Mayans miscalculation = Maine skiing!

It's all good! After considerable hype and hoopla about Doomsday on Dec 21, 2012 - the first day of winter arrived seemlessly and with snow in the Maine mountains. Smart skiers, ok - Greg & myself, saw the predictions for the last day on earth (yeah, right) and for snow in the mountains, so we made the obvious executive decision to skip out of the office for a Friday ski day. Just in case it was indeed our last day, it seemed like the better choice - downhill time versus more desk time.

The drive to Sunday River was slippery to say the least, but that made for great fresh snow on our first several runs from South Ridge, and the cozy uphill confines of the Chondola cabin, to Spruce Peak where we were among the first down American Express (chaching), Downdraft and Risky Biz, followed by Barker runs on Right Stuff and Sunday Punch, then over to Aurora Peak where we felt like we were in a winter's fairy tale - few other skiers, just frosted sparkly trees draping over us, soft snow and silence - magical.

By lunch, we had logged 10 runs, and headed to the Foggy Goggle, with our foggy goggles and damp mittens. A plentiful pub lunch with a picture window out to the slopes was perfect, and allowed us to keep tabs on the precipitation situation. The morning's mixed snow had turned to the other four letter word, rhymes with pain...we tested the wicking properties of our outerwear after lunch, with mixed results in the mixed precipitation! Hey Santa, a new waterproof jacket would be sweet, but I'll probably settle for a spray of Scotchguard!

Well, like the Mayan calendar, you never know what you are going to get on Dec 21, first day of winter and the shortest day of the year. Glad we chose to spend the anticipated apolcalypse pursuing our favorite sport  - alpine!

If you are looking for winter in New England, and really long for a White Christmas, I recommend you head to the ski areas up north - Maine got the bounty this past week, 20 to 30 inches of new snow at Sunday River, Saddleback and Sugarloaf respectively.

Happy White Christmas everyone...