Winter-Spring Transition: Variety is the spice of life

Everyone was off and running in their own directions this week.  For whoever posts a TR in the comments I'll repost the TR here on the main page.

Mutha's Trip Report (Pics Here):  The Chic-Chocs and Burt Ravine Ski

Drove for 9.5 hours and skied for three days and out there you only ski what you climb.  We hit Champ de Mars, Hogsback and a long ski into the bowl of Mt. Albert.  For the latter, a storm blew in before we had time to ascend the flank and we had to ski back out the 7k long drainage.  Scenic, but not epic (except for distance).

For the two summits we successfully ascended, skiing down included finding glades or sections that we could yo-yo.  On Champ de Mars we found a glade that we (or at least Greg and I) skied 8 runs at least (kind of lost count).

Conditions were challenging (snow cover was melted out on some summits and in the heat of the day the snowpack (varying from 1-5ft) turned real soft.  With the storm arriving, it rained all night and we cut the trip short a day early to head down and hit Mt. Washington.

As for Mt. Washington and Burt Ravine, well, let's say my skills were not up to it.  I skied  down from the summit down into the top of Burt and pretty much called it a day.  I skied back to the cog and headed down on a more comfortable angle.  Minor disappointment, however, since the Blue-Bird day was cause for celebration on its own.

Interesting note:  in the Cog parking lot, there were bats out - flying around, crawling on the ground and the snow and on the building.  Probably white-nose fungus infection - and they're no doubt dead by now - but the ground wasn't littered w/ dead bodies so perhaps that was the first day of slaughter.

Tragic loss:  One fellow on the Mt. Washington trip dropped his snowboard (he had removed it to traverse an ice/rock section near the summit).  The board landed flat and shot across the surface and over the edge and down into the Great Gulf.  I'm kind of tempted to go in and look for it as a little spring snowshoe project.

4 days of quad-burning workout.  I'm tender, although I could certainly ski more.