Heading out on a cold morning from Lowell Town Hall
The forecast leading up to the CTA 2020 Four Day Tour #1 was rather uncertain, and not encouraging. Heavy rain and warm weather in the few days prior, and then very cold and no new snow, but maybe something happening on the weekend. I figured if I canceled the tour, we'd get dumped on and wish we had skied, and if I ran the tour we'd have only dust-on-crust. So I decided to try to trick Mr. Murphy. Murphy's Law says "If something can go wrong, it will." So I canceled the tour, starting a cascade of events that led to a snowstorm forecast for the weekend. Then I un-canceled the Saturday, Sunday and Monday tours. Here's what happened:
1/17/2020 Friday's tour was canceled, it was going to be very cold, the cover was uncertain, the lake crossing on the Craftsbury Outdoor Center trail had been closed due to slush.
1/18/2020 Saturday we had six skiers for Section 29. We met at the Lowell Town Hall and Jan shuttled three drivers up to the end-of-plowing on the east side of Rt 58. We headed out on very thin cover, such that some folks walked the downhills to the river.
1/19/2020 Sunday ten of us decided to ski Sec 31, so that Monday could be a 'short' day on Sec 30 'downhill'. Overnight we got another ~10" of fluff. This led to driving issues on Jay Pass and lots of activity at the parking lot at the top. We left cars at Jay Village but not at the border. We all enjoyed the trip down to Jay Village, a 1000' descent. We had some trail-breaking work to do with the new snow.
1/20/2020 Monday eight of us skied Sec 30 southbound 'downhill'. We left cars at the Montgomery end of Rt 58 and drove to Jay Pass. Sec 30 had been skied uphill by the overnight folks with sleds so it was easy to follow, but still had the wet-snow issues of the previous days.
It was fun to have a group that consisted of seasoned end-to-enders (seven in all!) as well as new comers to CTA tours.
Thanks to all the landowners and trail maintainers and bridge builders and other behind-the-scenes helpers. Thanks to the CTA office staff for their support of the tour and the trail.
Thanks to Marie, Lynn, Will and Jay for photos.
Here is the N4DT#1 by the numbers:
3 days of skiing, 52 skier-days registered, 24 actual skier-days skied, 11 skiers skiing at least one day, 26.3 miles of Catamount Trail skied, 174 skier-miles skied, 10, most skiers on any day, 6, fewest skiers on any day, 4 women skiers, 7 men skiers, 10" of new snow overall, 2 couples skiing together, 6 skiers who skied at least part of all four days, 3 skiers new to MultiDay Tours, 7 skiers who were already End-to-Enders, 2 skiers who skied every part of all three days, 1 group potlucks at nearby homes, 5 trail chiefs who helped keep these sections of trail clear and available, 235+ emails to or from the tour coordinators, 1 host who opened his home for skiers, 2 boot failures, 1 ski failure, 0 bailout cars used. 0 days of rain forecast, 0 days of actual skiing in the rain, 1 days canceled for bad skiing, 0 injuries, 0 days canceled for bad weather, 0 lost skiers, 0 skiers who went away mad, 0 skiers who missed a day due to communications mix-ups, 0 skiers left at a trail head, 0 car problems or accidents,
These things were all uncountable, as they should be: smiles, laughs, thank yous, calories burned, help offered, beautiful vistas, tracks in the snow, interesting trail conversations.
