Seven friends and I went up to Smuggs on this past weekend for our annual trip. Of course, given the season we’ve had, we weren’t expecting much. Figured we’d make the best of the conditions and if it was really bad, well, that’s what booze is for. However, we ended up with a pretty good weekend.

We arrived and checked in at around 10:30 on Friday. It would be a while before our condo was ready so we suited up in the parking lot and hit the hill. I immediately regretted my decision to skip getting my board tuned. Super hardpack and straight up ice was the primary surface. The only way to stay upright was to hug the edges. We did some recon to see what was open and what was possibly poachable. Smuggs has always been pretty cool about letting people ride stuff when other resorts would say no way. They had some trails (like the Sterling liftline) I was downright surprised that it wasn’t roped off. We quit and started drinking around 2 and finally got into our rooms a little after that.

It snowed overnight and got significantly warmer, giving us some nice soft surfaces on Saturday morning. We got in some great runs on Madonna, and were actually able to get into the woods. We found some nice stashes where the snow got blown in from the open trails and piled up fairly deep. It was a blast and far exceeded any expectations I had for the weekend. Unfortunately, sometime around noon it got warm enough to turn the light snowfall to r@!n.
Things got pretty sticky so we calledit a day and started doing 12 oz. curls.

Later that night, the it turned back to snow. There was only a coating at the condo but agood deal more had fallen higher up.Thefirst couple hundred vertical feet from the top of Madonna was a good 6 inchesof fluffy powder, with drifts much deeper.After that it got heavy and a little crusty but was still better thanthe icy stuff on Friday.We continuedfinding stashes in the woods for most of the morning.

Compared to last year, this trip wasn’t anything to writehome about, but considering what we’ve had this season, it felt like a rewardfor staying positive and making the best of a bad situation.

Seven friends and I went up to Smuggs on this past weekend for our annual trip. Of course, given the season we’ve had, we weren’t expecting much. Figured we’d make the best of the conditions and if it was really bad, well, that’s what booze is for. However, we ended up with a pretty good weekend.

We arrived and checked in at around 10:30 on Friday. It would be a while before our condo was ready so we suited up in the parking lot and hit the hill. I immediately regretted my decision to skip getting my board tuned. Super hardpack and straight up ice was the primary surface. The only way to stay upright was to hug the edges. We did some recon to see what was open and what was possibly poachable. Smuggs has always been pretty cool about letting people ride stuff when other resorts would say no way. They had some trails (like the Sterling liftline) I was downright surprised that it wasn’t roped off. We quit and started drinking around 2 and finally got into our rooms a little after that.

It snowed overnight and got significantly warmer, giving us some nice soft surfaces on Saturday morning. We got in some great runs on Madonna, and were actually able to get into the woods. We found some nice stashes where the snow got blown in from the open trails and piled up fairly deep. It was a blast and far exceeded any expectations I had for the weekend. Unfortunately, sometime around noon it got warm enough to turn the light snowfall to r@!n.
Things got pretty sticky so we calledit a day and started doing 12 oz. curls.

Later that night, the it turned back to snow. There was only a coating at the condo but agood deal more had fallen higher up.Thefirst couple hundred vertical feet from the top of Madonna was a good 6 inchesof fluffy powder, with drifts much deeper.After that it got heavy and a little crusty but was still better thanthe icy stuff on Friday.We continuedfinding stashes in the woods for most of the morning.

Compared to last year, this trip wasn’t anything to writehome about, but considering what we’ve had this season, it felt like a rewardfor staying positive and making the best of a bad situation.