although why you would want to, is a fair question!
ok, friday's wet, snowy day was not sunny. and the 4 inches of mush was looking pretty sketchy at best. but i had to try something to get off the first couch, out of the second book, and away from a third pot of tea. so i loaded the usual gear and went to check out the shaker wma. i figured even if it was crappy, i could stop in for the friday sweep at drummonds.
it was, crappy-ish, though it took two runs and a wintry mix blessing my head and shoulders to convince me. i bailed on a third try and went over to drummonds to pick up a broom. i went to bed that evening feeling satisfied that i had accomplished something.
when i woke saturday morning i was not expecting to see it still snowing. four more inches of white on the ground and the thermometer down around twenty boded well for a proper ski, sans broom. when it started clearing around 10:00a, i figured skip would be calling any moment.
the phone finally rang around 1:00p--which made perfect sense, it was post lunch-o'clock! i went and fetched him and his gear and we headed up to cardigan. we played the 'guess how many cars in the lot' game and were both shocked to see it full up--many of them snow covered from being there overnight. i parked roadside, happy to see there was a lot more snow up here than down below.
as you can see by the trees, the snow was a little sticky, so we started up with no skins attached. the lines of white you can see in my picture are all on the south side of the trees. the wind overnight was obviously coming out of that unusual direction, but i had heard it might be a 'nor-easter' coming up the coast and dumping some snow in the mountains. lucky for us it did.
our luck continued as we got higher, it got deeper! i snapped a picture of skip practically skiing over the east amc sign, normally three feet or more above the ground. equally amazing, at least to me, is how long he adjusts his poles. he swears he goes faster.
besides deeper, the snow was drier and getting slippery-er. i convinced skip it would be both faster and easier if we skinned-up before the steep sections on the ski trail. he is always game for going up fast and easy.
in no time we were up at the top of the chute, only slightly bummed that a snowshoer had gotten there before us. the track spoiled the pristine line so i didn't bother to take a picture. the cornice was even bigger than it had been when we had hiked up last weekend. the drop in was sweet and i felt pretty good hooking around the mostly buried pine at the corner a hundred feet after. that was when i saw the huge 'mogul' in the middle of the narrow path! there was no avoiding some airtime...i stayed upright and got in a few good turns after.
skip must have done something similar as i heard a big whoop not too long after. by the time he came around the corner he was wearing a huge smile! we took off, stoked that conditions were about as good as they get up here.
at one point i grabbed his camera and skied down to get a movie of him coming through the woods on one of his favorite lines. unfortunately, his little cannon, works a bit differently than mine. i got a good movie of my skis and the three whistles we signal each other with. here is a picture of the fresh line--goes straight up beyond the tracks--at least. you can thank me you can't hear the whistles.
turns out, it was pretty slow so he just kind of cruised along with minimal turn action. at the next steep section, i got another video of skis and whistles. here, again, is his untracked line with my tracks coming in from the side.
oh well, i can't tease him about his camera skills anymore. especially after he took a great still of my run further down, skiing the skinny side of the creek.
we skied out the rest of the way over the moon at how good conditions were. so good, that i suggested we go run the glades over to shaker wma. still smiling, skip said sure.
immediately, we bailed on the glades but decided since we were over here, to just ski to the upper junction. there was barely two inches of really crusty snow over a tracked up icy base. before descending i snapped a picture of us as happy campers. i was not sure how long that would last.
i took off and after a handful of turns was thankful we didn't go any higher! you had to stand taller and pretty much cruise the fall line. it was fast, but not totally furious.
once skip got the hang of it, he agreed that it wasn't too terrible, just felt like a let down compared to our earlier run. to humor him, i said i would go back up cardigan and sled with him and linda in the morning.
and that is what we did! i picked the lovers up and we found an open spot up at the winter lot. the overnighters were still there. it was a beautiful day, even warming up enough we had to remove layers by the time we got up to summer lot. we kept them off all the way to turnaround rock.
we tied up our sleds and put all our layers back on just past that. it was plenty breezy up top, but you could see a long ways--all the way to mt washington.
the sleds were waiting for us. i got there a bit early and took right off to go set up for another video session. i almost kept going the sledding was so good in the deep stuff! but i was also pretty keen on getting a video--without skis and whistles.
i won't put in the one of skip as his run was pretty lame. but linda's was smooth, especially after she took off her micro-spikes.
turns out linda had the fast sled. the 'hole' in skip's was enlarging as we went. and i couldn't stay out of the powder, which was so much fun, but a ton slower.
we passed quite a few folks coming up as we went. i kept going 'off trail' and managed to avoid most. toward the summer lot, i finally convinced skip to follow me into the fluff. he zoomed by me at one point and plowed into the ditch at the bottom. i managed to slow down and stop. i also had to stop laughing as his legs started cramping as he lay there sprawled out.
on the road out, i tried laying down face first. it worked ok, but by the final section, i was back, mostly sitting up, feet forward, making turns. now that was fine way to go outside and play!
ok, friday's wet, snowy day was not sunny. and the 4 inches of mush was looking pretty sketchy at best. but i had to try something to get off the first couch, out of the second book, and away from a third pot of tea. so i loaded the usual gear and went to check out the shaker wma. i figured even if it was crappy, i could stop in for the friday sweep at drummonds.
it was, crappy-ish, though it took two runs and a wintry mix blessing my head and shoulders to convince me. i bailed on a third try and went over to drummonds to pick up a broom. i went to bed that evening feeling satisfied that i had accomplished something.
when i woke saturday morning i was not expecting to see it still snowing. four more inches of white on the ground and the thermometer down around twenty boded well for a proper ski, sans broom. when it started clearing around 10:00a, i figured skip would be calling any moment.
the phone finally rang around 1:00p--which made perfect sense, it was post lunch-o'clock! i went and fetched him and his gear and we headed up to cardigan. we played the 'guess how many cars in the lot' game and were both shocked to see it full up--many of them snow covered from being there overnight. i parked roadside, happy to see there was a lot more snow up here than down below.
as you can see by the trees, the snow was a little sticky, so we started up with no skins attached. the lines of white you can see in my picture are all on the south side of the trees. the wind overnight was obviously coming out of that unusual direction, but i had heard it might be a 'nor-easter' coming up the coast and dumping some snow in the mountains. lucky for us it did.
our luck continued as we got higher, it got deeper! i snapped a picture of skip practically skiing over the east amc sign, normally three feet or more above the ground. equally amazing, at least to me, is how long he adjusts his poles. he swears he goes faster.besides deeper, the snow was drier and getting slippery-er. i convinced skip it would be both faster and easier if we skinned-up before the steep sections on the ski trail. he is always game for going up fast and easy.
in no time we were up at the top of the chute, only slightly bummed that a snowshoer had gotten there before us. the track spoiled the pristine line so i didn't bother to take a picture. the cornice was even bigger than it had been when we had hiked up last weekend. the drop in was sweet and i felt pretty good hooking around the mostly buried pine at the corner a hundred feet after. that was when i saw the huge 'mogul' in the middle of the narrow path! there was no avoiding some airtime...i stayed upright and got in a few good turns after.
skip must have done something similar as i heard a big whoop not too long after. by the time he came around the corner he was wearing a huge smile! we took off, stoked that conditions were about as good as they get up here.
at one point i grabbed his camera and skied down to get a movie of him coming through the woods on one of his favorite lines. unfortunately, his little cannon, works a bit differently than mine. i got a good movie of my skis and the three whistles we signal each other with. here is a picture of the fresh line--goes straight up beyond the tracks--at least. you can thank me you can't hear the whistles.
turns out, it was pretty slow so he just kind of cruised along with minimal turn action. at the next steep section, i got another video of skis and whistles. here, again, is his untracked line with my tracks coming in from the side.
oh well, i can't tease him about his camera skills anymore. especially after he took a great still of my run further down, skiing the skinny side of the creek.
we skied out the rest of the way over the moon at how good conditions were. so good, that i suggested we go run the glades over to shaker wma. still smiling, skip said sure.
immediately, we bailed on the glades but decided since we were over here, to just ski to the upper junction. there was barely two inches of really crusty snow over a tracked up icy base. before descending i snapped a picture of us as happy campers. i was not sure how long that would last.
i took off and after a handful of turns was thankful we didn't go any higher! you had to stand taller and pretty much cruise the fall line. it was fast, but not totally furious.
once skip got the hang of it, he agreed that it wasn't too terrible, just felt like a let down compared to our earlier run. to humor him, i said i would go back up cardigan and sled with him and linda in the morning.
and that is what we did! i picked the lovers up and we found an open spot up at the winter lot. the overnighters were still there. it was a beautiful day, even warming up enough we had to remove layers by the time we got up to summer lot. we kept them off all the way to turnaround rock.
we tied up our sleds and put all our layers back on just past that. it was plenty breezy up top, but you could see a long ways--all the way to mt washington.
the sleds were waiting for us. i got there a bit early and took right off to go set up for another video session. i almost kept going the sledding was so good in the deep stuff! but i was also pretty keen on getting a video--without skis and whistles.
i won't put in the one of skip as his run was pretty lame. but linda's was smooth, especially after she took off her micro-spikes.
turns out linda had the fast sled. the 'hole' in skip's was enlarging as we went. and i couldn't stay out of the powder, which was so much fun, but a ton slower.
we passed quite a few folks coming up as we went. i kept going 'off trail' and managed to avoid most. toward the summer lot, i finally convinced skip to follow me into the fluff. he zoomed by me at one point and plowed into the ditch at the bottom. i managed to slow down and stop. i also had to stop laughing as his legs started cramping as he lay there sprawled out.
on the road out, i tried laying down face first. it worked ok, but by the final section, i was back, mostly sitting up, feet forward, making turns. now that was fine way to go outside and play!
