we got more than a foot! it started snowing tuesday around 6:00a and got going good and steady before noon. i had been checking to see if lyme had canceled school--mascoma and the other upper valley sau's had all done so monday evening. evidently lyme was the lone one open and if i wanted a partner, i would have to wait. surprise, surprise, skip called around 1:00p as they shut down early and sent everybody home. we arranged to try out the shaker backcountry over at la salette. i promised i would be ready when he swung by to pick me up.
we got our gear on and were skiing away from the car sometime around 3-ish. it was still snowing pretty hard, but didn't seem to be all that deep as we went up the big hill. near the top of the lower hayfield, we caught up to another guy on tele skis and coaxed him into following us into the woods. at the height of land above the upper hayfield he turned back and left us for what we all expected to be a sweet run, through the woods, back to the fields, and down.
we had our own downhill through the woods and back to the trail where we would turn again and keep heading higher, making the big loop. it came back to another trail through a narrow path that in the right snow was a bunch of fun. it was almost, the right snow, and if i had my fast skis i am sure it would have been even more fun. but with scales on our ski bottoms, we didn't have to stop and put on skins. for that 'luxury' i was willing to put up with a little slowness though the increasingly deeper snow.
at the end of the narrow woods path, we made our next big turn, without skins, and climbed toward the potato field. from there we pointed our tips down the trail we call the little sherburne. i can't speak for skip, but i didn't stop until after i emerged back on the trail from taking a little chute i cut years ago and rarely ski. today there was plenty of snow and squeezing through the trees was exciting. when i popped back out and hockey stopped to watch for skip i skidded about six feet--under the snow on the trail it was solid ice from the melt down in feb.
skip didn't appear for a bit but when he did he was a bit snowy. he said something about a yard sale up above and i figured he found some ice too. seeing my tracks exiting the woods made him easy to convince to go back up above the entrance and try it for himself. i warned him there were a couple of tight squeezes and heard him woop it up as he went through.
we met again at the bottom of things and headed back to the car, fully satisfied with the conditions back to full winter. i was planning for the next day already, and skip was wishing he had taken wednesday off as well as thursday--when he had arranged to ski with his brother richard. a bit jealous but ever the dedicated teacher, he encouraged me to go north wednesday and he could work on convincing richard to go back there with both of us on thursday. that sounded like a grand plan.
wednesday morning i woke to breaks of blue sky and excitedly geared up. as i decided about where i would actually go, i thought of calling matt m. as mascoma had an delayed opening. but i wanted to go big, probably moosilauke, and matt was a senior and would have to be back when school opened. i packed the truck up, and headed out alone.
when i turned off of 25 in warren, i saw this highway sign and promised myself i would stop on the way home to get a picture. going by it in december with simon, we had forgotten both ways. actually, it had been dark on the way home.
i got to breezy point road accessing the carriage road up moosilauke and turned in with a big smile. after passing the last house, i saw two vehicles parked off to the side where the plow had stopped--and banked them in. a young guy was shoveling out, already done with his tour and headed to work. he mentioned nasty weather up high, still snowing and blowing hard up on the summit ridge, where he had turned around.
i booted up, clicked into my skis, and started skinning. the guy leaving mentioned that two others from the upper valley and dartmouth were up there. that made me feel ok about being solo. my current winter's bid to ski the new hampshire 4000 footers was barely off the ground, partly due to lack of partners. if simon or noah were here--so far they have been the ones to ski a 4000 footer with me--i would probably be ticking off some of the remaining 45 peaks left to bag. i was here on moosilauke, my 'home' peak of the 48 big ones, because i have skied it dozens of times--curiously, only twice up to and down from the summit. that was comfortable, i was willing to deal with little surprises, they can even be pleasing. big surprises though could turn into disastors, especially in winter. most of the other high peaks i never even hiked in winter, let alone try to ski--it was times like these my gram's words made sense, even to a risk taker, "better safe than sorry".
but today it was a beautiful. i was skiing through about a foot of fluff and it was still snowing. it was °15F, perfect for gaining a few thousand feet altitude over 5+ miles. i had a raisin bread pb&j w/ chedder in the pack--what more could a retired teacher ask for?
i was thinking about all this skinning up. at some point it struck me--maybe when the two dartmouth med students came down past--this was a young person's endeavor. not the being out in the snow covered woods on a beautiful day, the skiing up 5.5 miles to 4802 feet, turning around and skiing down--that was doable. it had more to do with the desire. or as billy put it "only kobus would think of doing something like ski the 4000 footers." i don't know about that, but the risk-o-meter likely gets turned way back when we get older. that and we are often tied to a job, or our health is less than optimal.
i kept going up, wondering if skip would ever retire or kevin would get his ankle fixed. but even those two long time adventure partners did not always share my tendency toward 'high risk.' i get that hesitation, some of these routes are sketchy at best on skies. and i do share some of their 'fair weather skier' preferences. in the here and now, as the trees grew shorter, the wind blew harder, and the snow went from deep and fluffy to packed and drifty, i contemplated that this might not be a summit day. but then a couple sets of tracks came onto the carriage road at the junction with snapper and i pushed higher.
as i got around 'windy corner' and the trail opened up below where it narrows again near the junction of glenn cliff, it was snowing and blowing harder. it was also cold enough to put my jacket back on even with the exertion of climbing. the tracks from off the snapper and those of the three dartmouth folks earlier were drifting over or already gone. my track was through about an inch of snow atop a stiff windpack. at the 'anti-snowmobile rocks', i decided to turn around, take off the skins, and head down to whoop it up back in the powder and trees. that seemed preferable to skiing at the edge of control up here on wind blown hardpack.
back down in the trees and cutting turns through the powder, i realized why i kept going into the backcountry, even if i was alone. my soft, sinuous path was nigh on sensual. i wouldn't always make it to the top, even the young people have sense enough to turn around at craziness. if we do get to a summit fine, if not, i will take this side of heaven anyday. if i pitch it right, i may even convince a few old guys to join me--risk free...
we got our gear on and were skiing away from the car sometime around 3-ish. it was still snowing pretty hard, but didn't seem to be all that deep as we went up the big hill. near the top of the lower hayfield, we caught up to another guy on tele skis and coaxed him into following us into the woods. at the height of land above the upper hayfield he turned back and left us for what we all expected to be a sweet run, through the woods, back to the fields, and down.
we had our own downhill through the woods and back to the trail where we would turn again and keep heading higher, making the big loop. it came back to another trail through a narrow path that in the right snow was a bunch of fun. it was almost, the right snow, and if i had my fast skis i am sure it would have been even more fun. but with scales on our ski bottoms, we didn't have to stop and put on skins. for that 'luxury' i was willing to put up with a little slowness though the increasingly deeper snow.
at the end of the narrow woods path, we made our next big turn, without skins, and climbed toward the potato field. from there we pointed our tips down the trail we call the little sherburne. i can't speak for skip, but i didn't stop until after i emerged back on the trail from taking a little chute i cut years ago and rarely ski. today there was plenty of snow and squeezing through the trees was exciting. when i popped back out and hockey stopped to watch for skip i skidded about six feet--under the snow on the trail it was solid ice from the melt down in feb.
skip didn't appear for a bit but when he did he was a bit snowy. he said something about a yard sale up above and i figured he found some ice too. seeing my tracks exiting the woods made him easy to convince to go back up above the entrance and try it for himself. i warned him there were a couple of tight squeezes and heard him woop it up as he went through.
we met again at the bottom of things and headed back to the car, fully satisfied with the conditions back to full winter. i was planning for the next day already, and skip was wishing he had taken wednesday off as well as thursday--when he had arranged to ski with his brother richard. a bit jealous but ever the dedicated teacher, he encouraged me to go north wednesday and he could work on convincing richard to go back there with both of us on thursday. that sounded like a grand plan.
wednesday morning i woke to breaks of blue sky and excitedly geared up. as i decided about where i would actually go, i thought of calling matt m. as mascoma had an delayed opening. but i wanted to go big, probably moosilauke, and matt was a senior and would have to be back when school opened. i packed the truck up, and headed out alone.
when i turned off of 25 in warren, i saw this highway sign and promised myself i would stop on the way home to get a picture. going by it in december with simon, we had forgotten both ways. actually, it had been dark on the way home.
i got to breezy point road accessing the carriage road up moosilauke and turned in with a big smile. after passing the last house, i saw two vehicles parked off to the side where the plow had stopped--and banked them in. a young guy was shoveling out, already done with his tour and headed to work. he mentioned nasty weather up high, still snowing and blowing hard up on the summit ridge, where he had turned around.
i booted up, clicked into my skis, and started skinning. the guy leaving mentioned that two others from the upper valley and dartmouth were up there. that made me feel ok about being solo. my current winter's bid to ski the new hampshire 4000 footers was barely off the ground, partly due to lack of partners. if simon or noah were here--so far they have been the ones to ski a 4000 footer with me--i would probably be ticking off some of the remaining 45 peaks left to bag. i was here on moosilauke, my 'home' peak of the 48 big ones, because i have skied it dozens of times--curiously, only twice up to and down from the summit. that was comfortable, i was willing to deal with little surprises, they can even be pleasing. big surprises though could turn into disastors, especially in winter. most of the other high peaks i never even hiked in winter, let alone try to ski--it was times like these my gram's words made sense, even to a risk taker, "better safe than sorry".
but today it was a beautiful. i was skiing through about a foot of fluff and it was still snowing. it was °15F, perfect for gaining a few thousand feet altitude over 5+ miles. i had a raisin bread pb&j w/ chedder in the pack--what more could a retired teacher ask for?
i was thinking about all this skinning up. at some point it struck me--maybe when the two dartmouth med students came down past--this was a young person's endeavor. not the being out in the snow covered woods on a beautiful day, the skiing up 5.5 miles to 4802 feet, turning around and skiing down--that was doable. it had more to do with the desire. or as billy put it "only kobus would think of doing something like ski the 4000 footers." i don't know about that, but the risk-o-meter likely gets turned way back when we get older. that and we are often tied to a job, or our health is less than optimal.
i kept going up, wondering if skip would ever retire or kevin would get his ankle fixed. but even those two long time adventure partners did not always share my tendency toward 'high risk.' i get that hesitation, some of these routes are sketchy at best on skies. and i do share some of their 'fair weather skier' preferences. in the here and now, as the trees grew shorter, the wind blew harder, and the snow went from deep and fluffy to packed and drifty, i contemplated that this might not be a summit day. but then a couple sets of tracks came onto the carriage road at the junction with snapper and i pushed higher.
as i got around 'windy corner' and the trail opened up below where it narrows again near the junction of glenn cliff, it was snowing and blowing harder. it was also cold enough to put my jacket back on even with the exertion of climbing. the tracks from off the snapper and those of the three dartmouth folks earlier were drifting over or already gone. my track was through about an inch of snow atop a stiff windpack. at the 'anti-snowmobile rocks', i decided to turn around, take off the skins, and head down to whoop it up back in the powder and trees. that seemed preferable to skiing at the edge of control up here on wind blown hardpack.
back down in the trees and cutting turns through the powder, i realized why i kept going into the backcountry, even if i was alone. my soft, sinuous path was nigh on sensual. i wouldn't always make it to the top, even the young people have sense enough to turn around at craziness. if we do get to a summit fine, if not, i will take this side of heaven anyday. if i pitch it right, i may even convince a few old guys to join me--risk free...
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