Cross Country Skiing

[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.

[nuliajuk]

Got out at dawn this morning. The trails were drifted over, but another skier had been out even earlier, so it was possible to follow those tracks at least. The colour of the snow changed from peach to pale gold as the sun got higher, with violet-grey shadow. Will definitely go out at this time of day next week.
Tomorrow I'm volunteering for the local loppet. It will be interesting to see if they can set the tracks close enough to start time to overcome the wind drift - it's amazing how fast the tracks get buried in this gusty place.

[Crankin]

Praying it snows in the Northeast Kingdom, before we leave on 2/14.