Any Trail on your mind??

I'm sure everyone on this site is looking forward to the ski season ( or has already started) but is there any one run that keeps going through your brain begging to be skied??
 I ski mostly at Sunday River where I have a condo but will also ski Sugarloaf, K and Sugarbush.  Don't know why but Slidebrook at the Bush been keeping me up at nights. Not sure if it's that great but it's begging...

Good one Treewell; and yes I have one in mind.

Actually I was road cycling yesterday on a route that has a ¾ mile section that is a lightly traveled clean road that you simply aero and fly.  Then just as you hit top end you’ve got to quickly cover break making an abrupt choice of right hand turns between either of two side streets that each begin a series of tight turns further downhill in a residential section. 

Bingo! 

I began thinking about Stone Creek Chutes found at Beaver Creek.  Cycling that section yesterday reminded me of the sensation of flying down Red Buffalo & Ripsaw looking for and making a choice to drop into either upper or lower Stone Creek.  Those Chutes have been on my mind since that ride…I’m most looking forward to them this season as they have some steep, tight and technical play.  I think I’ll bike that route again tomorrow      

Actually, I have been thinking about a trail from my past. Around 40 years ago when I was 10 or 11, my uncle took us from our home hill of Sunday River for an excursion to Stowe. He was not one for the gentle introduction. He pointed us in the direction of the Front Four and off we went. I distinctly remember sliding down the entire National - or at least as far as you could go. More than once. Before snow making. Before grooming. But gravity still worked pretty good. I had never seen moguls like that. Kind of smallish on the front side, and then dropping off the back like a frozen VW Beetle on an incline. 

But what I really remember is a crossover called Panic Alley. It was a narrow (6' maybe) double fall line that connected something to something. Maybe Upper Gondi Line to Nose Dive? I have not found it on a current map. What was most memorable was that it was the first (and only) time I ever skied on blue ice. Like the ice that forms from running water. Like frozen blubber. Like you were skiing down a stream. That pretty much describes it. Aptly named. Can anyone provide some geography?

Thanks,
David

The home hill is always the one I think about first- Elk Mountain, PA.  We might not have skiing like Stowe or places out west, and even though I've skied far "better", the home-hill always calls me.

Chippewa after a fresh coating of  snow; ungroomed.

Beautiful.  Can't wait.

Once I ski that, though, I'll move on to bigger things.

The next one...

I want to go ski Max's Mountain at Alyeska again.  Used it for a closing run at Aleyska Air Service years ago.  Stand at the bottom of the ski area and look 1 mountain right, that would be it.  Don't even think about in avi conditions, it has taken out the day lodge and chairlifts before.

Not the biggest or the steepest bump in the country, but when the snow is good and the springtime sun is on it, it just does not get to much better in my muddled little brain.  It is about 3K of vertical with everything on it, and a cold beer at the bottom. 

What a way to end a day first tracks for last tracks.  If I can't do that, just about anything large in Europe would work too, they too have beer at the bottom.

This summer I was training for a 10k run by mostly running outside, which I really like. But on a couple of days strong thunderstorms made me go run on the treadmill, which seemed really boring compared to running outside. To offset the boredom, I just cranked my ipod and stared at the same spot on the wall, while replaying on my mind all the runs I skied off the West Basin Ridge at Taos, from Spitfire to Wonder Bowl. It really made the running time go by fast.

I guess I don't have just one trail on my mind, but a bunch of them off the West Basin. Really looking forward to skiing them again this season.

I can close my eyes and picture every bump and turn on Whiteout at Steamboat.

But the run that burns in my mind most is one of the last  runs I skied last year, Brain Damage on Sliver King in Crystal Mountain, Washington. Mostly because it's freshest in my mind.

Either one.