from the bus en route to Stratton that morning, but had found a garage, gotten a repair and arrived at the meeting place only 15 minutes ahead of us.
Caren poses at Sunapee for her picture in the Baltimore Sun.
Following a quick stop to pickup pizza for dinner (sorry Terry), a tired group had a pretty quiet trip home. Pete once again made great time & we were back at Klein's by 10:00pm.
Any trip that ends with no injuries or major tales of woe is considered a good trip. I think this one had lots more than just that going for it. Thanks to everyone on the trip for being on time, cheerful & just generally fun to be around. It made the job much easier for the trip leader & co-leader, and all the rest of the group. Have a great rest of the ski season, and THINK SNOW!
The whole group (almost) at Sunapee.
Tom's Trip Report:
Our small group had a great time. We started with a beautiful, clear, sunny day at Okemo. Almost all of the trails were open, except for some of the glades and a couple of black diamond runs. Pat got us a home cooked meal in the evening, then a few of us ran off to the local bar to relieve any built-up tension. After pulling up to someone's house with a 55-seat coach bus to ask for directions, we finally found the bar. The open-mike night was much better than expected. We all had a great time, and headed back somewhat early so we could be ready to go the next day.
Sunday, we awoke to snow! 2 or 3 inches fell overnight and a few more inches fell during the morning. Our day at Sunapee was our best snow day of the trip. In the afternoon, the skies cleared out for a fantastic afternoon. We got our second home-cooked meal and again headed out for the nightlife.
Fortunately, Stratton is a big mountain. The fog kept rolling through at different levels. Sometimes we had to ski the top half of the mountain to stay out of the fog and sometimes the lower half. They had gotten a couple of inches of snow overnight that softened up nicely during the day. About an hour before we got off the mountain, it warmed up too much and a light rain began to fall. It signaled an end to a great weekend of skiing.
