Cross Country Skiing

[Skierchickie]

I can see me being pulled along on my ask, skis akimbo.

Yeah - yesterday we were flying along, I had just hopped in the tracks on a long, slight downhill grade, and Zoe decided to stop suddenly to check out a scent. I kept going, trying frantically to stop. I fell, and she yelped pretty good when the line went taut again, but she was fine, and picked right up where she left off.

Oh - the other option: our first time out this season, she suddenly headed across in front of me, left to right, into the deep snow. She stopped, but crossed back behind me, then in front of me,.... By the time I reeled her in, my arms and poles were pinned to my sides, and I could just wiggle my hands.

Oh - and there was the time I foolishly made her wait so some friends could ski on ahead. When I finally told her to go, she yanked me right off my feet. I mean, from standing to faceplant in 0.01 seconds.

Poor Crankin.... Clearly, you DO want all that!

[Crankin]

Yes, and I will drive to find some. I bought new skis tonight! Fischer S Bound Silent Spiders. I decided to keep the same boots, since they are in good shape and my feet are so sensitive, I don't want to mess with what works. The skis are shorter, which is my main concern.
Hopefully, I will find snow somewhere.

[Crankin]

I guess everyone else is riding???

We went to Windblown, in NH today. The place is amazing. There is absolutely no snow on the ground here and not much up by them, either, but almost all of there trails are open. We got there at 10:30 and the parking lot was already filling up. My new skis are awesome! So light. I can climb in the tracks much easier and also climb without having to herringbone as much. They feel different on the downhill and for a bit I had to get used to the shorter skis=less edges, but by the afternoon, I was set.
The temperature got up to about 35 degrees. That's just about at the edge of being too warm. We skied about 11k. DH is very happy with his new stuff, too, and he definitely could go faster. It's supposed to snow a little on Tuesday, so I am hoping to go to the local touring center Wednesday. We'll see...

[DebW]

Glad to hear you had good skiing, Crankin. I'll be skiing at Notchview in the Berkshires tomorrow.

[Crankin]

We were going to go to Notchview yesterday, but didn't want to drive that far. I'd be interested to hear how it was.
Here's a picture from yesterday. This is a "view" spot at Windblown, where you can see Mt. Monadanock in the background. It's right next to the owner of the touring area's home. The wind was gusting up to 35 when we were up there. Good excuse for a good downhill, to get out of that wind!

[obie]

Sigh...I'm a New Englander too and bemoaning the lack of snow. Unfortunately, have had too many commitments recently (family in town, weekend meetings, etc) to make it up to Windblown in recent weekends. I am feeling like a lame ski-lover. Oh well - it was nice being out on the road bike yesterday

We are taking a long weekend starting on Thursday to Lake Placid and hopefully will ski AND skate enough to feel sufficiently winter-happy!

[Zen]

Here's a picture from yesterday.

What is around your waist and where are your poles?

[Crankin]

Those are waist packs/bottle holders. I hate skiing with a Camelbak and despite the fact I have the "winter" cover on the hose, it still freezes. The waist pack allows me to have plenty of liquid and room for different gloves, hats, etc., especially at this time of year when I often start layering down after 10 minutes!
Poles were stuck in the snow off to the side. It was a rare moment when someone else up there spontaneously offered to take our picture.

[DebW]

We were going to go to Notchview yesterday, but didn't want to drive that far. I'd be interested to hear how it was.

Notchview had wonderful skiing yesterday. It was powder snow, at least an inch of fresh powder on a 7" base. The fields were windblown and crusty but in the woods there was nothing but POWDER! And the area is 98% in the woods. There is lots of groomed terrain of easy and intermediate level. Also skied some narrow backcountry trails which were tracked by skis but ungroomed. I started on my new waxless skis but found them slow, so switched to waxables and had great skiing. Temperatures were 25-30F, I used extra blue with special red kicker and it couldn't have been better.