going to bed wednesday, the 16th, it was just starting to snow. the forecast had just changed from 4-6 inches, to 8-10, with the most down in the south west corner of nh. that meant to me, we could get a lot, and all snow. i fell asleep "while visions of [deep snow] danced in my head".
when i woke up thursday morning, i was rewarded--richly. there was already maybe 8" on the top of the vehicles and roofs, which obviously means the ground too, but it is harder to see. that, and it was still snowing hard. bonus, as i suited up for shoveling, it seemed to be coming down even harder. when i got out, i pushed around what was there for a couple hours. when i broke to go in, there was another 8" already built up where i had cleared at the start.
i was thrilled and anxious to get out, up high, turned around, and floating back down. the depth made me choose the steeper runs at shaker wma, hoping to recruit dick. the roads were horrendous and pulling into the bike shop parking area, i turned a bit early, where the road hadn't been plowed yet. it took about an hour of heavy shoveling to dig out. that delay gave dick enough time to finish what he was doing and after eating a bit of lunch we headed across the street.
skis on the feet, we started plowing towards the trails. by the time we got to the bottom of where we planned to start up, i had lengthened my poles to their max and taken off my sweater.
the going was about as hard work as i could remember. dick's skis seemed to come out of the depths a bit easier so he mostly broke trail--thank you. it was indeed deep--probably more than 2 feet. when we got to the top of the steep section, we decided enough , let's point them down. we stripped our skins, buckled boots tight, clamped down bindings, and pushed off. turns out we weren't done plowing.
if you stayed in the track we had broken out on the way up, you could move down. but if you went out into the deep, you got maybe one, or one and a half turns in before the snow, pushing at your crotch, stopped you, even at the steepest. you won't hear me say this often, but without a bottom to it, the snow was too deep.
i gave it a night and went back out friday. still: too early, too deep, too much work.
that night i convinced myself that the doughboy--a 215cm snowboard--would float it. i emailed olivia and convinced her to join me. we met at the bottom of the shaker hill and hiked up in a track some sledders had made. we buckled in at the top and pointed down. for the third time--it was brutally slow. unless you kept to a track you would sink almost immediately and stop. each time i went off, i got stopped. most of those times, stopping included falling over as well. getting back up was as exhausting as skinning though the deep on that first day. we gave up trying.
sunday, day four, i headed over to the AT off goose pond, figuring really steep had to do it. turns out others were headed for the same idea. they got there a couple hours earlier and it looked like it was indeed fun. i found some untracked areas and practically flew down. that was more like it. i didn't even see all those animal tracks i was following on the way up.
i stopped at skip's to get him to go take a run somewhere. he was busy, so i skinned up town hill solo. the run down the other side was really sweet. i was pretty excited to skin back up and fly down into our dooryard. it was all that i dreamed of. the bottom had finally developed, with the top cold, dry, and fast.
the picture on the left was the track over rowen's log (see
oct 12th goap! for rowen riding it). the rock hop on the right was at the 'sledding corner' (see
feb 2018 goap! grace and suki sledding). when i got back in the house, i emailed olivia and we arranged to meet again over at the shaker wma--for another go at it.
the next day it was much warmer and somewhat sticky. read slow, and grippy enough i could scale up without skins. that was ok in that we could hit the glades and olivia's first backcountry skiing through the trees would be less anxious. we got by lost pond and started down. as long as you kept moving, it was a good run. when you stopped, you clumped up. basically, i tried not to stop though we changed packs, and i took the big one with snowshoes in it. i also gave her my mittens which let her ride with her hands out of her pockets.
the next day it was much warmer and somewhat sticky. read slow, and grippy enough i could scale up without skins. that was ok in that we could hit the glades and olivia's first backcountry skiing through the trees would be less anxious. it also helped to change packs, and loan her my extra big mittens so she could ride with her hands out of her pockets. that made her smile big--even after she tried jumping a downed tree, and didn't quite make it. as she floated by 'dusting' herself off, she said something like "thanks for the mittens--that helped!"
tuesday was colder and the snow had actually dried out some, not nearly so sticky and still about a foot deep--the bottom was rising--which made it slow~ish. that made cardigan the choice of the day. it was good, but being the sixth day after the snowfall, it was getting tracked out. that never helps.
wednesday was even colder and dryer, and even though the bottom was even higher, about 6 inches now. i went back for one last go at a trail i had noticed had only a central snowshoe track, leaving plenty of edge to turn in. amazingly, the conditions were just about the best of any of the previous days.
it was a good thing as the rain started christmas eve afternoon and kept up right through christmas day. that wasn't so bad, as i was inside baking the annual christmas
pulla while the snow melted. being outside and playing is always good--even when you are getting wet--but after six days i was ok taking a break.
