It was a sunny day, four days after the last grooming at Birch Hill, but by starting at 9 a.m., the SCUM were able to ski over half of the White Bear with minimal difficulties. Our pole baskets were too small for the trails in many places, but high speed snowplowing still allowed injured SCUM to safely get down the downhills and the uphills were faster than our skills would normally dictate.

Kent, who had been injured all winter, was leading the pack.

En route to Beacon Cutoff, we encountered a minor water hazard at the Sonot Connector:

The photo above shows those of us who skied the White Bear in the normal direction until Dermot met us at Beacon Cutoff having skied White Bear backwards in hopes of finding us.

We turned back at Beacon and found the downhills exciting with the mix of icy and slushy surfaces. However, we all stayed upright, until the Warmup Loop, when our most skilled skier discovered he hadn’t fallen enough to know how to get back up. Fortunately, our photographer wasn’t quick enough to catch him on the snow.

Even with the snow enhancement on Wednesday, the trail under the Birch Hill Recreation Building was reduced to an isthmus this morning:

but was a wonderful way to end an exciting, but low effort ski in the sunshine.

This winter, my first ski was the FXC Masters power lunch workout on November 3, 2025 so if today is my last ski, it’s been a 174 day season, or almost 25 weeks. A huge thank you to all the groomers and to the skiers who contributed to the NSCF trail grooming fund. You made the coldest winter in recent history fun for even the oldest skiers on the trails.