one more day...

and two more tours! i went to work on friday, to rest up from the last three days and restore some energy for a noah and eben appearance the next. it was a good choice as, my legs got worked tromping up and down the stairs a half-dozen times--before i started detouring on the handicap ramp inside, or the bus access road outside. i did manage to avoid the elevator in an effort to stay tuned for saturday.

i also managed to wait until after 8:00 to call over to the pendletons' saturday morning. skip said he would pick me up around 9:00-ish on the way to la salette--again. everyday since the storm it had gotten a little bit clearer, and a little bit warmer. saturday was a long sleeve undershirt over a tshirt kind of day. i skied the whole tour with light gloves and a ball cap for hand and head protection, but never bothered to put a jacket on.

of course you don't really need a jacket when going up hill and we were doing that more than half the time. skip wanted to go back to the narrow woods section on the big loop and then cut over to the glades from the height of land between the potato field and the little sherburne. i was good with that as i would only have to put skins back on once--take them off twice. we set off up the lower hayfield and very shortly noah, eben, and linda, decided to put their skins on as the scales were not really 'cutting it'. while they were busy i scooted over to one of the stations of the cross at the catholic shrine. i didn't stay long as jesus did not look very comfy.

everybody with skins on, we set a comfy pace up the hayfields and into the woods on the big loop. at the height of land noah, skip, and i took the skins off for a faster ride down. the snow was a bit stiffer than earlier in the week, but still very fun to ski through. soon enough i was putting my skins back on as i watched the gang going up toward the potato field.

at the high point we turned off to the right and followed a set of ski tracks that i was guessing belonged to al s. he and i use this trail to get to what we call lost pond. if you know where you are going, you can cross the pond and wend your way down to the top of the glades. along the route there are a couple of weird way marks, like a set of well tiles used as foundation posts and one giant, as in really really really big, maple blowdown. i have probably never gone the same way twice, but sooner or later, by hook or by crook, i make it to the top of the glades.

this time, as i had to stop and take my skins off a final time, the p-clan was all there before i pulled up. i didn't stand long and although things were really softening up, and a little sticky in areas, it was a most pleasant descent. our tracks from thursday afternoon made it all the more special as finding a fresh route demanded some creative work--at speed. by the time i got down noah was standing out in the low field with his phone camera ready. he caught me in a final turn and then a few minutes later skip, as he came out of the woods.



many minutes later, eben and linda came through the trees, with eben sporting one bent and one broken pole. the account of the fall was right next to out of control, just where eben tends to keep it. he has almost as many scars as i do, and i'm twice as old. old or young, pendleton or beest, everybody was happy as we skied back to the subaru shed skis and boots and piled in headed for lunch o'clock.

at lunch, noah's encouraging words and skip's discouraging ones, i grilled the infamous peanut butter-mayonnaise sandwich for a taste test. the trick to this sandwich is getting people past the initial ugh/barf reaction. but, as has happened in the past, once someone has a bite, there is rarely a bad reaction, even a unpleasant one.

noah and i took the first bites and came up positive enough to get eben and skip to try a small bit. morgan and linda opted out for a couple of valid reasons and nobody pushed that envelope. while skip did not get overly enthusiastic--he started at such a low point that was probably never going to happen--and eben confessed he didn't think he could eat a whole one, i would say the test was a positive one. at least nobody 'lost their lunch'.

after all the eating was over, and things got cleaned up eben, noah, skip, and i took off to cardigan. with dinner before they all went to see peter pan at the high school in the plan, we had a specific time window to make it up as high as we could before turning it down hill. eben was exchanging his broken poles for a sled and would be on a different trail than we would be. the rest of us went up the ski trail at a good clip. the snow was a bit shifty given its sun exposure but we tried to take note of those differences for when we would be going the opposite way. it got really crusty just past the 'amc east' sign-cairn which prompted us to turn around and take off the skins right there.

given the narrow time window, we didn't dawdle. i didn't stop until i fell very near the bottom of the first ski section. everybody was skiing pretty close and as i went down skip yelled "don't move!" that was helpful as he went flying by pretty close to my twisted skis. we got to the summer parking lot and skated down the road to the winter lot. eben was waiting at the car with a smile and this time a broken water bottle. he entertained us with that story as we piled in and took off to dinner--right on time.

i shared a bite at the table--thank you linda and morgan for getting the tasty meal ready--and caught a ride home on the way to peter pan. as they pulled away i was even able to say hi-goodby to simon whom was on noah's phone. with a day full of pendleton's my smile was as big as the week of skiing. as i got into the house, i remembered pam would be home from israel on tuesday and i had a few projects i still wanted to do. maybe i would go to bed early, very happy, but early...

this time as a team...

under bluebird skis and over untracked deepness, skip, richard, and i find the fresh up and down mt carr! turns out it wasn't all that difficult convincing the two to hit mt carr with me. i had stopped at the pendletons' on the way home where linda informed me that skip had already taken the day off, and his brother richard was arriving that evening to ski with them. i set the bait, all about unskied deep powder, much closer than the catamount trail, with the chance of hitting another stash in the afternoon. that seemed to work as later that evening, skip called and told me to show up for an 8:00a start.



i got there on the dot and stuffed my gear into the subaru. we pulled out of the drive by 8:30 and drove north. this time, just before the sawyer highway, we turned east and made our way up to the trailhead. i had my sunglasses on this time and took off across the field, super excited. i was so pumped i made the iconic tracks (the piece of cartoon is by charles addams found in the new yorker) around both sides of an apple tree in the middle of the field. satisfied with the results there, i realized i had skied away without my pack. luckily the other two were still near the car so i shouted back and they fetched it for me. we were off!



while i started with my fast skis and skins, both skip and richard went with scales and no skins, until we got to the waterfall spur trail turn off and some steepness. i cut away a blow down while they skinned up. we continued on and while we hit a few more downed trees, there was only a couple trunks too big to cut out, or at least we decided not to cut them as the ski arounds were fairly easily. at some point though skip started talking 'lunch o'clock' and about where we remembered the trail got pretty tight anyway, we looked for a snack / turn around spot.

posing, on the way down...

cutting, on the way up...

skip and richard found a bit of sun to fuel up and take off skins, while i stopped to put on a jacket that would shed the snow coming off the low and loaded spruce and fir branches. when i caught up to them they were almost ready to go down. we snapped a picture and turned around.



there was plenty of snow to swipe a few turns, but speed was limiting factor for me, as it was steep and narrow for the first quarter mile maybe. as soon as it dropped into the mixed hardwoods, things opened up enough to start getting creative. i found plenty of space around the edges and 'off' trail to keep me happy, even when i sat back too far and went down a couple of times. as skip knows--i love to fall. richard, the last man down in that top section, said things were getting pretty quick as skip and i skied off the deep stuff.



soon enough, we were down a quarter or more, squeezing through the two foot cutout of a huge blowdown,  then half way, whooping it up and flying the drainage ditches. about three quarters down,  at the right hand turn above the waterfall spur trail, i shrugged off into the woods, plopped down in the deep and waited. richard and skip showed up and i convinced them that we could each find a nice line off through the woods here as we dropped back down to the trail below. they were hesitant but as soon as it happened and we ended up back on the trail, there were big smiles all around. the last quarter was riding the skin track with periodic turns off into the fluff.

as we came into the final field, the one with the apple tree and funky tracks, i heard richard tell skip what a good tour this was, plenty worth the effort, without the hassle of driving all over spotting a car on either end of the day's catamount section. everybody got in the car happy. shortly after at skip's, we all got out, just as happy to finally eat a proper bit of lunch.

and shortly after that, we got back into the car and headed over to la salette. actually we got into two cars, as the shaker backcountry was conveniently on the way home for richard. skip and i decided to ski a section we call the glades, tracking up the middle and coming down where you may. it was a wise choice, except for the fact that the two brothers, with their scaled skis, didn't have their skins. after a bit of an upper body workout though, standing at the top looking down, everybody turned excited. this was going to be good--"the best skiing ever!" as skip liked to say.

it really was great snow and a sweet pitch. we left some interesting tracks weaving trunks and ducking branches. i did not see any apple trees to pull the ol' ski both sides trick though. down at the bottom i started skinning back up while richard and skip scaled off to go hit the little sherburne. i finally caught them, no herringboning for them this time, at our big loop through the woods junction, and we continued up to the potato field.

at the height of land i took my skins off and locked everything down for one final go. with my faster skis and the snow a bit dried out compared to in the storm tuesday--when skip and i had skied it--i was back in heaven, going downhill fast. it was fairly easy to catch little bits of air off the water bars. my rhythm was good enough for me to go down what i call the spine, a narrow little ridge with a steep drop at its end. waiting for the brothers down on the main trail i was actually breathing hard.

we skied back to the cars and split up with a final goodbye to richard. his gps took him right on 4a when we went left, everybody happy. 

the storm delivers...

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...

cold is here--snow is coming...

it had been unusually warm the last of feb and the first of march. so warm, that much of the winter's snow disappeared and it felt like an early spring was on tap. in fact, syrup makers that had gotten their taps in early, had already gotten several strong runs and started boiling. friday and saturday things turned back to winter.



by sunday, it was solidly winter again, definitely cold with the wind pushing it well below zero on the charts--perfect time for a couple of hikes. the first was with some trails alliance folks around the webster wildlife management area just west of the high school in canaan. i heard through lenny that alice s. was leading a smallish group starting from the iron bridge over the indian river at the west end of 'the flats'. alice knows a ton about plant species and it would be fun to hear that.


i met alice and two others at the appointed time and we took off into the woods hoping to get out of the rather brutal wind. right after crossing rt 4 we stopped to cut out a couple blowdowns, then point out a few white oak saplings, and carefully inspect a hazelnut shrub. further in, we came up to a tree audibly groaning and visibly cracking, sounding and looking like it was about to fall any moment. it was rather comical that each of us took a different approach in getting past its 'widow making' zone.



past the hazard tree, we worked our way out into the grassy flood plain and stopped at the creek thatcomes out of crystal lake and then mud pond. it was open and running fairly high, keeping us from crossing, so we kept cutting east. as we went, we identified a couple of dogwoods, slippery and red-osier, and two roses, 'really bristly' shining rose and 'paired, down turning prickles' swamp rose.

pushed back into the woods we kept on, headed toward the cranberry bog, directly across the creek from my old environmental science 'forest watch' plots. we gingerly made our way across a 'mostly' frozen surface dotted with red berries. i broke one out of the ice and ate it to see if a whole winter had mellowed its tartness--i thought it had, the others were less convinced. in any case i told alice that i would try to come out and pick next fall.

on the far side of the bog, we crossed back over rt 4 and through a strip of woods to get onto the rail trail. as we hiked along toward our vehicles, we spotted a few more hazelnuts, mostly beaked, but at least one american--or so i was told. it was a good little walkabout, but the increasing cold and bitter wind hurried us toward said vehicles. i offered everyone to extend their time outside by joining the MOC on our monthly moonrise-sunset hike up cardigan, but nobody made any promises.

as i drove off toward cardigan and a second go, i was pretty sure those folks were headed home to warm up and was guessing that no students would be likely to leave a warm house to show for this hike. it was getting colder and the wind would certainly be howling up top. sure enough, nobody appeared even after waiting the normal five minutes. i took off solo and kept moving to stay warm. while i did slow down to take off jacket and gloves, my hat stayed on head or in my hand. above treeline, i raced along, not wanting to stop to put the jacket back on until i was out of the wind on the lee side of the tower up top.




at the top and out of the wind i bundled up. after a drink of 'icy cold' water, a picture of the setting sun behind what i took to be killington, and a windspeed check--a very steady 30-35mph--i started down. i was going to miss the moon topping the horizon, but so was everybody else as the huge cloud bank from the storm coming in early tuesday, would keep it hidden close to another hour. i was not going to wait for that.




all the way down i was stuck on daft punks, "harder, better, faster, stronger...work is never over" only messing with the words to include darker, colder, windy-er. the three syllables of the latter kept tripping me up, but i managed to stay on my feet. back at the truck i had just stowed my pack when it struck me, when i get to the house, pam would be gone headed off to israel. while waiting for the bus down in new london i imagined would be downright cold, she should find it a bit warmer next to the mediterranean in tel aviv or floating in the dead sea.

as the truck heater started to wake up, i remembered that storm coming in. warm can be nice, but i will take winter any day and if we got the foot or more of snow expected, i would feel snug as bug in a rug--whatever that means in this context.