in the 'after' season season...

i suppose you could call us die-hards, but considering we skin up to ski down all winter, why not get in a few more runs come spring. 

for years now i have been trying to find a day when the stars aligned and jay could come ski with me--somewhere, anywhere. last weekend sharing photos of our respective polar dips, he added a "let's meet up at the skiway on thursday." i jumped right on that, as after season runs there can be more fun than in season ones, at least for me. bonus, jay would be there!

of course as the weather shaped up it was supposed to be extra windy and cold that day. and given our 5:00p start, things would probably be pretty stiff. but, i was not going to let this pass.

jay pulled up right on time and we got his skins on quick, even though they hadn't seen a ski bottom in quite a few years. my guess was since they were too long and wide, they had never seen the bottom of his skis. they would work under today's conditions and only going up a mile or so.

we set off at a brisk pace straight up the lift line. it should be noted that jay is not only an accomplished nordic skier, and stays in pretty good shape, he is kind of a driven, type a sort of guy. you can read a blurb about his drive in the post about the last SEAD hike on moosilauke we did, semi-together. the only problem with that, besides my being 'old' and under the weather, is he loves to catch up on these get togethers. while he can fly uphill and chat with the best of them, i have to heavy breathe in between filling him in on my exploits.


the good thing is he notices all this and slacks off the pace when needed, even stopping now and again to 'take in the view', local as it is. we get up to the top and take our skins off while eating a delicious cookie that his darling wife julie made for us. and after snapping simultaneous selfies, we started our slide down.

it was indeed stiff, and "loud" as jay called it. but we managed to descend without incident of the negative sort, maintaining our smiles. and stopping for some more photo opps.













we were skiing the fresh cat track as even though it was a tad chunky, it was the only soft spot on the hill. when i got past jay on this headwall, i stopped and took a movie of him. while his skate-skiing double pole technique is bonafide--i don't know where i get mine.

the "loud" part of the skiing is evident, especially at the end (as is my booming voice). when we made it down to the vehicles, we promised we would do it again--next time sooner than later. maybe even after we trimmed his skins.

it just so happened that friday night it snowed about four inches. saturday morning, skip called me around 10 and we headed back over to the skiway. he had also stopped there thursday, but earlier than jay and i. he decided it was way to icy. today was a different story. when we started up, the snow was still powdery. the first run down was fluffy-fast and as long as you didn't set an edge too hard, you barely noticed the ice underneath.

we skinned up for a second go. this time, the sun had warmed up the fresh snow and started to make it a bit sticky. but, all in all, we had a great couple of runs. our only wish was that jay could have been there. that and i would have had my camera out...

go outside and play...!

ps turns out jay was there saturday--grabbing first tracks really early and with his camera!

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!