Saturday I was to run an AMC ski social at Crotched Mountain lift serve. NOAA forecasted mixed snow and rain, so no one showed up. Reading through the lines of the forecast, I thought the odds were very good for a nice day of skiing. And I turned out to be right.

Tyson, Isaac, and I headed up mid-morning. There were a few flurries in the morning while we practiced in the magic carpet area. On the gentle terrain, Isaac skied much better than he had on Sugarloaf’s steeper snow. He also now has a persistent wedge. We don’t know if he learned it at Sugarloaf ski school or if it just came naturally.

At lunch time, I posted a sign for the AMC event in case someone attended without contacting me in advance. One random person did come ask questions. Then we headed back out.

It was warmer now — above freezing. But the precipitation had stopped. Right after lunch, Isaac was all nervous again and almost gave up. We coaxed two good runs out of him at the magic carpet, and then we headed up the chairlift.

After noon, the snow started melting and turned into fog.

About half way up the mountain we disappeared into fog from the warm moist air over snow. At the top, Isaac was nervous again, but with some help from Tyson he skied all the way down the mountain. I was strictly on camera duty. I practiced some mono-marks and telemark technique. It’s really hard to execute good form when skiing behind a 3 year old wedge on a green slope. Tyson did a mix of backward wedge and skiing forward.

Isaac decided the next run should be on the magic carpet and then immediately he was ready for the chairlift again. They had been having some mechanical issues with the chairlift. They even shut it down over lunch. On the second trip up, we passed a repair person working at the top of one of the poles.

The second time down, Isaac did excellent. He skied independently almost all the way. I tried to ski a little run through the trees and found it really hard without poles. We called it quits at the end of that run when everyone was still smiling.

Here is a simple video summary: