Groomed or not groomed ...

Skied at Windham Mountain on Tuesday. A little chilly, overcast day. I got there early, before 8:30. Lifts spun at 9.
Got snagged as a buddy-for-the-day by Steve G., a former wall street trader up from "Joizy" for the day.
Steve told me he checks the online trail report and sees what is groomed and what isn't and sticks to the groomed trails.
I check it too but pay more attention to how many trials are opened than whether they are groomed or not.
After warming up on a few short greens we headed over to the west peak and hit Whistler straight down the mountain under the lift for a few runs.
We alternated choosing runs between us and I took Steve over to Windfall

which is a new blue square this year. It was not groomed and not great. Not icy but pretty hard and rough.
Later we took Waltz, a narrow but not too steep chute into Warpath from the top. Not groomed and not great either.
I did a similar chute in the same general area, Wizard (formerly Whisper) and it was icy just about all the way into Warpath same as I remembered it a couple of years ago only this year my skills are better.
Later, after Steve left for the day I skied Why Not (groomed/good) over on the east peak and then Wing'n It (not groomed/bad).
The lesson learned: ungroomed trails are OK on powder days or as a necessary evil to get to good snow otherwise why bother?
Favorite runs of the day: on the west peak, upper warpath to whiskey jack
and on the east side, Why Not to Wintuck to lower Wicked.
Good surfaces all and Whiskey Jack is one of those narrow twisty blues that is just the right pitch and has banked turns that for some reason I find so exhilarating. Other similar trails like that are Sidewinder at Catamount and Drifter at Stratton.
25 runs for the day in all and here is a link to my Alpine Replay stats:  http://www.alpinereplay.com/stats/u?uId=46688&vId=837767

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