day one--cardigan has full coverage

the day: january 17. the temperature was rising into the 30s. i was shoveling 8-10" of heavy snow. it was supposed to rain at the tail end of the storm, but so far that was not happening--and if we were lucky it wouldn't.

the adventure: i picked up skip and we headed over to cardigan, put boots and skis on, took jackets, hats, and gloves off, at least i did, and started up around 3~ish. at the summer parking we met adam and two of his buddies already coming down. they had topped early enough to hit the alexandria ski trail on the amc east side and were now back on the west side, almost to the winter parking. we went up to the slab on the hurricane cutoff and turned there.

the memories: the skiing was much faster than the earlier clumping had led us to believe. we had stopped to wax a bit. turned out the higher on the mtn. the colder the snow and slipperier--slippery enough we put skins on. amazingly, as we started down, we passed four skiers still going up. skip was going too fast to stop, but i heard them say "it's koby" so i fell over and chatted for a bit. when we got back at the truck it was getting dark enough we both mentioned, "i hope they have headlamps."

notes: snow covered just about everything, now, and as long as we don't get a huge thaw and lots of rain, the rest of winter should be very skiable.

• paraffin wax really helps with glide
• remember to carry your skins incase you overdo the paraffin wax
• carry a headlamp or two, just to be safe

go outside and play!