# The (Other) White Ribbon of Death



## gpetrics (Oct 25, 2010)

*Date(s) Skied: * Friday evening October 22nd, and Saturday October 23rd.

*Resort or Ski Area: * Top of the West Coast of New England

*Conditions: * Powder on a supportive styrafoam base and/or normal White Ribbon of Death conditions

*Trip Report: *

On Friday October 22, 2010 I got official word that the official ski season had officially begun with the first official White Ribbon of Death (WROD) in North America. Being a die hard skier, I wanted to make a schussing of it. Unfortunately my Twitter feed was acting up so I couldn't determine where the first official WROD of the season had been installed.

Since everyone knows the first ski area to open on the east coast is always in Vermont I was able to rule out every resort in New Hampshire, Maine, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, etc. Never in the history of resort skiing have Vermont ski areas been beaten to the punch, and lost the race to open their slopes for hundreds of thousands of die-hard, mostly-gainfully-employed, work-hard-play-hard skiers and riders salivating to get “that feeling” for the first time in months. (I mean seriously: Who would be so stupid as to tell that kind of crowd that they don't want to take their money for another month-or-so?!) 

Masters of logic that we both are, Ben and I ran a few calculations, made a few graphs, consulted our abacus and finally reasoned that the most sensible place for the WROD would be high... not low; as high as we could go in fact. Brilliant! Furthermore, we surmised that as long as we headed up rather than down we'd find the highest point, and thus the WROD in no time. With this Bulletproof Plan nailed down, we packed our bags, beer and schuss gear, and set out late on Friday night on a quest for glory, snowgun-faceshots and Nutella-and-Fluff sandwiches... but mostly Nutella-and-Fluff sandwiches. Those things are cheap, tasty and hold up well in a backpack. 

After hours of white-knuckle driving, we parked our cars at the base of some mountain, put our skins on and headed up in accordance with The Bulletproof Plan. We quickly realized however that our Bulletproof Plan was showing some faint signs of weakness: we noticed that The Plan did not allow for us to make a quick schuss if we found a WSOD (White Something-besides-ribbon of Death) before happening upon the official WROD. We thus quickly made Amendment Number One: schuss any worthy WSOD should it present itself prior to finding the official WROD. We quickly availed ourselves of this Friday evening when we found a pretty fine Something. Christian took first taste.




After having a few laps of fun on this fine little WSOD, we pushed up. A little further along though, the sun came out and illuminated another beautiful (if slightly rocky) WSOD. Ben couldn't resist exercising the rights guaranteed to us by Amendment Number One yet again. 




As we put our skins back on at the bottom of this WSOD KC pointed out that Amendment Number One was starting to eat up a lot of time. Ben and I retired to our chamber to discuss the matter privately, and upon our return decided we would increase the working threshold implied by the phrase “worthy WSOD” in Amendment Number One, and let the appellate courts sort it out later. Onwards to the WROD! 




We pressed on. After an exciting mile of overland travel completely exposed to the fierce wind we could sense we were getting close. The WROD was near. However before we got there we saw something we could never have accounted for while creating The Bulletproof Plan: a White Powder Choked Untracked Cursed Schuss of Death (WPCUCSOD). Amendment Number Two (heh... I said "number two") was quickly drafted, signed and RADified...




Ben was going new school by hitting the feature with one ski on "auto-eject" mode.




After several laps in the WPCUCSOD, finally we were done with the amendments. We rounded a corner, and there gleaming in the shade below a host of snowfields all filtering downwards like a game of Plinko was the prize; the WROD. It looked—well--deadly for lack of a better word.




The rest including more pictures, words and the maybe/maybe-not first schuss this season of the WROD is over on FIS.


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## Glenn (Oct 25, 2010)

Great pics...and love the PBR shot!


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## RootDKJ (Oct 25, 2010)

gpetrics said:


> Ben was going new school by hitting the feature with one ski on "auto-eject" mode.


great shot!


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## billski (Oct 25, 2010)

But did Ben ever find his ski?
Looks like a 11-12 Calendar candidate.  Throw a little humor in the mix next year!


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## bvibert (Oct 25, 2010)

gpetrics said:


> Ben was going new school by hitting the feature with one ski on "auto-eject" mode.





RootDKJ said:


> great shot!



Agreed!  Awesome!

Great TR in general too! :beer:


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## gpetrics (Oct 25, 2010)

billski said:


> But did Ben ever find his ski?



it stuck into the ground and stabbed him in the foot.... so yes 



billski said:


> Throw a little humor in the mix next year!



duly noted in the log captain!

i agree completely too... we have too much fun on the website to not liven up the product. it's on "the list" and slowly but surely we're zeroing in on "the perfect" calendar


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## gpetrics (Oct 25, 2010)

bvibert said:


> Agreed!  Awesome!
> 
> Great TR in general too! :beer:



thanks!


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## billski (Oct 25, 2010)

gpetrics said:


> it stuck into the ground and stabbed him in the foot.... so yes



That's a candidate for one of those "what's wrong with this picture?" lines


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## bvibert (Oct 25, 2010)

bvibert said:


> Great TR in general too! :beer:



For those who haven't already checked out the full TR on FIS I highly recommend it.  The abridged version above is a good teaser, but the full report is even better.


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## riverc0il (Oct 25, 2010)

Nads. Sensational schuss! I am kinda dumbfounded that is skiable right now! Good show!


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## gpetrics (Oct 26, 2010)

thanks for the vote of confidence Brian! And thanks for the kind words Steve! it blew our minds as well... when that happens i usually expect either a.) a good TR, or b.) absolutely no pictures


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