i suppose you could call us die-hards, but considering we skin up to ski down all winter, why not get in a few more runs come spring.
for years now i have been trying to find a day when the stars aligned and jay could come ski with me--somewhere, anywhere. last weekend sharing photos of our respective polar dips, he added a "let's meet up at the skiway on thursday." i jumped right on that, as after season runs there can be more fun than in season ones, at least for me. bonus, jay would be there!
of course as the weather shaped up it was supposed to be extra windy and cold that day. and given our 5:00p start, things would probably be pretty stiff. but, i was not going to let this pass.
jay pulled up right on time and we got his skins on quick, even though they hadn't seen a ski bottom in quite a few years. my guess was since they were too long and wide, they had never seen the bottom of his skis. they would work under today's conditions and only going up a mile or so.
we set off at a brisk pace straight up the lift line. it should be noted that jay is not only an accomplished nordic skier, and stays in pretty good shape, he is kind of a driven, type a sort of guy. you can read a blurb about his drive in the post about the last SEAD hike on moosilauke we did, semi-together. the only problem with that, besides my being 'old' and under the weather, is he loves to catch up on these get togethers. while he can fly uphill and chat with the best of them, i have to heavy breathe in between filling him in on my exploits.
the good thing is he notices all this and slacks off the pace when needed, even stopping now and again to 'take in the view', local as it is. we get up to the top and take our skins off while eating a delicious cookie that his darling wife julie made for us. and after snapping simultaneous selfies, we started our slide down.
it was indeed stiff, and "loud" as jay called it. but we managed to descend without incident of the negative sort, maintaining our smiles. and stopping for some more photo opps.
we were skiing the fresh cat track as even though it was a tad chunky, it was the only soft spot on the hill. when i got past jay on this headwall, i stopped and took a movie of him. while his skate-skiing double pole technique is bonafide--i don't know where i get mine.
the "loud" part of the skiing is evident, especially at the end (as is my booming voice). when we made it down to the vehicles, we promised we would do it again--next time sooner than later. maybe even after we trimmed his skins.
it just so happened that friday night it snowed about four inches. saturday morning, skip called me around 10 and we headed back over to the skiway. he had also stopped there thursday, but earlier than jay and i. he decided it was way to icy. today was a different story. when we started up, the snow was still powdery. the first run down was fluffy-fast and as long as you didn't set an edge too hard, you barely noticed the ice underneath.
we skinned up for a second go. this time, the sun had warmed up the fresh snow and started to make it a bit sticky. but, all in all, we had a great couple of runs. our only wish was that jay could have been there. that and i would have had my camera out...
go outside and play...!
ps turns out jay was there saturday--grabbing first tracks really early and with his camera!
for years now i have been trying to find a day when the stars aligned and jay could come ski with me--somewhere, anywhere. last weekend sharing photos of our respective polar dips, he added a "let's meet up at the skiway on thursday." i jumped right on that, as after season runs there can be more fun than in season ones, at least for me. bonus, jay would be there!
of course as the weather shaped up it was supposed to be extra windy and cold that day. and given our 5:00p start, things would probably be pretty stiff. but, i was not going to let this pass.
jay pulled up right on time and we got his skins on quick, even though they hadn't seen a ski bottom in quite a few years. my guess was since they were too long and wide, they had never seen the bottom of his skis. they would work under today's conditions and only going up a mile or so.
we set off at a brisk pace straight up the lift line. it should be noted that jay is not only an accomplished nordic skier, and stays in pretty good shape, he is kind of a driven, type a sort of guy. you can read a blurb about his drive in the post about the last SEAD hike on moosilauke we did, semi-together. the only problem with that, besides my being 'old' and under the weather, is he loves to catch up on these get togethers. while he can fly uphill and chat with the best of them, i have to heavy breathe in between filling him in on my exploits.
the good thing is he notices all this and slacks off the pace when needed, even stopping now and again to 'take in the view', local as it is. we get up to the top and take our skins off while eating a delicious cookie that his darling wife julie made for us. and after snapping simultaneous selfies, we started our slide down.
it was indeed stiff, and "loud" as jay called it. but we managed to descend without incident of the negative sort, maintaining our smiles. and stopping for some more photo opps.
we were skiing the fresh cat track as even though it was a tad chunky, it was the only soft spot on the hill. when i got past jay on this headwall, i stopped and took a movie of him. while his skate-skiing double pole technique is bonafide--i don't know where i get mine.
the "loud" part of the skiing is evident, especially at the end (as is my booming voice). when we made it down to the vehicles, we promised we would do it again--next time sooner than later. maybe even after we trimmed his skins.
it just so happened that friday night it snowed about four inches. saturday morning, skip called me around 10 and we headed back over to the skiway. he had also stopped there thursday, but earlier than jay and i. he decided it was way to icy. today was a different story. when we started up, the snow was still powdery. the first run down was fluffy-fast and as long as you didn't set an edge too hard, you barely noticed the ice underneath.
we skinned up for a second go. this time, the sun had warmed up the fresh snow and started to make it a bit sticky. but, all in all, we had a great couple of runs. our only wish was that jay could have been there. that and i would have had my camera out...
go outside and play...!
ps turns out jay was there saturday--grabbing first tracks really early and with his camera!
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