Bretton Woods Beach Party

Today was the 26th Annual Bretton Woods Beach Party. There was snow volleyball, beach party BBQ, live music and skimming the slush pool. My youngest son was with me and another would meet up with us later at the ski lodge. Lift tickets were $25 for those that wore beach attire. I had my tropical shirt on.

 White peaks and blue sky over the northern Presidentials

Morning clouds over Mount Washington

Bretton Woods slopes

Clouds were lifting over the high summits on the drive over to Bretton Woods. The Presidential peaks have a heavy snow cover and looked fantastic against a deep blue sky. We pulled into the parking lot and it was filling up fast. There was going to be a large crowd today and long lift lines.

 Taking a break

Dressed for the occasion

We geared up, purchased our lift tickets and got in line for the Bethlehem Express high speed quad. It was getting warm and I realized that I had over-dressed. Too late to turn back and change so I just unzipped. At least I remembered to put on sun screen today. The past two weekends I've come home with a sunburned face.

 Spectacular views today

I'm not a big fan of Spring skiing but my youngest wanted to go snowboarding one last time this season. At the end of today I think he was sorry he went one more time as you will soon understand.

Checking out the jumps

Snow conditions were already soft, granular and somewhat sticky in places. Like last weekend the trick was to stay on the shady side of the trail. While the snow consistency was varied there was no lack of snow with 100 of 102 trails open. There was plenty of snow everywhere!

We didn't have much luck finding a short lift line but it was tolerable and could have been worse. As it got closer to lunchtime the lines got shorter. My other son called and we met in front of the ski lodge. After a couple of runs our day and season of skiing and riding suddenly came to an end.

 Fantastic views on the drive home

While taking a run down the Avalon trail I looked back up to see my youngest son laying flat on his back. His brother went up to check on him and I made my way up. He got up into a sitting postion and took several minutes to get up. Seems he caught an edge and went down hard injuring his right wrist. There was no deformity or swelling and he rode his board back to the bottom. It hurt enough to end his day of riding. A side trip to the emergency room on the way home and an x-ray revealed a fractured wrist. Not a great way to end the season.

End of the season

The skiing and riding season may be over but with the approaching warm weather and continuing snow melt we will look forward to getting out on the hiking trails and summiting some more peaks on our list of 4,000 footers!

Last ride after the fall!

Having Fun in the Great Outdoors!