by Joann J. Ordille
Every year our club gathers after Christmas to ski and then welcome the New Year at the lodge. This year's gathering was a great success. Larry Goldberg said, "Every day was a party." Anne Dashevsky added, "You had to be there!" There was good skiing on New Year's Eve, and a wind hold on New Year's Day that gave everyone a chance to enjoy hiking and other pursuits. There was also quite a lot of interest in being one of Archie's angels. For that, you must check out the photo essay. I am delighted to provide a first hand account of the festivities from Rich Pulsfort, the Trip Captain. So, without further ado, here's Rich's account called "Puddles to Powder: How to spend 9 days in Vermont with no cell phone, computer and not go crazy."
At left, Bill Sodomora welcomes the New Year.
Puddles to Powder
How to spend 9 days in Vermont with no cell phone, computer and not go crazy
By Rich Pulsfort, edited by Joann Ordille
December 26, 2008
Drove up to the lodge only to find out the combo does not work because the batteries were old, so I got the key from Gilda and Rich (our neighbors) and moved my 9 days worth of stuff into the lodge. I was eager to have company. The lodge is very scary all alone. I started to think about drinking heavily.
December 27, 2008
I got up at the crack of dawn excited to ski only to discover VT was in the middle of a torrential down pour. I went to the mountain to give it a try only to find out the rain was moving horizontally. I decided to cut my losses and go order the keg for New Year's, have lunch at the Warren Store, get darts for the dart board and buy some provisions for dinner.
Photo: Trip Captain, Rich Pulsfort, makes sure the beer is well stocked.
December 28, 2008
The slush on the mountain. Spring skiing in December. The mountain looked more like Easter weekend than “Christmas was just 3 days ago!” I skied hard in the slush and carve-able ice all day. I love spring skiing. Temperatures were going to drop over night so I took my skis to get tuned to be ready for ice skating tomorrow.
December 29, 2008
Went skiing at South to find out the groomers did a great job on the mountain. I skied all day. Thank God, my skis were tuned to perfection. The skiing was fun but I prefer the North base which wasn't open yet. I went back to the lodge to greet more guests arriving.
December 30, 2008
Slept in because my girlfriend arrived at the lodge last night. (Insert perverted thoughts here.) I went for a nice lunch up in Waitsfield with her and got her set up for her lessons. (She really needs to learn how to ski and is getting better as of this publication.) This was the first night of meals. The replacement cooks made a delicious meal and we all ate heartily.
Photos: From left, Barbara Leparulo, Audra, LoBalbo, and Rich Pulsfort are ready to ski. From left, Ann-Margaret Shannon, Tracy Dragos, Andy Dioro, Audra LoBalbo and Marie Nardino celebrate the New Year.
December 31, 2008
New Years Eve day. We all woke up to some good cooking and went skiing. Many of the members went to South. The skiing was great because they were blowing snow all night and they had Stein’s run open. The base lodge at South has a nice bar but I still prefer North which wasn't open yet. Our NYE party was the best in some years thanks to the planning of the trip captain and his assistant captain. There was great food and drink. The shot station was a big hit as well as the 5 tables of hors d'oeuvres. Thanks to all of the guest bartenders and Darek’s home made hooch, many of us drank heavily.
Photos: The lifts are closed, so a group goes hiking. Ann and Shaun Rice enjoy the sunshine.
January 1, 2009
The members woke up to another delicious meal and frigid temperatures. The mountain was on wind hold so we started playing poker early in the afternoon. After loosing our money we made lunch with left-overs and went on a hike. The hike was fun. We came back and finished the keg from the party last night.
January 2, 2009
Many members were leaving to go home after a few days at the lodge and a whole new crew of members was coming up for the weekend. We had a little bit of snow so the skiing was getting much better and there was no wind today. Many of us skied until last chair. Anne started to cook again and the lodge was still festive because of the new members arriving eager to ski the weekend. With the new members arriving we considered some drinking to greet them in good spirits.
January 3, 2009
Finally some good snow. The Bush got about 6-8 inches of fresh powder and we all had a great time skiing. After skiing we went to the Dog House to watch the football playoff games and ...
January 4, 2009
Time to say good bye to my home away from home. (Definitley no heavy drinking today.)
Thanks to Darek Nawrocki for the great photos for this article.