Susan and I went to Bretton Woods in New Hampshire a few days ago to go skiing and try out the new skis we bought in the fall. It was a fairly crappy day for conditions, since temps were in the 50s and 60s the day or two before our arrival. The sun was supposed to come out, but the clouds just hung over the mountains to the west, leaving us a kind of grey day with ice that never softened.
After taking a few easy runs to get used to the new skis (they’re more shaped and longer than my old skis, which were old rental skis I bought used), I ventured to the summit and did some more serious skiing. Because of the conditions and the weather, a lot of the trails I was hoping to ski either weren’t open or had a very thin cover to the point where you could see grass and rocks. I wasn’t about to take my new skis over rocks and grass. I managed to ski about as much of the mountain as I was comfortable with before 11:00 (we arrived for first tracks at 8:00), getting in a good 10 runs. I took a longer break then and went back out for a couple more runs before stopping for lunch as it was getting crowded and lift lines were long (it was empty until about 10:00-10:30). After lunch, Susan decided she was done and I went out for another couple runs. I skied to the summit lift and then ventured down. After that run, my legs were like jelly and I had to call it quits or risk serious injury.
All in all, it was a good day. We only paid half price because we had a free pass from the purchase of Susan’s skis. It was worth what we paid, but I found most of the trails to be kind of boring. I had only been to Bretton Woods once before on the day after Thanksgiving and they only had one run open. This was better, but there wasn’t a whole lot of variety. Cannon is still my favorite mountain and I’m sure I’ll like it even more with the new skis. We’re hoping to get one more day of skiing in before our trip to Sunday River in February.