Acadia National Park - July 3-6, 2014

Headed up to Acadia National Park Thursday evening, July 3rd and stayed through Sunday, July 6 (technically pulling into Boston at about 1:30 a.m. on Monday, July 7 in a successful effort to avoid post-holiday traffic).  It is a haul to get up there, but with the long weekend and a free place to stay (thanks Ryan and Jocelyn!) it did not take much convincing to head north and finally check the area out.  I had been to Acadia once before, but it was only a day trip and it was foggy and rainy, hardly ideal conditions to appreciate the place.

This trip was much more successful - great weather (other than one 12 hour window when the hurricane rolled through).  Took three different hikes, explored Bar Harbor, jumped off a rock in Long Pond, and spent lots of time just hanging out with great friends and their families.  And "camped" (albeit on a wind sheltered deck) through my first hurricane.  Stayed mostly dry, but not much sleep that night.  All that water made for some great hiking the next day though - the amount of flooding on the trails was pretty surprising!

Enjoy the pictures!

NE Snowfield, Great Gulf/Airplane Gully, & the Auto Road - May 25, 2014

Scott, Watson and I closed out the season with our first Slackfest outing on Sunday, May 25, 2014.  We pulled up to the Auto Road entrance at 8:15 a.m. in the #3 position.  Pretty quickly there was a line of at least 10 cars behind us.  We were excited to capitalize on a decent weather window Sunday morning and early afternoon in an otherwise poor forecast for the long weekend.

Auto Road is a bit pricey - $36 for two, but much better than a lift ticket I suppose.  And the price includes a free audio CD that might have been interesting if we weren't so terrified of careening off the narrow, guard-rail less road.  Definitely the scariest part of the day.

- Driving up the Auto road, looking across Huntington towards Dodge's Drop and Hillman's -

We parked near the NE snowfield after initially taking a look out into Great Gulf from the Air Force parking lot.  Well, after taking a look into the fog - we couldn't actually see the Great Gulf.  After talking to a few folks, we decided to take a few runs on the snowfield first in an effort to actually see Airplane Gully before skiing it.

- Map of Great Gulf - 

- Looking across Great Gulf to Airplane Gully after the fog lifted - 

GOS Sandbox, plus a little exploration - May 3, 2014

Scott and I headed up to Mt. Washington on Saturday, May 3.  Long week at work meant I couldn't leave Charlestown until Saturday morning.  Threat of rain/visibility issues on Saturday afternoon motivated me to set the alarm on the early side.  Left the house at 4:45 a.m., picked Scott up in Portsmouth at 5:40, and pulled into the visitor center parking lot at 7:35 a.m.  Figured the late season trip coupled with a threat of rain would mean a guaranteed spot in the main lot.  I lost that wager and owe Scott a beer, we were the 2nd car parked in the first auxiliary lot. 

We headed up Hillman hoping to ski Dutchess, but it became apparent the line would require some careful turns and side-stepping through the choke in the middle - just not enough snow to get after it for the whole run.

Happo One Video and Misc. Japan Pictures

Kelly and I were fortunate to travel to Japan from April 17, 2014 to April 26, 2014 for the second leg of our honeymoon (we are trying to start a new thing by taking two honeymoons).  I managed to make my way to Hakuba via Nagano for some skiing at Happo One on April 21st.  It was a cool solo adventure in the far east for me, and I could see the potential of the ski area on a mid-winter powder day, but unfortunately it more or less poured the whole day which certainly put a damper on the skiing.   The snow was actually pretty fun - serious mashed potatos - and it was cool to see and ski the '98 Men's downhill run as well as explore a bit off piste (to the extent possible given the late spring conditions).  Here are some pictures and video:

- Some Japanese Information in the lift line - 

 



 

- Noodles for lunch -

 

Mt. Flume Slide - April 6, 2014

Scott, Mike, Ed and I headed up to Mt. Flume on Sunday April 6, 2014.  Weather was favorable most of the week leading up to the weekend, but some mixed precipitations and droping temperatures locked things up on Saturday.  Sunday promised to be sunny (and windy), with temps hovering in the mid-30s.  We thought if we could find something south of Mt. Washington, and also south-facing, we would have our best shot of finding some soft snow.

It was actually quite cold when we arrived at the trail head.  We started skiinning at 10 a.m. knowing that things wouldn't warm up, if at all, until much later in the day.  But temperatures rose quickly and it was over 40 by noon.  The snow pack was changing before our eyes - much to our excitement.  Coverage on the flume slide looked good, and it is a long slide, so we were hoping for a great run.