as we like to say--at least until we got most of the way down.
mascoma schools shut their doors yesterday at 3:00p and told everybody not to comeback until friday. that was fine with me what with the expected foot of snow we were scheduled for. when i "headed up the wooden mountain" as pam's dad used to call going to bed, up the stairs, we had a good six inches. i spent the night dreaming we would at least double that, with any luck triple it. that, and i wondered if skip's knee was finally fit enough to go up and down a mountain.
my dreams all came true--there was at least 18 inches in the morning and when i called skippy, he said yes, as long as the mountain was local. i put my moosilauke hopes back to bed, geared up, did a little shoveling, got the truck cleaned off, loaded, and went to get skip. we made it out of his dooryard soon enough, headed for cardigan.
after a couple of near death experiences on the cardigan road, one with a town snowplow, and another with a sliding car--the latter driven by mascoma's music teacher, involved a significant amount of folderol getting him out of the ditch as well as avoiding going in ourselves--we finally got our boots and skis on and "headed up the snowy mountain." skip's comment right at the first steep section was telling, "the snow is so deep, we're going to have to double pole to get through!" when you have to double pole downhill, you know it's deep.
breaking trail uphill through that deepness, we warmed up quickly. a delayering and water break gave us a chance to snap a couple of pictures.
you can tell who hogs most of the covers in bed at night. that's ok, pam's nickname for me is "the furnace"... somewhere about here, we stuck our poles in and estimated 20" of fluff. this was boding well.
boding so well, we purposely tracked out our line, to give ourselves a bit of speed on the descent. being first to the fresh has lots of positives. when it is steep, it's good to be deep. but not so steep and too deep, it can get slow and at times you really do need to pole to keep moving. thankfully, there is plenty of steep on 'our side of the mtn.' and this fluffy stuff should let us glide right through--'like butta'.
as we got to 'east to amc' (this picture was in my portfolio from a cold run i took around christmas) i queried the master as to which way he desired to turn. no pressure, but i was glad he chose right to 'the chute', one of our favorite runs.
here is where our first tracks would have some negatives. hikers like to follow an established path. last year, if i got out later than i wanted, the chute would often be shot. snowshoers liked that route as much as we do. it's no wonder, it really is beautiful. this trip i snapped a picture at the bottom looking up, as well as the top looking down.
we de-skinned and had a snack. i scraped the skin glue off my skis for a little more fast. with boots buckled and bindings set for downhill, we dropped in. i convinced skip that if i went first--i had my no scale skis and they run faster than his scaled ones--his run would be smoother and he wouldn't go so slow. it seemed to work as the rest of the way down, he was urging me ahead.
like i mentioned earlier, until we got toward the bottom, it was really great skiing, fast enough in the steep, narrow spots to get your heart rate up, and smooth enough everywhere else to cut some sweet turns. we even both got a little air here and there off well placed rocks buried in the powder. at "go right--no, your other right"* creek i heard a little whoop behind me as skip launched off a fun drop.
shortly after that, as we got to the flats going by the shed, all the fun went out of it. the warming temp. and the moisture rich snow started getting super sticky. if you kept sliding, as flat-skied as possible, you wouldn't bog down too too much, but it was a slog the rest of the way to the truck. i experimented with going out of our tracks, but even in the fresh it was slow.
no matter, even though we did end up poling hard, it was some of "the best skiing ever" and we had smiles to prove it!
*it's a long story, but skip was yelling, aaron got confused, i was filming--if i can find the footage i will load it here.
found it--and it's a classic!
mascoma schools shut their doors yesterday at 3:00p and told everybody not to comeback until friday. that was fine with me what with the expected foot of snow we were scheduled for. when i "headed up the wooden mountain" as pam's dad used to call going to bed, up the stairs, we had a good six inches. i spent the night dreaming we would at least double that, with any luck triple it. that, and i wondered if skip's knee was finally fit enough to go up and down a mountain.
my dreams all came true--there was at least 18 inches in the morning and when i called skippy, he said yes, as long as the mountain was local. i put my moosilauke hopes back to bed, geared up, did a little shoveling, got the truck cleaned off, loaded, and went to get skip. we made it out of his dooryard soon enough, headed for cardigan.
after a couple of near death experiences on the cardigan road, one with a town snowplow, and another with a sliding car--the latter driven by mascoma's music teacher, involved a significant amount of folderol getting him out of the ditch as well as avoiding going in ourselves--we finally got our boots and skis on and "headed up the snowy mountain." skip's comment right at the first steep section was telling, "the snow is so deep, we're going to have to double pole to get through!" when you have to double pole downhill, you know it's deep.
breaking trail uphill through that deepness, we warmed up quickly. a delayering and water break gave us a chance to snap a couple of pictures.
you can tell who hogs most of the covers in bed at night. that's ok, pam's nickname for me is "the furnace"... somewhere about here, we stuck our poles in and estimated 20" of fluff. this was boding well.
boding so well, we purposely tracked out our line, to give ourselves a bit of speed on the descent. being first to the fresh has lots of positives. when it is steep, it's good to be deep. but not so steep and too deep, it can get slow and at times you really do need to pole to keep moving. thankfully, there is plenty of steep on 'our side of the mtn.' and this fluffy stuff should let us glide right through--'like butta'.
as we got to 'east to amc' (this picture was in my portfolio from a cold run i took around christmas) i queried the master as to which way he desired to turn. no pressure, but i was glad he chose right to 'the chute', one of our favorite runs.here is where our first tracks would have some negatives. hikers like to follow an established path. last year, if i got out later than i wanted, the chute would often be shot. snowshoers liked that route as much as we do. it's no wonder, it really is beautiful. this trip i snapped a picture at the bottom looking up, as well as the top looking down.
we de-skinned and had a snack. i scraped the skin glue off my skis for a little more fast. with boots buckled and bindings set for downhill, we dropped in. i convinced skip that if i went first--i had my no scale skis and they run faster than his scaled ones--his run would be smoother and he wouldn't go so slow. it seemed to work as the rest of the way down, he was urging me ahead.
like i mentioned earlier, until we got toward the bottom, it was really great skiing, fast enough in the steep, narrow spots to get your heart rate up, and smooth enough everywhere else to cut some sweet turns. we even both got a little air here and there off well placed rocks buried in the powder. at "go right--no, your other right"* creek i heard a little whoop behind me as skip launched off a fun drop.
shortly after that, as we got to the flats going by the shed, all the fun went out of it. the warming temp. and the moisture rich snow started getting super sticky. if you kept sliding, as flat-skied as possible, you wouldn't bog down too too much, but it was a slog the rest of the way to the truck. i experimented with going out of our tracks, but even in the fresh it was slow.
no matter, even though we did end up poling hard, it was some of "the best skiing ever" and we had smiles to prove it!
*it's a long story, but skip was yelling, aaron got confused, i was filming--if i can find the footage i will load it here.
found it--and it's a classic!
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