Mid winter ski
Saturday was supposed to be questionable weather. Starting cold and then ramping up to above zero temps and rain sometime in the afternoon. While I wasn’t CSMing this year I still felt eager to go out and do a big ski. With that in mind I loaded up relatively early and headed for P11 with a long loop ski in mind. Heading down the Discovery trail and Pine road I would climb up to Lusk Lake, continue on the abandoned (but well used) trail 10 to the firetower and then ski down Ridge road to the heart of the park and loop around to P11 once again. Starting out the groomed trail was in superb shape. Excellent snow had been freshly worked with a hard base. I made short work of the trail out to Lusk. Trail 10 by contrast is no longer acknowledged by the NCC but those of us that know and love it still ski it in year after year. Sadly today as I started up the steep climbs of the trail someone in front of me had decided it was too steep to ski up and had taken off their skis and walked up all the hills. This left the perfectly serviceable ski trail a mess of post holed footprints and inconsistent trenches where the offender had waded, sunk, clambered up the hill – Grrrr! As I was mostly climbing it was merely an inconvenience for me but had I chosen to loop the other way, descending would have been a minefield of tripping hazards to negotiate at speed. After topping out the main climb and crossing the upper (flatter) portion of the trail I came head on with a good sized group on snowshoes with skis on their backs. They were doing a similar ski as I was but opting out of skiing the most fun part (authors opinion!) – snowshoeing it instead. That said, all those snowshoes would help to compact down the postholes on the steeps so perhaps my timing was just a little off – c’est la guerre. From there back to Ridge road I had a nice hard base to ski on and made good time back to the groomed runs. A quick visit to the firetower and then I was off down Ridge road (also in excellent shape). The day was gray but the temperature while climbing remained below zero while I skied. For the most part I only rarely saw other skiers. I suppose with CSM’rs off… well, CSMing and loppeters tapering for next weekend’s races, the farther reaches of the park were left to me (and a few others of course). Just the rhythmic sound of my skis and the wind above me in the trees like a lost wave looking for a shore. Once back into the hub of the park at gossip corner the crowds reappeared. This is a nice loop. Apparently it’s a little long for the size of my water bottle (I ran dry at McKinstry) but that’s a minor correction of which I should know by now. Once home the temperature shot up and (I’m told) a little rain fell. I missed the rain though as I took a pre-bedtime nap… but it looks like more rain is in the forecast…. Downward slope of winter seems to be arriving.
Saturday was supposed to be questionable weather. Starting cold and then ramping up to above zero temps and rain sometime in the afternoon. While I wasn’t CSMing this year I still felt eager to go out and do a big ski. With that in mind I loaded up relatively early and headed for P11 with a long loop ski in mind. Heading down the Discovery trail and Pine road I would climb up to Lusk Lake, continue on the abandoned (but well used) trail 10 to the firetower and then ski down Ridge road to the heart of the park and loop around to P11 once again. Starting out the groomed trail was in superb shape. Excellent snow had been freshly worked with a hard base. I made short work of the trail out to Lusk. Trail 10 by contrast is no longer acknowledged by the NCC but those of us that know and love it still ski it in year after year. Sadly today as I started up the steep climbs of the trail someone in front of me had decided it was too steep to ski up and had taken off their skis and walked up all the hills. This left the perfectly serviceable ski trail a mess of post holed footprints and inconsistent trenches where the offender had waded, sunk, clambered up the hill – Grrrr! As I was mostly climbing it was merely an inconvenience for me but had I chosen to loop the other way, descending would have been a minefield of tripping hazards to negotiate at speed. After topping out the main climb and crossing the upper (flatter) portion of the trail I came head on with a good sized group on snowshoes with skis on their backs. They were doing a similar ski as I was but opting out of skiing the most fun part (authors opinion!) – snowshoeing it instead. That said, all those snowshoes would help to compact down the postholes on the steeps so perhaps my timing was just a little off – c’est la guerre. From there back to Ridge road I had a nice hard base to ski on and made good time back to the groomed runs. A quick visit to the firetower and then I was off down Ridge road (also in excellent shape). The day was gray but the temperature while climbing remained below zero while I skied. For the most part I only rarely saw other skiers. I suppose with CSM’rs off… well, CSMing and loppeters tapering for next weekend’s races, the farther reaches of the park were left to me (and a few others of course). Just the rhythmic sound of my skis and the wind above me in the trees like a lost wave looking for a shore. Once back into the hub of the park at gossip corner the crowds reappeared. This is a nice loop. Apparently it’s a little long for the size of my water bottle (I ran dry at McKinstry) but that’s a minor correction of which I should know by now. Once home the temperature shot up and (I’m told) a little rain fell. I missed the rain though as I took a pre-bedtime nap… but it looks like more rain is in the forecast…. Downward slope of winter seems to be arriving.
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