Cross Country Skiing

[ayasoso]

My God, Can Cross Country Skiing is a cool action, I'm so envy you!

[ridebikeme]

Well, the snow gods answered some prayers here in New England today... YIPEE!! Got in a short ski with about 3" of new snow and it's continuing to snow as I type this. Hopefully we'll receive about 6" or more.... here's hoping that all of you are able to get back on your skis as well!!

[ridebikeme]

It's amzing how an hour can tire our fourl legges friends out, although if yours are like mine, well she runs more distance than I ski HA!

We had about a foot of new snow this week, and although today was supposed to be the 'Chili ride" for the shop, it turned out to be a day on ski's.(way too windy to ride outside today) Unfortunately, my four legged friend had to stay home today because the snow was too soft... too hard on her hips. But, I will say that the conditions are probably the best of the season, and like you Roadie, I too did a semi backcountry ski today. I followed someone elses tracks, and it was a blast although a LOT of work HA!

[Skierchickie]

This is so exciting. We're hosting them locally (and did last year, too). I'm too old, fat & slow to compete, but signed up to work all 4 race days. I touched some Olympians yesterday! I worked in the chipping station yesterday, and I think that is where I'll be tomorrow, too. Last year I was removing chips and sweaty, snotty lycra bibs, which was less pleasant.

Plus, yesterday I learned just how many layers I need to wear to stay warm when it is 18F with 25-30mph winds. I was sure I'd freeze, so I was really happy (I don't stand around in the cold well). The secret number is 7. Microweight Smartwool tank, 2 microweight Smartwool long sleeve shirts, thin zip-neck, very thick & soft Mtn Hardwear Monkey Woman jacket, wind shell, and knee-length down coat. On the bottom it was microweight Smartwool bottoms, very thick fleece pants (including an extra coating of dog & cat fur), and snow pants. 3 pairs of wool socks, big clompy boots, and my new Mad Bomber hat. Polypro gloves under thick mittens, with handwarmers in mittens and boots. I was actually sweating a little if I moved around much. Guess I'll dress the same tomorrow, since it's supposed to get down to 1F tonight, and be windy all day.

On the down side, ever try dealing with tampons in a porta-potty with that many layers on? NOT FUN.

[pyxichick]

Skierchickie, lucky you living in the land of endless snow!

I love the U.P. and and hope to ski my third Bear Chase this year. Hooray for snow! The season is off to a great start!

I'm already over 100 km over my total from this time last year.

It's great to have a fun sport to look forward to in summer and winter

[caribou]

Yes, bicycling is nice if there is no snow available for xc skiing . . .

Just finished six days of being able to xc ski every day in the Sierra Nevadas here in California. Pure heaven.

My DH, who'd rather go to a nice warm beach, thinks I'm a "fanatic" because I will ski with a light snow falling He'd never make it where some of you gals live, would he??

[caribou]

PS: Roadie Gal:

The only thing I've ever found that got me in shape over the summer so I wasn't dying the first couple days of skate-skiing was the one summer I did a whole lot of mountain biking on steep uphills. But that's too painful!

[Skierchickie]

Pyxichick - I am lucky to live here! Sounds like a lot of the midwest has been getting snow this year. Glad you've been racking up the k's! It's too cool that you're a Bear Chase skier. I live 5 miles from Swedetown. Do you ski the long or the short one? I typically do the short one - I always bonk in 50k races (and puke anywhere from 1 hour to 5 hours after), and I haven't done one in a long time. 20-30k seems to be my race distance, but it's hard to train for anything longer than that. 26k is my longest ski so far this year.

I'm really looking forward to working at Nationals tomorrow. It's the individual sprints. It's also supposed to be in the 30s tomorrow and Sunday (with a little rain predicted starting Sunday ), so it shouldn't be too cold.

Caribou & Roadie Gal: I always die the first few days of skate-skiing too (and the first few days of striding, which I managed to get through this week - now I can walk again!). I tend to let my training fall apart in the fall, when it gets cold & rainy and starts getting dark early, so ski season always begins painfully.

Well, next Saturday I'll start helping out with the local kids' ski program, and a couple of weeks later is my first race of the year.

Have a great season, everybody!

[Crankin]

Skied at Bretton Woods today, 15k. It was a balmy 9F when we started and about 12 when we finished. There was brilliant sunshine though. We were going to ski a loop right to the restaurant at the Mt. Washington Hotel, but we missed the trail and had to backtrack. By that time my friend was getting frostbite on her hands, so we headed back to the Nordic center and drove up the road to eat.
Conditions were good in the beginning, but the trail on the way back was more heavily used and had lots of twigs and grass on the tracks. Then, the wind picked up in the open field and that was not fun. Tomorrow we are going to ski at Waterville Valley Nordic on the way home. They all want to take a skate ski lesson and I do not. It looks way too hard and I generally hate trying new things that may make me look like an azzhole.

[Crankin]

Well, our trip to Waterville Valley was interesting. We decided against the skate ski lesson, due to the temperature, although it turned out to be quite a bit warmer (+10 degrees) than yesterday. So, there's 2 very separate areas for skiing and out friends had been to one of them a few times, but not in a couple of years. We went to the center and asked if a route we had planned to do a short ski before lunch, was OK. They told us a couple of the trails were closed, but we were able to plan a 5k route. OK, the trails started out fine, although it definitely was not what our friends described, which was wide and rated easier than most places we ski. We climbed up, up, and up, conditions getting worse by the second. Icy, with twigs and rocks sticking out. We went down a twisty downhill, which under good conditions would have been great, but it was scary. I managed to stay up, though. Then we climbed even more; my edge on my left ski skid out on the ice, and I did go down in what I call a "stupid fall." We got to the trail we were supposed to take to get back and it was closed. Our only other option was to ski down a black trail with the word "chute" in the name. Given the conditions, that was not something any of us wanted to do, so we took our skis off and walked down the closed trail, about 1.5 km or a little more. There were bare rocks where water bars had formed, and lots of twigs, and ice. Thankfully, it was not too hard and we got to the trail to get back to the nordic center. On a small downhill, our friend, who is a really excellent skier (the one who broke his hip cycling a couple of years ago) fell, which scared us, but he was OK. There was a pile of snow in the middle of the trail, with ice on the side. When we were almost back, there was (no kidding) a guy with his shirt off , standing on the side of the trail, getting some sun. His hands were raised to the sky and it was very weird. I averted my eyes, so as not to make any contact. Not sure what the deal was, but it was a good laugh after a hard ski.
After lunch, we drove to the other (which were the trails our friends described) side, but by this time it was 2:00 and I was getting chilled for some reason. We skied just about 2K, around a loop, the conditions were great, but we had lost our mojo. Since we had a 2 hour drive home, we called it quits.
I will go back here, but under better snow conditions next time. Overall, a great weekend, especially the eating.

[ridebikeme]

Glad to hear you had a great weekend Crankin! I would dare say that there's a good chance that manya reas have such conditions.... the week of warm temps simply killed us and then the cold this past week. It sounds as though we could get a bit of snow over the next couple of days, but again, the temps are going to warm this week ARGH!!! Hopefully we'll receive a good snow fall here at some point.

I got out yesterday(and will go today as well) and like you, there were lots of pine cones/needles on the trail, although I was happy not to see bare ground anywhere... although it was pretty hard. But here's to hoping that the snow gods look down on us again here soon!

[roadie gal]

We haven't had any snow for weeks. The conditions are going to start to get sketchy soon.

I went for a skate ski today. I concentrated on technique and going slow with a good glide. I tend to just blow up skating, but this worked well. I was able to go for over an hour and made it up a long, not too steep hill without stopping. Yay.

[ridebikeme]

Well, we survived all the rain and wind, and although the trails are scratchy...we still have snow. I did get out today, although probably the worse conditions I have seen in quite some time... even beats last year! Although there was still snow coverage on the trails, they were 'boiler plate' and covered with branches, pine cones and twigs. Although the conditions beat me twice today by throwing me to the ground a couple of times, it was a beautiful day and interesting to see all the huge ice chunks that got washed downstream. I'm thankful that we still have coverage, but truly hope that the snow gods will bless us with some more of the white stuff.

[Crankin]

We arrived in the NEK yesterday around 2. Everyone was in agreement there would be nothing more strenuous than drinking wine and dinner, which is what we did. Of course, I come to the coldest place in VT and today was about 40 degrees. Since the snow was thin and mushy, we snowshoed about 10k on the Darling Hill Trails. It was awesome, did mostly black trails that are really hiking, winter and summer mtb trails. Since it's my first exercise in almost 2 wks., I think it was a better idea. Lots of climbing and saw several fat tire tracks on these very narrow single track trails. We saw a large sugaring operation in the woods and also saw the sugar shack.
Later, after lunch we went to E. Burke Sports Shop and they had Vayas with huge fat tires. I bought a top and hat on sale and chatted with the sales guy who was very happy that we had flattened the trails with our snow shoes, for his bike. He was also mildly impressed 4 old people had gone that far on that terrain.
Tomorrow we will ski on the groomed and tracked trails at Dashney Farm, which in 1992 is where I took my first x country ski lesson, while the rest of my family was alpine skiing at Burke.

[Crankin]

Skied about 11k at the Dashney Trails Nordic center, part of the Kingdom Trails network. Conditions were on the edge of being horrible, but we planned a route with the help of the staff, where we would be going up in the spots that were exposed.
This is a gorgeous place. I have to come back here when there is powder. It was fast and slick today, but no falling, just some very spazzy moments in the beginning.
We were done around 12:30. Went into town and had lunch at the Country Store and then went to the home of the man who runs the sugaring operation we saw on the trails yesterday. We bought some syrup from him, it was cool to just knock on his door, as our innkeeper told us to.