New Hampshire Climbing Guide -- Mountaineering Instructor -- Member of The North Face Climbing Team

It has been so long since my last dispatch that I really don’t know where to begin. I guess I’m finding that it’s not that easy to motivate to write these things when you don’t even know if anyone at all is reading it. Theoretically, it doesn’t take a lot of time, but you do have to find the time to sit down and actually do it. One day seems to blur into another so perhaps it’s easiest if I recount what I’ve been up to starting from today and working back.

On Sunday morning I took my son Will to his first ski race up at Wildcat. He is a first year J5 on the Wildcat ski team. We got there at 7:30 and I don’t know exactly what the temperature was but the word that comes to mind is arctic. After picking up his bib, #57, we headed out for some warm up runs and to check out the course. As you probably know, we had a nice snowstorm up here on Saturday. The top of Wildcat recorded ten inches and with drifting I heard that it felt like 2 feet. I was really happy about the snow believe me, but instead of freshies at Wildcat I was up at Frankenstein on Standard Route. The ice was fat and we had a great day, but it was kind of sad to miss the only real powder day we have had all season.

I’m not sure what Will was thinking but when we saw the course for the first time I was a little concerned. It was a giant slalom running down the length of the bobcat trail. The snow was firm, even a little icy in spots, and the course looked long and fast. Will had only trained gates a few times and honestly the coach had questioned whether he should enter the race, but he wanted to race so bad that we had to let him. Now that we were looking at the course I fully realized what the coach had been thinking. It was too late now so we slipped the course, checking out the line, talking about which gates would be difficult, etc.

Due to a snafu with the signup he ended up running last of the J5s. This race was a J4-5 buddy Werner League qualifier. The girl J5s go first, the boy J5s, then the girl J4s, etc. So Will ended up getting into the course after 116 people had already been down it. Many of the gates were now super icy and there were small ruts. I was genuinely worried for Will so I slipped down to the top of the knoll to watch his run and pick up the pieces if he wiped out in spectacular fashion. Then I heard the starter, “5 seconds, 4,3,2,1 and there was Will pushing past the wand.

I had the digital camera in my pocket and I fully planned to get some photos and even an mpeg but I got so absorbed with his run that I totally forgot, both runs. Anyway, the kid ripped it up. He looked like a pro and completed both runs without so much as even skidding out on any of the gates. And the best part of all is that he had an awesome time.

It brought back a lot of really good memories for me because I was on the wildcat ski team when I was his age. I’m really happy that he is following in this family tradition. Now I just have to get my five year old Matthew up to speed.

Last weekend I was out in Utah for the Outdoor Retailer Trade show. On the Friday before the show The North Face runs an annual dealer event at Snowbird. The company invites out some of their best dealers for a dinner and party Thursday night and then on Friday they get to ski with athletes from the team like Scot Schmidt, Jeremy Nobis, Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Kit Deslauriers and ….Mark Synnott? Huh, what’s the deal with this? Don’t worry, I got assigned to the green group.

Anyway, it wasn’t quite as great as might think because the Wasatch has about 50% of their normal snow totals. Snowbird was pretty darn boney, and the locals were certainly not happy, but for a guy from New Hampshire it was still pretty epic, and it was super fun to ski and hang out with all my friends from the team. On Friday evening everyone moved down to Salt Lake for the show but I managed to stay an extra night up at the Cliff Lodge. The next morning I got up early and went on a great backcountry tour in an area next to Snowbird called White Pine Lake. They hadn’t had any new snow in a while, but on the recommendation of some friends I went looking for north facing slopes and trees. I ended up finding some excellent terrain and bunch of fresh tracks on a peak called Red Baldy. I made two laps, then skied 4.5 miles back down to the road. I hitched a ride back to the Cliff, hit the spa with its eucalyptus steam room, and still made it to the show by 4pm for a meeting.

I spent Sunday at the show meeting with my sponsors and various friends. It was pretty darn fun, especially after 2 days of skiing.

Right now winter is in full swing back here in the White Mountains. The cross country skiing here in Jackson is excellent and the downhill skiing up at wildcat and across the road on Mt. Washington is better than you might think. More than anything I’m amazed by how the ice has come back in. The conditions right now are truly epic and I’m excited to spend essentially every day for the rest of the winter either climbing or skiing. I think so far this winter I’ve only missed a couple days, and those were when I was traveling. There is snow on the ground and ice to climb, so life is good and we are all very happy here in the synnott household. Good luck with your own adventures. Enjoy it while you can.

Mark