april fools--every year...

since 2001, MOC has been holding the 'polar dip' on that day of trickery and jokes.


every year, on the last day of march, a small group of us meet at the town beach up on canaan street lake to cut a hole in the ice. with an auger, saws, and iron bars, we chunk up the ice, strap it up, and haul it out.


well, almost every year. in the last 10 years, 5 of them have been 'run ins'--4 of those with the lake totally ice free. while that is not as fun as jumping through a hole in the ice, it is a heck of a lot easier to prep than cutting through 2 feet--give or take a foot--of ice. this year was a bit odd with one side of a 10'x10' hole about 18" thick and the other over 24".


two feet thick is probably about average, though we have seen thicker than three feet. another odd part of this year was april 1st came on a sunday, easter sunday. that made for a leisurely dip, but lowered the numbers a bit. a full crew of canaan's emergency team were the first to show up.

the guys in the orange dry suits and the woman on the left are all former students, but i don't think they had ever polar dipped while they were in school.

current students, a guest, and one alumni, started showing up around 12:00, not all that anxious to go in, but at least willing. MOC co-president/secretaries, olivia and justin, had been there to cut the hole saturday. olivia and ethan, the alumni, had both dipped before, ethan two or three times. kerrigan and dirk were first time dippers, like justin and his ski buddy john, from kearsarge rhs.

it was a great line up. looking at the 'before' picture, nobody is hunched and shivering--yet. it is indeed a sunny day, almost 40°F. what you can't see is the blustery wind, steady between 15-20mph. maybe it was the wind chill that made that first dipper in a cold challenge. i think ethan broke that ice, so to speak. soon after we caught a good series of olivia going in.



i had featured olivia's 'run in' two years back, the year she moved to new hampshire from tennessee. it was an extreme cold experience that i promised would be better as a 'jump in'. even though she climbed out the ladder shortly after that last picture, she had a bigger smile than when she ran ashore in 2016.

just so you don't think i kept my boots on, here is a series of my cannonball.



my goal is to splash the dry-suited crew enough to encourage them to jump in after me. this year i had to up on the ladder for a second a splash dive.

that got some of the early dippers excited enough to take their own second jump before we lined up for an 'after' picture.

we were able to warm up enough that four of us stayed around to slide around the ice pulled by my kite. justin and john put on their skis and each had a couple of sweet runs.











it was a grand day to be outside and playing!

lincoln's throat...

under less than ideal conditions...

jeff had gone on quite a bit about the ideal conditions up in the whites on lincoln's throat last weekend--"it was so good on saturday, we went back on sunday!" i was a bit bummed i had not been there, but we could always go ski something this weekend. so when he called on friday, i told him i would be up early.

i pulled into his drive right at 8:00 and we loaded up after he finished breakfast. when we got to the lafyette ridge trail parking, jeff's friend ryan was gearing up. he was headed up with us, but might be going over the ridge to ski lincoln's slide. soon enough we were skinning up the old bridal path. if it didn't warm up a bunch, this was going to be a luge run on the way down.




a ways up, we dropped down to the drainage coming down from the throat. the whole time i was winding along behind them, i was noting the tracked out and fairly icy conditions. while not quite a luge run, this part was going to be a mad exit. at one point, jeff dropped a ski and it slid down toward me. maybe this would be my high spot.




a little above there, i decided to stop and take my skins off. i figured jeff would easily catch me as i slowly picked my way down. watching the two of them way up above me, it struck me that this might be a young person's game. going down and passing another group of 20-30 year olds going up, i affirmed those thoughts when they asked about conditions. "i think i am becoming a 'perfect conditions' skier."

jeff passed me soon enough and informed me ryan was going to take a few more laps. i suggested he would have a bit more fun if he went ahead. he slid on by, but being a good sport, he patiently and strategically waited until i came along behind. my goal was to get down safely and enjoy being outside playing. we made it to the car, nothing broken, nobody bleeding, both of us smiling. even as i told jeff i would do that again, if pressed, i would prefer those 'perfect conditions'.

back in plymouth, we ended the day at the café monte alto and were surprised when his wife kelsey stopped in. it was a fine way to end the day over a cup of tea.

go outside and play!go outside and pl

another two 'one more times'...

skip and i on tuesday's school 'snow day' and again on thursday with my buddy jeff!

i was up pretty early tuesday, hoping the snow would start early and fall heavy. i was disappointed, but skip had a snow day at lyme the same as mascoma. so i waited a bit and then called to set something up. he voted to stay local and said he would come over and pick me up when he finished plowing out.

by the time he showed up, we had about five or six inches, not nearly as much as we got the last storm, but plenty to ski on given the nearly two feet was still underneath. with the cold-ish weather, it was still fairly fresh. we chose the 'short' steeper up, headed to the glades, and found the snow getting deeper and fluffier the higher we got.

























you can see in the picture that it wasn't quite covering my saturday downhill track, but it was getting there. when we turned off for lost pond, i found the pole hole where i had measured depth on friday and stuck it in again. it was still pretty close to the camlock--20-22 inches or more--lovely.

we got our skins off just after the pond and started down. the snow was pretty fine and i was having so much fun, i didn't stop until i got to the fallen tree that tackled skip on sunday. it was a good place to set up to video him in case it got him again.

he made it past me upright and we finished the run with big smiles. as we slid toward the truck, he mentioned that if i had asked, he would have taken another run. and here, all the while i was thinking another pitch sure would be sweet but don't push him, his knee will go bad or he'll get sick. oh well, the snow will be there tomorrow.

even in the ideal world, tomorrow never comes. 

the very next day, skip was tied up at a meeting and jeff had left his ski boots at his house. we made plans for the next, next day. thursday, jeff remembered his boots but now skip was sick. we decided to hit the glades one more time.




the temp was warmer today, so the snow was pretty sticky on the way up. not until we got nearly to the pond was i able to glide without grabbing. that worked out for me as i was just on scales as today i brought the wrong skins. the only worry now was, would it be smooth sliding going down, or would it be slower than comfortable.


it turned out fine. after jeff took his skins off, we sailed down with only one stop after the first steep pitch. this was jeff's first time here and he was pretty stoked at the bottom. but this time a second run was preempted by his wife's request for a date to go to her school's musical. oh well, the snow will be there...another day.

one more time...

another cold night and still plenty of snow--why not.

skip and noah picked me up around 8:30 and we headed over to the glades at lasalette. i had brought my skins and smooth bottom skis hoping, they being faster than the ones with scales, i wouldn't have to worry about stickiness. and with skins, we could zip up the 'little sherburne'. 

'zip' was exactly how we went, up to the pond in practically no time and taking said skins off, buckling boots, and getting set for the down hill. i tucked in behind noah and followed his lead--no stops until almost the end. we both wondered where skip got to, maybe he got involved with that porcupine i found denning near the top, friday morning.

he finally showed up, with some story about a buried tree stopping him--one ski above, one ski below. he had a grin on, so we took him at his word and finished up smiling with him.

those smiles were for a few reasons: the snow was still deep and soft, the glades were a great place to enjoy such snow, and skiing with friends made it all the better! that, and as we got to the car, skip announced that there was more snow coming monday night...this skiing fresh powder could become a habit.




go outside and play!

another morning...

more soft, deep snow, but things were shifting toward the heavy and sticky--read skiing was getting pretty slow.

i called skip last night and asked if he would like to try lasalette in the morning. he was not sure as noah was supposed to be coming around noon. i figured i would hit it early and maybe go out again with them later. 

when i woke up it was down about 20˚F which made me smile. after breakfast i did a little shoveling and a compost run. the snow was still deep and soft which made me smile more. i packed up and took off.

it seemed warmer than friday morning and as i started skiing there was a fairly solid crust of the top snow layer, where the sun had warmed it in the afternoon. i was hopeful that that crust would disappear in the woods where the sun doesn't shine. to keep the glades for noah and skip if they did want to come out, i decided to go the big loop and finish on the 'little sherburne'.

going up was interesting in that sometimes i was on mostly buried snow shoe tracks and sometimes i was breaking trail. that was weird because i was following the main trail. whoever set the snowshoe track was following the beat of a different drummer. as i was figuring out their path, all of a sudden a fresh ski track joined the mix. i met the skier heading back down about 15 minutes later. he was a bit confused about trails so i gave him some options to further mess him up.



when i got to his 'high point' it was right where i thought it would be, a large-ish creek crossing. on the rest of the uphill after that point, the snow got really deep. i snapped another pole-average snow depth pic. it also seemed to be on the edge of sticky. i was hoping the downhill would still slide well.


i topped out soon after the picture and stopped to switch into downhill mode. after a little water out and water in, i pushed off. it was really slow and toward the bottom it got even slower as i had to go a bit off trail to avoid water in the trail. it was still beautiful, but i was looking for more steep. at what i call the 'upper junction', i went back to free pivot and turned right, headed toward the 'potato field'. i thought i would meet the snowshoe trail again, but i was breaking it out again.




i didn't see any potatoes in the field and the snow was still right on that sticky edge. i hit my uphill track from yesterday and instead of going back to the pond, i headed down the 'little sherburne'. making turns in and out of the old track was the only way to keep speed--it was almost grabby. a quarter mile past the 'lost pond' turn off, it finally got steep enough to leave my old track completely and ski all fresh. 


it's hard to see in the pic but the turns were sweet. i had left a wide open side, sticking to the far right on yesterday's uphill. the old road this trail is on has a number of water-bars pushed up and i took one as an opportunity to stop and look back uphill. when it is faster, and you time your hops right, you can even get a little air.


it wasn't that fast today. but it was steep enough to not be slow either. as i came to the last corner, i cast a look down a real narrow ditch i sometimes ski. it can be really tight and always has less snow than the wider-open parts. i saw a bunch of branches sticking out of the snow so i swung back to the road. at the next bend i cut off left into the woods headed toward another alternative route--'the spine'. the line follows a narrow path with a steep drop to the left and moderate one to the right. it is always exciting, especially at the end where it falls down to the main train all at once. if you land it right, it feels like you drop out of the sky back onto the trail--hopefully nobody is in the way.

nobody got hurt and i was down! as i slid out to the truck, i was thinking again, "if it gets cold tonight, maybe we can get one more day of deep and soft out of this--we meaning, i would have to drag skip out if he was at all reluctant.