a rare day...

single numbers °F, essentially cloudless, and zero wind--nada--all that 3156 feet above sea level, the last 100 of those, above the trees on top of mount cardigan!

cory came over for a sledders' breakfast--not to be confused with a breakfast of 'sliders' though now that i link those recipes, that sounds like a good thing too--and to gear up for his first cardigan adventure. both those things went well and by 9:30a we were parked, packed, and 'plantigrade'-ing our way to the summit!

wednesday's heavy, wet snow was now fluffy and light, with plenty still sticking up in the trees. it was a winter wonderland for sure. cory, a philidelphia native and fairly recent north country resident, was rockin' out the whole way up. 

the snow was pretty fantastic, and i too was getting stoked for shredding, only not so much on a sled guitar, more with my butt in the tub. 









in any case, the higher we got, the more pumped we were. as mentioned at the start, the weather could not have been more perfect. 



we met 3 mascoma outing club alums enjoying the ideal conditions,  already on their way down. matt, on at gear, had skinned up really early, skied the  alexandria trail to the east, skinned back up, and was now descending the west side--ah youth! adam and mike were floating the pow in snowboard mode after skinning up earlier on their splitboards.  





adam sent me a picture one of them took looking over fire screw in the foreground, toward the whites way off to the back. again, the sticky snow is prominent, and in this picture almost surreal.

when we pulled up to the summit, the sun was beginning to melt a little of that sticky snow, shedding some from a corner of one of the solar panels--cory with the wisdom of a true mtn man, took this pose out of the drop zone.


when we got in our sleds and started slipping down, he may have been questioning that wisdom. cruising along atop the crusty top, we picked up a fair amount of speed quickly. i miscalculated some and let it rip figuring the huge drift at the bottom of a runout would soften my stop. 


the soft mound of snow did the trick as far as my body was concerned, but the already cracked sled, didn't like the transition and basically cracked in half. no problem i finished it off by hand and packed up the pieces. we still had cory's 'black beauty'--a thicker plastic, that included some fiberglassing i had given it over a few weak spots.




sharing the lone intact sled, we kept up a good pace, alternating between sliding and photographing.



tub sleds are actually tricky to master as they 'steer'--i use that term somewhat loosely--counterintuitively. lean to the right and they go left, lean left and they go right. soon enough, cory was getting the hang of it.

since one of us was always walking, i avoided the most of the ski trail--why post hole and spoil that when you could luge down the snowshoe path already packed out. that didn't stop me from doing a little powder hounding, and bushwhacking, off trail right above the s-curves. for the last section leading down to the summer lot, i watched cory take off and ran to keep up. he had it down now, railing every corner, whooping the drops, and generally sliding like a pro!




we 'dog sledded' it down the road, cory scrunching up in the front end and me standing benind, pushing where needed and trying to hold on when it got steeper. the picture shows mike, 'keeping right', headed up to the parking area a couple of hours earlier.




at the end, like little goofy kids, with big silly grins, we stated the obvious: it was a fine day to 'go outside and play!' 




ps--here is some 'rare' video footage to go with the day...

same storm, different snow...

tuesday's storm was a "piddler" as pam called the few inches that was supposed to be 5-8.  the couple inches of snow predicted on wednesday turned out to be 8-10. i'll take that!

the extremely heavy and wet snow, made things pretty messy. a mound left at the end of the drive by the town plow, seemed a formidable wall and pam was still planning on going to work. the roads were bad enough to delay or close schools in the area--in mascoma's case both: delay first; closed when the snow kept coming down heavy. so i suited up to go out and clean up the vehicles and drive.

with things clean enough for the fit to get out, i came in to call skip and suggest a ski. he had a few errands to finish up before he said he would come pick me up. i called speight in case he wanted to go with us, but he picked up from down in florida, on a drummond family vacation. he would have to wait for a backcountry experience.

by the time skip pulled into the drive i was ready. we decided to hit lasalette first. pulling into the big parking lot, a former student going sledding greeted us. we took a warm-up run on the 'big hill' with him and his family. it was wicked easy going up, no skins needed. coming down was pretty slow, but the steeper parts were better.

as we headed over towards the steeper 'glades' and 'little sherbie', we got excited. at the top of the glade run, we had to find a tree to scrape off underfoot, before pointing our tips downhill. it was fast enough to have to stay on top of your line, avoiding the trees as you picked up speed on the steepest sections. it was so good we pointed up again when we got to the bottom.

at the top of the little sherbie run, it seemed even stickier--i ended up scraping off underfoot twice before the skis would run smooth. just for fun, and to make sure i didn't clump up again, i didn't stop, even when skip pulled off ahead of me. having not skied since just after thanksgiving, the quads were burning at the bottom.

as we headed back to the truck, we speculated that with the coming cold, this snow was going to dry out and turn to powdery goodness! too bad skip would be back in school--being retired i could just skip it if conditions went to excellent.

and excellent conditions went. thursday had the temperature falling later in the day, as high pressure moving in cleared the clouds out. down around zero friday morning, the snow was now fluffy and light, and i was packed and headed for cardigan. when i pulled in to the winter parking area, only half of it had been plowed. a trail had been broken out, but nobody on it yet that day.

nobody had been on the ski trail at all, so i skinned up that way to check for blowdowns and knock snow out of the bent over trees. i didn't have goggles or glasses, and no helmet, so the more branches i could unbend and raise out of the trail, the fewer i would get whipped with on the return--under speed.

as i came up into the ledgy, spruce only zone, there was no knocking snow off the branches. branches were loaded down and frozen solid--beautiful, but stiff as a board.





i stopped for a couple of pictures of all that beauty. the left is looking west, the right looks east. put together, they almost look panoramic. shortly after the trees thinned out and shortened, letting snow blow off or pack into huge drifts, carved into the shape of the winds path.

where there were no trees, only a thin crusty layer remained. it looked cool, but with the wind blowing 25mph steady, gusting 35-45, i didn't need to stay up enjoying it. a couple of snow encrusted spruce gave me enough of a wind break to strip off my skins, buckle down, and put on my big mitts.

the first couple hundred yards, off trail in the spruce, was an interesting mix: wind-packed where the openings were large enough; deep, soft drifts where the wind wasn't. by the time i dropped back onto the trail, i was ready for consistent, fast snow--a little speed would liven things up.




back full in the trees, not only was the snow consistent and fast, it was deep. i was finding boot top depth everywhere with knee deep pockets--it got really fun, as skip would say, "best skiing ever!"

i stayed on the ski trail where i could and after taking that picture of tracks on the section above the water fall, i didn't stop till i got back to the truck. the snow shoer i passed on the summer road, slowed enough to say hi and hear my, "it's beautiful snow!" but neither of us really stopped.

both of us were smiling big though, glad to be outside and playing!

the last of the ice...?

maybe, maybe not--the winter will tell!

for years, i have been bugging pam about moving to a climate where winter is still winter. of course i am looking for more snow. the problem is, a warming climate precludes that we could find such a spot, at least a place where it is a given. things are changing every where and while there are areas with more snow than 'wintery mix' it would be hard to find a guaranteed deep snowpack anywhere. in anycase, pam loves our spot now and friends tell me i should just have multiple winter sports in my quiver.

i mostly agree--the upper valley has a lot to offer in the outdoors. i was out on the ice a couple more times around the new year. monday, the 31st i went with the pendletons--including eben and simon--out on goose pond.

considering my last foray onto that ice, we drove to the boat launch at the north end. the recent rain left the parking area a solid sheet of ice. si and i found a walkable path at the edges and watched the others each slide about and fall once or twice getting down to the frozen edge of the pond. once we had our skates on, moving was more controlled and less anxious. we skated south, zigging and zagging our way to the dam, where simon took this panoramic.


along the eastern and western sides of the pond, we skated by dramatic evidence of the changing water levels. the influx of all that water from the last two heavy rains--we got 1.6 inches in the second event--raised the ice significantly. a week later, frozen chunks were left jutting up around boulders and sunken tree trunks.


the last time i was out on goose, i had found a couple perfect lifts that made great launching pads for a fast skater. i looked for one particular one, but in the shifting levels it was lost.


back toward the boat launch i went by a promising ramp and picked up some speed making a loop headed back for it. the approach was bumpy and i will use that as an excuse for why even though the launch was good, the landing went wonky. after a brief upright-ness, my skates slipped out to the side and i went down fairly hard onto my upper arm, even scraping the ol' temple enough to leave a mark.


ok, no more of that is necessary--just skate.

and that is what we did, plus visits with a former student ice fishing, and a pond side resident who had built his own ice boat, thrown in.

with our skates off, we all tromped along the edges of the parking lot / ice rink without incident. as we loaded gear into our trucks, and wished each other a happy new year, i was glad to be outside and playing! with such good friends.

ps--i heard that a good crew made it out once more on the 2nd, back on mascoma lake this time, before we had snow and freezing rain the 3rd. the ice was supposedly fantastic. with more wintery mix in the next week, and a heavy wet, 8-10" of snow just last wednesday, the skates are back in the quiver and i have skis and the sled out.

skate ice while the surface allows...

no matter where you are going, waiting for perfect conditions will rarely get you there.





it was with that in mind--after friday's inches of ice pellets covered by freezing rain--that pam and i went for a skate. pam had it from linda that people were out on canaan street lake so we packed our blades and went there.







just making it from the ice rink parking lot down to the edge of the lake, all of 40 yards, maybe, was a slippery challenge. but we made it and got our blades on and pushed off. the ice was mixed, much of it bumpy or mounded up with snow, but all of it frozen and mostly skate-able. there were some long, narrow smooth sections that you could pick out for their dark blue color. we followed those around the lake. where they were longest, we turned and repeated them--multiple times in some cases.

you can see a few of those dark streaks beyond pam down in the big bay in the cardigan mtn school bay. that pan was looking south. the eastern shoreline had a wide band of really good smooth ice which we back and forth-ed for quite a while. 

you can't see it on the map, but there is a small flooded cove way to the east that we love to skate into. i tried it and pam came in soon after. i took a picture of her at the far end.

more good ice along the edge took us down to the reservoir south end. on the way i spoke with a fellow walking out to drill a hole to lower a camera through. with a 360°lens he was hoping for an interesting 'under ice' view. we ran into some fairly rough ice in the reservoir so i stopped and took a pan looking north.

we headed back to the town beach, stopping to talk to two sets of fishing people on the way. taking our time, skating a few more dark lines back and forth, we got off the blades and out of our boots some two hours after getting into them. 



if there is no 'wintery mix' tonight, maybe we will try goose pond out tomorrow--before the forecasted new year's eve storm comes in. 


if not on a lake skating, there is plenty of other ice to go outside and play on! 

up high and in the wind...

the smartphone is still in the rice--but i am getting out and about!

the wintery mix has been with us of late, the couple inches of pellet-y snow under ice now after a few hours of rain inspired me to climb up cardigan and check out the local conditions 'up high'. 

the drive to the winter parking lot was not as bad as it probably was on friday but as i came up the last hill it was snowing hard. it was somewhat hard to see the women who walks her three or four, 'coated' dogs, up to the height of land. i also spotted andre, a former student and MOC member walking along chatting on his phone beneath a jacket laid over his head. we said hi, but he declined to walk up the mtn.

i strapped on my creepers and went up alone. the summer road in was mostly much softer than i expected. on the lower sections of the ski trail, i almost could have used gaiters, snow was about six mushy inches. i stayed to the trail after that and after the waterfall started meeting folks. to a group, each spoke of how windy and cold it was on the top. you could hear the wind rushing through the tops of the trees, so perhaps it was bad on the bald top where there was nothing to break it.

at the 'east amc' sign stuck in a low cairn i met laura and tim. we chatted about wind speed and how most people think it much higher than it is. i carry an anemometer, and they said they would look this post up if i would measure and record it. 

before i got to the top, two other groups passed me with their own wind-cold stories. one gentleman warned that "i hope you have a hat and gloves" as he assured me winds "had to be higher than 50 miles per hour." the young woman with him exclaimed, "it has to be 10° below!" i think i mumbled something like it must feel bad if you are not used to it.

the next couple, from the boston area, were also impressed with the weather, but didn't seem to have the same exaggerated forecast. the gentleman was even interested in possibly doing some backcountry skiing on the mountain. i mentioned my wind speed mission and gave them the blog url.

coming up onto the bare rock, the wind was indeed stiff, but not exceptional. i zipped up, put my hat and gloves on, and got out the anemometer. i measured as i went along up to the high spot, just west of the tower. the wind out of the west, north west, was pretty steady around 20 mph. i was thinking that would be about right, but stayed around to see if it got any higher. there were some higher gusts, up above 30 mph, but not much more. so maybe, 35 mph, certainly no more than 40 mph. 

running along on the way down, i wondered if either of the two couples whom i gave kobyvanbeest.blogspot.com to, would ever get the 'official' measurement. laura, tim, bc skier, and partner--if you see this great. and if you have any pictures from the hike, feel free to send them to kobyvanbeest@gmail.com. 

i did catch up with the one group with the hyperbolic wind speeds and temps. the man asked, and i gave him what i had measured before running on.

it was a great day to be outside and playing!