With my lower back seized up pretty tight from the long drive to northern Vermont I decided to try the new ski's out a little closer to home. I knew the snow wasn't going to be as good as the Jay bc but it was new territory for me and I'm always up for some exploration. I have been wanting to find a tour at the gate of Crawford notch for a couple years now. I've skied down in the notch, taking off from the Willey house, but now it was time to find something around the Highland Center at the top of the notch. It always seems to be stormy there, flurries and wind, pushing snow around the train station and pond. Rugged mountains rising up over 4000' in the distance, frosted in white, teasing an intrigued skier to venture a little closer for a more intimate look. So with the new ski's on the feet I headed up towards Mt. Avalon, Field, and Tom and the snowy looking bowl nestled between them.

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With 2" of fresh snow on sometimes supportable, sometimes breakable, denser and snowier crust it skied a lot better than the icy ski grabbing crust I've skied in NH lately. It was deep too!

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I looked around mostly on the north face of Mt. Field. Lots of things looked good from down below but once you were standing on top looking down they seemed to tighten up. The snow wasn't good enough to really enjoy the steeper stuff but I found some nice little wiggle lines on the lower angle glades and creeks around the main trail up the middle. It turned into a pretty continuous, pleasant glade/creek run to the bottom. It was a good starting point for my explorations in this area. I'll be back, need to find a good tour out of the Highland Center, it's too nice to not have one.

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The new skis with the powder rocker tip stayed on top and pivoted under my feet better than my other skis, more finesse less power, a good thing on the aging body.