Cross Country Skiing

[mudmucker]

Aaahhh. (Comfortable sigh). First xc ski of the season. Feels darn good again. It has been snowing non-stop since Friday noon. By Saturday morning I had a foot, then slow flurries all day Saturday for about another 4 inches, then picked up again like gangbusters today Sunday and still going. Today I decided to have fun first, and then spend the time to snowblow myself out. The conditions were perfect! Perfect snow, 20 d perfect temps to keep snow dry, and perfect wax = nice effortless FUN glide. I don't have to drive - I just go up the road 800 feet to where there is 2000 acres of 'never to be developed' watershed area and use wood roads. Today I skied right from the cellar door. I didn't go far into the woods. I just didn't feel like breaking trail as I didn't have my floaters but my narrower skiis. I actually skied the roads - which are not heavily traveled in the vicinity of my house - it was great - just a thin veneer of about 2-3" over packed plowed road. My own personal groomed trail and I was able to get some skating in. I only had to move over for 4 cars in an hour and a half. Kind of stormy - people weren't out.

[Eden]

We went "cross city" skiing today... it so rarely really snows around here that there are no real snow clearing provisions. The side streets are like beautiful groomed ski tracks. We probably put in 10-12 miles down to Lake Washington and back.

[Crankin]

I went skiing yesterday for the first time this season. The conditions were superb. However, I had limited time, so after I had completed all of the trails on the easier side of the touring center, I knew it would take me too long to go back the way I came. I got to the road that divides the 2 areas and I gingerly skied down the street, where there actually was enough snow snow to do this, until I got to another trail that would take me back to my car more directly. It was strange to be skiing down a road that I usually am riding on!
However, I was very slow, but it felt good. I took a stupid fall on a downhill; the kind where I didn't fall all the way down and lay there splayed in the snow, but my bum sort of touched the ground, I recovered and got up, and continued down the tiny little hill. Right now I can't conceive that last winter I actually skied down a black diamond run.
What I noticed is that my skill level is just like my cycling; I am not fast like the real fast skiers/racers, but I am faster than someone who is just plodding along. I had to help one woman who had fallen and couldn't get up.
It's raining today , so there go the good conditions.

[yellow]

Here are some fun pictures from a XC ski today here in SLC. SadieKate and Bubba are visiting Bubba's mom and we've been traipsing about.

I can't tell you how many pictures I have from over the years of SK sticking her tongue out. Today was no exception:




And then we ran into this really neato snowman. He had boots on! (I'm on the left and SK is behind Frosty)



It was a great day and the snow was wonderful. So nice to have SK in town to play with!!

[SadieKate]

Honey, I'm ho-ome! (As snap would say.) But it rained and our lovely snow is nearly gone. Pooh.

And Sunnyside Sports is having a huge sale on everything including skate boots . . . . Bubba picked up some of those Toko pants for 30% off and no tax.

Sunnyside was very nice in the midst of sale havoc and heated up my Rossi BC 7s and gave me a lead on someone who may be able to help with my right boot problem so I can then spend more money.

Me had fun in SLC. Mercy buckets.

[Aint Doody]

Here we are skiing at Pendleton Country Club on Dec. 20th before the snow melted. I'm in the blue about to cross the creek (crick if you're in Eastern Oregon!)

[Di bear]

Wow - I'm embarrassed to say that went COMPLETELY over my head. Ski wax?

Yes.

[divingbiker]

All these pictures look wonderful.

Just taking a stab here hoping that someone might be able to suggest a good xc skiing spot, with nice trails and decent snow, within a 3-4 hour drive of Washington DC. I'm dying to get out this winter, and my dog groomer said she'd go with me, so I need to figure out where! Thanks in advance.

[7rider]

All these pictures look wonderful.

Just taking a stab here hoping that someone might be able to suggest a good xc skiing spot, with nice trails and decent snow, within a 3-4 hour drive of Washington DC. I'm dying to get out this winter, and my dog groomer said she'd go with me, so I need to figure out where! Thanks in advance.

A co-worker loves Whitegrass, in Davis, WV.
I've never been, but would love to try it. My poor skis haven't been out of the garage in several years, and only see our unplowed streets on those VERY rare big snowfalls.

Oh...also Wisp, of course, out in western MD.

[divingbiker]

A co-worker loves Whitegrass, in Davis, WV.
I've never been, but would love to try it. My poor skis haven't been out of the garage in several years, and only see our unplowed streets on those VERY rare big snowfalls.

Oh...also Wisp, of course, out in western MD.

Wonder if they have snow now???

Wanna go some weekend?

[7rider]

Wonder if they have snow now???

Wanna go some weekend?

At each of those sites..look for the link for daily snow reports or conditions.
Looks like Wisp is closed and Whitegrass reports "frozen" conditions with some bare patches. Yuck.

I'd love to go - when they get some snow.

[Di bear]

Skierchickie,

Was that you I saw at Tech, tonight? I was wearing the blue and black jacket with the gray cyclocross hat and the gray neck gator that hid my face. I like to keep my face warm.

Di

[Skierchickie]

Possibly, possibly.... I was there from 4:30 until 6:15-ish. Light blue jacket, white & blue hat, off-white hood under the hat, black pants. Seems like I saw somebody fitting your bundled-up description toward the end. I was with DH & my best buddy. Belated "Hi Di Bear!". I think we were deep in a discussion about whether we wanted to actually observe New Year's Eve, and what on earth to do. Sounds like we'll probably go to a movie.

It was fun tonight! My buddy wanted to do some drills, which nearly killed us all (3 minutes hard, 3 easy, 2 hard, 2 easy, 1 hard, 1 easy). Turns out that first 3 minutes at race pace is hard. We ditched the second set. Then we just skied easy-ish down to the Nara trails & stuff. We might try to do increasingly bigger sets of that weekly. I ski a lot, but I don't seem to do drills & intervals and stuff anymore.

I just signed up for 4 races for this season (before all the prices go up after tomorrow).
1) 21km at ABR in Ironwood
2) 25K Noquemanon in Marquette
3) 26K Pre-Birkie in Hayward, WI
4) 26K Bear Chase (home turf)
All freestyle

Whoo hoo!

Anybody else want to share their race schedules for this season?

[Di bear]

Yeah, that was me. I skied from 4:20 to 6:10. I twisted my ankle earlier today, so skiing was a little painful after about 10K.

[Crankin]

Just got back from 4 days in Jackson, NH. Went up New Year's Eve and stayed at the Inn at Thorn Hill. We've been there before and it is the nicest inn I've been too. The breakfasts and dinners are included in the room price, although you can go there and not get the dinner included. Thursday was the coldest day in a long time! We started to ski out of the inn to connect to the Jackson x country area and it was a mess; covered with branches from the ice storm and very icy. After I fell like 4 times we all turned back. I was hurting and not in a good mood when we finally got in the car and drove there. So, we decided to just do the river trail while our friends did some blue trails. It was a good idea, I got my ski legs back a little and didn't fall for the rest of the day. I was very glad our room had a jacuzzi, though. I noticed one little bruise on my lower hip.
Friday we went to Bear Notch, which is one of my favorite touring centers. It is small and has homemade soup and bread for lunch. We did about 6-7K with lots of climbing and a few good downhills, which I managed to stay upright on. And, it was a balmy 25 out. When we got back, I noticed that I now had 3 bruises (2 small) on my right hip, butt, and hamstring. No wonder they started aching after all of the downhill. Today we checked out and drove to Bretton Woods. We did about 10.5k with a little climbing and some nice intermediate downhills. It was freezing again and the wind was whipping across the open field you have to cross before getting into the woods. I was unzipped quite a bit when we stopped at the yurt for a snack, but the last 1k on the way back was brutal, blowing snow on icy terrain. Bretton Woods has a nice locker room with showers, so we changed and cleaned up before heading home. As I was changing, someone called my name and it was SheFly! She had been trying out skate skiing.
A good vacation and I am very sore!