Took my FJ in to get inspected. Sat in the waiting room and did some writing. Got a carwash afterwards.

No lesson.

I came in expecting to take over a group of new hire training for their third and fourth days, but found out i was starting a new group. Three new hires—one in highschool, one in college, one in his low 30’s.

Day two of new hire training.

No lessons.

Turned 58. No lessons. Once again lost our winter league ultimate game.

Taught one 13-year-old girl first-timer. She picked it up fairly well—enough to get one run in on the base lift in the afternoon.

Day three of new hire training. Lots of riding on scraped-off snow. Nice looking moon in the morning.

Final day of new hire training. The trails got really scraped off, but it started snowing a little at the end of the day.

No work for me today. A couple inches of snow, but i was pretty wiped out from the weekend riding on super scrapey runs, so i took one base run and bailed, then went up to the farm and took pictures.

Austin and i split a group of three adults all day. Two were starting to get their turns down by the afternoon, one was still working on getting her balance over her heels. Everyone had a good day though—sunny and decent snow.

Went to the farm in the morning, then over to the transfer station in the afternoon. Bulo was a bit skittish on frozen Elfin Lake. Rightfully so—it held me but was groaning and cracking as i slid around close to shore.

No snowboard lessons, so Tom and i rode the fantastic snow all morning, then we got released after afternoon line-up.

Overnight, the snow took down a bunch of branches on the two maples in front of my house. I had to drag one out of the road into my driveway.

I helped pack down the Snow Stars Galaxy Bowl, then found out that i was needed to train one new snowboard instructor who turned out to be Emily, who i’d worked with all summer. Then at lunch i picked up a second new-hire, Pat, which threw a little wrench in my teaching, but it worked out.

Got home as it was getting dark and spent some time chainsawing up the downed limbs to clear them out of the driveway and the road.

I stopped along Route 103 to take some pictures of the brilliant sunrise.

Day two with Emily—Pat was a no-show. She wore out by the afternoon and learning wasn’t happening so we took a last run and wrapped up early. At one point, she stopped along the edge of Upper Arrow and when i slid in, there was a red fox just hanging out about 30 feet off the trail. We sat and chilled with it for a while.

First day of consolodated Ski + Ride School operations at Jackson Gore. No one seemed to be running the kids snowboard lessons, so i took over and handed out the lessons. I was going to take one blue-level kid, but a second one shoed up who had ridden with Sean the day before, so after one run, i let Sean take them and i ended up with three yellow-level kids. Took two runs on the way-too-flat magic carpet and then took them up the lift. They all did fine.

Ran the snowboard lessons again. Started out with two blue-level kids—same ones that Sean had the day before, but after three runs, the younger one got too cold and had a meltdown. We stopped at the Sugar House to warm up and he wanted to go home, so we slid down to the base and Wayne took him to call his parents. So i rode with the same 11-year-old girl that i’d started with on Monday and we did bumps and carving and a little bit of trees.

Drove down to Mount Snow and took three runs then went to their shop and bought a new pair of snowboard boots (employee discount—the Okemo shop doesn’t carry any snowboard gear).

Lots of rain today. I’d been called out so didn’t have to go in to work. The mountain ended up closing at 2:30 in preparation of the plunging temperatures approaching. I drove in around noon to drop off all of my equipment, which i’d brought home in anticipation of working at Jackson Gore. Stopped by Buttermilk Falls and got a very wet slushy walk in between bouts of rain.

The snow was hard, but not as bad as i’d expected. Cold and windy though. I had a morning private with a cautious woman who i’d had the year before, then an afternoon with a five-year-old beginner.

Second day with the same woman in the morning. Afternoon adult lessons were covered so i ended up scanning at the A Quad for an hour or so. The above picture is a reflection of the sky on the hood of my FJ Cruiser.

All-day kids lesson—one black-level kid who was a true black diamond rider. We did a lot of hops, ollies, and 180s. I was beat.

Same kid all day. Not as beat at the end of the day.

Day off.

Icicle off my porch eave first thing in the morning.

Andrew and i co-taught the blue/black group of four kids.

Two blue-level kids—one from the day before.

Nine snowboard kids today—four reds, four yellows, and one blue. I took the blue-level. Beautiful fogs in the valleys.