fickle weather...

sunday morning i got out for a sunrise ski...

in six inches of super-light snow, over last week's former foot of fluff, turned crusty and chunky under a day of rain--it was fast, approaching furious. the extra turns needed to stay this side of control were well worth cranking. it was incredibly beautiful. a good bit of last night's snow with zero wind stayed piled up in trees, especially the evergreens. in the dawn's early light, formidable showers of fluff fell in sparkling avalanches.

i would have liked to have a picture for you, but as usual, i forgot the camera. that was not the case today. souke, grace, and i went out sledding once in the am and again in the pm--or first in the soft, relatively dry, cold snow out in the field and then later, the wet, sticky, warm stuff up on town hill. i took some footage of the afternoon runs.



grace was a trooper out on the hill, but i think she was tired by dinner...

i just tucked her into bed, still with sally, soy's favorite bear from his youth.

tomorrow is a shopping day for MOC 'deepfreeze' food. we are headed up to the cabin on smarts mtn wednesday. from all the reports i hear, it is not supposed to even be freezing this year let alone deep. oh well, we can still 'go outside and play!'

make tracks...

while the snow is dry-er and fluffy-er!

wednesday, noon-ish, the snow started falling pretty seriously and school had been canceled due to the expected crazy commute home. sure enough, the expected delivered some crazy. for a good part of the afternoon, we were getting about two inches an hour. i packed up my skis and the flagging tape and headed over to lasalette, figuring i'd mark trails between turns. i got tapped again as 'trail boss' for the shaker museum's snowshoe fest on saturday. it's not a bad gig, with about 12 miles of total trail, in three flavors: green, yellow, and blue. i had recruited joni to help, so i picked her, skis, and the dog up just after 3:00.

by the time we had our skis on and headed up the trail, the snow was about more than 5 or 6 inches and accumulating. i convinced her to make the green loop going counterclockwise which would bring us down the steep side. i was pumped for that, a 3/4 mile downhill, and hoped i could get joni to tie the flagging tape while i just kept turning. things went well and we got to the top fairly quickly. i was going light on flagging given the easy to follow tracks this deep snow would afford. 

the trip down was as smooth as the proverbial baby's bottom and joni tied a good number of the flags, letting me cruise along. i couldn't remember when conditions were this good--and the storm was still improving them. by the time we made it back to the truck it was dark but i could tell joni was smiling as big as i was.

thursday, early-ish, the snow had mostly stopped, but school was on a delayed opening, so i headed up to cardigan. we had somewhere in the neighborhood of a foot of snow, and at least in the woods, it was fairly fluffy. the cold night had even dried it out more than what it fell as, and only 'light' winds, at least down low, left it unpacked. i stepped into my bindings and headed up about 7:30.

i semi-followed a set of tracks somebody must have made during the storm, but they were pretty buired. i took the ski trail sections up, even though who ever made the tracks had only come down that way. their pattern had me guessing, was it skip or josh. one section that was untracked made me think more josh as skip loved to hit that part. i kept to the ski trails as at over a foot of snow, a broken path would allow me to keep some speed. when i got to the 'east amc' arrow cairn, totally covered under a mound snow, the tracks stopped and turned back down. that made me think more skip as josh would most likely ski higher.

as i skied on by, headed over to our stash we call 'the chute' i thought whoever it was, i bet they were up here now--there was a foot and a half or more of untracked snow. of course as the trees got shorter, the wind picked up. it must have blown some over night as the drifts were waste high in spots. when i got to the top of the chute, the usual cornice at the top was substantial.

as i stripped off my skins contemplating dropping in, three birds flew by and perched up behind me. obviously birds are not uncommon up in the mountains, but these were not your ordinary winter-over species--they were robins! it was february 8th, the morning after a big storm and i was looking at three lively and plump harbingers of spring. i didn't have the camera out at the time, but they put a smile on my face that i was able capture a minute later. 

back in my ornithology days, i had learned that the reason the first robins of spring looked so hearty is that there is a north eastern sub-species, Turdus migratorius nigrideus, that is darker black above and has a brighter red breast. if you see them early, like on a cold february day, they could also seem a bit bigger as they would be somewhat fluffed up for warmth.









the skiing was wonderful, a tad slow up high, but sweet down in the bigger trees. i didn't stop for anything until i found another set of ski tracks just past the summer parking lot. they must have gotten spooked following me though as they turned around and went up the regular hiking trail. definitely not skip or josh, i figured they weren't local. 



sure enough when i got down to my truck there was one other car, with massachusetts plates. they'll figure it out, and if nothing else, they'll have a good time--the snow was great.




after a stop at the school to check in, i went back to lasalette to mark the yellow trail. long story short except for one huge blow-down, it went smoothly. so smoothly that at the top of the big hill, where everybody sleds, i tucked all the flagging gear in my pack, tightened up my boots, and took off for a downhill run. it was well worth it, even if i would have to come back the next day, with my chainsaw, to finish that last section of 1/2 mile of yellow, and the blue.

friday, mid morning-ish, after another check in at the school and grabbing the outdoor pursuit's snowshoes, i was back at the shaker museum. kyle, the museum education guy, told me that harrison was due around 10:00 to help. i showed kyle on the map where i would be cutting, put on snowshoes, grabbed my saw, and headed out. the tree ended up even 'huger' than it appeared--a whole second trunk was buried in the snow. i was glad i hadn't attacked things yesterday with my handsaw, it would have taken a couple of hours. with a chainsaw i had it done in under a 1/2 hour. i met harrison on the way down.

we stashed the saw at 'grand junction' and took off uphill for the blue trail. for about 3/4 of a mile we followed joni's and my faint ski track. when we got to where blue took off on its own, we got into the fresh, untracked deep stuff. i usually don't appreciate snowshoeing as much as skiing, but harrison is great partner to flag with. we broke out the trail all the way to blue's junction with yellow, maybe a mile and a half. harrison's phone brought us back to the other world, when betsy called to say she was done helping in the kitchen. we headed back the short way, skipping that pesky last yellow section. oh, well i'd get it saturday morning.

saturday, early-ish again, i got to the stone mill and finished the shoveling job where the plow guy had blocked the trailheads. just as i broke through the 8 foot pile, joni showed up--yeah! we tested out the new 'gap' and headed up with yellow flags to finish that last bit. since, she had snowshoes on and i had my skis, i sent her on to tramp out my ski tracks in the upper field. i tightened up my boots again and took a last fluffy run down the big hill. the weather was supposed to turn warm and possibly even rain, so why not turn while you could.

with everything laid out and tracked, i assigned harrison and betsy to guide at two certain key junctions and went to find olivia, to direct traffic at a third. she was in the main building, when i went in to grab a scone (i remember them as super delicious from past years). we went back to the mill, grabbed some snowshoes for olivia and i got into my skis. i told her she should also take one of the sleds up and we could find a few spots to glide down.

we made it up to the blue-yellow junction and kept going up beyond for a run before fest-ers came up and needed guiding. the snow was still cold and fast for me, though olivia had to keep the sled in tracked areas or she would bog down in the powder. i got down quick enough to take a series of olivia coming down the last steep section.



after the sledding, we did some guiding, drank some tea, did some more guiding, drank more tea, ate a granola bar, more guiding, more tea, more guiding...you get the picture. finally, we went up to take a last run and go down to lunch. on the way up the hill i spotted kristine, owen's wife, and she was pregnant--yeah! no owen, but kristine said his sisters were coming up shortly. and sure enough, margaret and hannah were snowshoe-jogging up the upper field. we had a great chat, until hannah's dog cocked his head in the classic canine "can't we go now?" pose.

olivia and i climbed up to the top of our private run and pointed things downhill. we didn't stop until we were practically down to the bottom, and lunch. before we got across the street, i saw my friends the seegers: jacob, nikeo, and lo-lo, out enjoying the snow. i fitted nikeo into a pair of little tyke snowshoes and he loved them. after that, it was time for a late-ish lunch. 

when i got back out, i helped close things down some, and told the others i would wait for the last few snowshoers that got a late start. harrison and betsy arranged to meet me the next morning at 9:30 to take down flagging. all in all it was a grand day out--in fact it was a grand four days out!

oh yeah, today, sunday--it wasn't all that bad, wet, but there's still plenty of snow. harrison and betsy picked up the trunk trail and green, while i ran over the yellow and blue. i did go up toward the potato field, but didn't see them. the rain was hard enough to chase me down. and now that i am dry and writing this, i hope they got home to dry off and warm up as well. i suppose, that's why people have phones...

sunrise--moonset...

out early!
i mentioned this morning, in the posting of the old tuckerman's draft--finally, almost a year after the fact--i was up early to catch the sunrise-moonset up on cardigan. our two MOC president/secretaries were slated to meet me at the winter parking lot at 6:00a. as i turned onto cardigan-orange road, a vehicle turned with me and i was guessing it was them.

it was, at least it was half of them. olivia jumped out at the parking lot with an early morning smile. justin had stayed in bed. he was probably much warmer than we were, but he would miss a clear view up on the summit.

we donned our creepers, i doffed my jacket, and we started up. the moon gave us plenty of light and even cast a pretty solid shadow in places where the trees didn't scatter its light. having left plenty early, we didn't have to race but we were going along fairly quickly. we stopped at one point to 'breathe' and sip some water. a bit later we cut a tree out of the trail so when it snows again, olivia can sled and i will be able to ski unimpeded.

the next stop, just past turn around rock, we put on jackets to shed the wind now that we were up above tree line. it was colder than i thought, and windy. at the top, both our phones froze up so we have no pictures. too bad, as both the moon and sun were visible right to the horizons. the sun pinked and then peaked out above newfound lake. thin wisps of clouds scudded by us, headed east into the light. the moon seemed to be growing--save for the bite the eclipse took out of the upper left--as it sunk toward the horizon in the west. it was a bit more cloudy on that side, but the white-ish, red-ish disc was visible.

7:02 and sunrise-moonset came and went quickly. we pointed our feet down and turned our heads to the side, cheating the cold wind. olivia had class at 8:00 so we ran quite a bit. back at the vehicles in plenty of time, we had a spot of hot tea and some of pam's tasty oatmeal muffins.






it was a grand start to the day and we both were happy to be 'outside and playing!' 

take two--to tux...

and a good time was had by all!
looking back on MOC's major events over the vacation breaks--deep freeze in february and tuckermans in april--there are frequently many more promising to go than actually make the trip. and while this year had a full cabin up on smarts mtn, very few made it to the bowl. my favorite cancelation, if you can call it that, was from brandon. before we left the high school--the schedule read 7:00a sharp, but we waited at least ten minutes--we tried contacting him by text and a call.

layla--text: "are you coming?"
brandon--text back: "..." nadda.
layla--call: "ring, ring, ring..."
brandon: "..." no answer.

we left for mount washington. about 8:00a, as we were going through plymouth we get a response.

brandon--text: "i thought the trip was on wednesday?"
layla--text back: "today IS wednesday!"
brandon--text back back: "..." nadda

that made us all laugh pretty hard. we didn't dwell on it.

we bought all the tourist tchotchkes and assumed the standard poses--down at pinkham...



and then up at ho-jos. it was not crowded. in fact, only a hand full of folks were up in bowl.

conditions were...let's say solid--very solid. you couldn't see much beyond the lip. but you could hear every turn the one fellow skiing made as he scraped down the ice on the left side. layla and hailey were glad they had left their sliding equipment at ho-jos and after a quick raising of the poles, we went back down to gear up for our own descent on the sherburne trail.



the snow was all manageable, with ice in only a few spots. we zipped right along, haily and i trading leads and layla whooping it up from her tube as she protected our flank. by the time we ran out of snow, their smiles were huge.

while there was a bit of texting and sending of pictures on the way back, there was a lot of sleeping. it was a fine day to 'go outside and play!'

ps i realize this is an ancient draft--but as i drink an early morning tea, and prep for a MOC moonset-sunrise hike, it seems an appropriate time to start posting again...stay tuned!

change of season--almost...

off the mountain and onto the roads--atop the trusty nishiki. 
at least for this past week. last monday i did run up cardigan for april's moonrise-sunrise extraveganza. as is usual in the winter, i was the only one hiking. the amazing thing, given our warmer and rainy weather lately, there was snow or ice right down to the gate across from the winter parking lot. i put on the micro-spikes under the shelter at the summer lot and headed up the west ridge trail.

there was plenty of snow the rest of the way--complete with ski tracks weaving on and off the path. it was probably 60°F out so the snow was pretty slushy. in places it was even darn wet, like mini-skim pools at the bottoms of spring ski runs. i picked lines through those spots to avoid sinking a foot or more as soon as one stepped off the packed trail.




at one point, i noticed that somebody had skied my micro-shute--the one on the right of the trail in the picture--that skip kids me for always taking. i took a picture of that to send off to him. you can see there was still plenty of snow in the woods. when he got this picture, skip even made noises about going up and skiing. that would have been a site to see.





i took off the micro-spikes at turn around rock, and picked my way up on the bare granite. as usual it got windier the higher i got. at the top i skirted around the leeward side of the tower, dropped my pack, and fished out my jacket. i noticed my head was getting dripped on and when i looked up, water was leaking directly out of the tower cabin floor. that was weird.

i got the camera out with my jacket and went to another side where i wouldn't get wet. the moon was due up already, but a huge cloud bank was going to hide that for longer than i would be up on top. the sun however, was giving a good show going down behind a low cloud and the horizon. i snapped a picture looking west. the light was perfect for a shot of the tower looking east where the moon was hiding, so i turned and snapped a picture that way too. when i lowered the camera i discovered why the tower cabin floor was dripping. one of the windows was broken almost completely out. it must have been that way for the recent, heavy wet, foot of snow.



as i took off downward, i made a note to call craig, our cardigan trail crew chief, who i guessed would get in touch with his state contact. i put the micro-spikes back on at turn around rock and picked up the sled i had left there too. while my first little run shot me off into the trees, i made it back onto the trail and got set for a second. this would be a fast descent--i would have a wet butt, but i would be down well before it got too dark, and i would be smiling.

as expected, as i slid down to the gate, my backside was soaked, and i was happy. as i drove home, i noted the roads were dry and mostly free of sand--i planned on getting the bike out.

turned out, that was a pretty good plan. i was able to ride 5 of the next 7 days. while i never went more than 20 miles, each day i felt a bit stronger--and my butt was dry! what could be better than that?! (well, ok, the picture si sent of his buddy toby on a ski they took that week in the colorado rockies...)




since i can't get pam to move out west, i will have to enjoy that kind of powder vicariously. maybe i will get a great picture of one of the MOC students when we go up to tuckermans on wednesday--that might even make him jealous...