All seems to be right with the world right now. The threats of warmer weather and rain to wash away the snow have for the most part not come to pass. In fact a lot of the forecasted rain has turned into snow. Today it rained for a little bit at lunch time but by the time I headed up to the hills there was a nice soft dry layer of powder snow on the ground..... who woulda guessed?!
I've been skiing as much as I can over the last week. Last night I took the new pair of skis out for a test run along with the camera. They worked pretty well in spite (or perhaps because?) of the fresh snow. I'll have to try them in a few other conditions to see where they shine the best but for the most part I'm happy with the purchase right out of the box. December starts tomorrow.... its shaping up to be a great ski year.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
The season begins
To be honest I kinda expected to have bragging rights over having "already skied" after last weekends ski trip to Placid for a little while longer. It was not to be (and I'm not too disappointed about it). Wednesday a good old-fashioned snowstorm dropped 8 to 10 inches of snow over the park. We haven't had too many of these kind of storms over the last few years. It was nice to see. Add to that the new grooming contractor was right on the ball and had the parkways in good shape by Friday (probably would have been sooner but it kept snowing on them).
The Parkways are now in pretty good shape for both classic and skating. Good coverage with only a few thin spots in the classic tracks. I'm cautiously optimistic that the snow will last, but there are a few warm, rainy days in the short term forecast. It wouldn't take much to wash things back to an unskiable surface but with luck things will hang on.... more snow coming the following week to help build the base.
I've been out skiing every day with nice easy outings. Trying to get the form back and gently work some of the muscle groups that haven't seen any serious action since last April. There's usually only a couple of small control group muscles that go into conniptions after the first few skis.... they should be fine in a few days. The endurance feels good after a summer of climbing peaks. Certainly after last weeks climb of the Whitface toll road I will never complain about the length of Black Lake hill again. Unfortunately my left ankle is feeling a little stiff and sore when I classic ski. I think this is a remnant of this summers sprain. With luck I'll work it back soon enough.
The two girls pictured were out on the trails to greet me today. They seemed to like the compacted snow of the parkways and were a little unwilling to bolt into the deeper snow of the woods. They sized me up carefully to assess the threat. Apparently I passed muster as a non-threat and they went back to snacking on the nearby bushes.
The Parkways are now in pretty good shape for both classic and skating. Good coverage with only a few thin spots in the classic tracks. I'm cautiously optimistic that the snow will last, but there are a few warm, rainy days in the short term forecast. It wouldn't take much to wash things back to an unskiable surface but with luck things will hang on.... more snow coming the following week to help build the base.
I've been out skiing every day with nice easy outings. Trying to get the form back and gently work some of the muscle groups that haven't seen any serious action since last April. There's usually only a couple of small control group muscles that go into conniptions after the first few skis.... they should be fine in a few days. The endurance feels good after a summer of climbing peaks. Certainly after last weeks climb of the Whitface toll road I will never complain about the length of Black Lake hill again. Unfortunately my left ankle is feeling a little stiff and sore when I classic ski. I think this is a remnant of this summers sprain. With luck I'll work it back soon enough.
The two girls pictured were out on the trails to greet me today. They seemed to like the compacted snow of the parkways and were a little unwilling to bolt into the deeper snow of the woods. They sized me up carefully to assess the threat. Apparently I passed muster as a non-threat and they went back to snacking on the nearby bushes.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Saying goodbye for this year
On Sunday I met up with Bryan and Mike for a hike up the Eardley escarpment. It was a nice chance to go for a local hike after Saturdays epic ski/hiking day. Still no snow in Ottawa but we had a gorgeous sunny day (-5C in the am warming up to 2 or 3C) so it was nice to get out. We went up the "Yellow Box" trail and had the backcountry trails to ourselves. The sun never really gets very high at this time of year so it makes for somewhat surreal lighting conditions - rich blue sky and no hint of haze! This makes a great opportunity to get a few nice photos.
We explored along the ridgeline for a bit. There was a little ice on the trails but never too bad that you couldn’t step around it. Managed to find a few choice lookouts to grab a seat and have a bite of lunch and perhaps an ale while soaking in the view. Soon enough it was time to head down – lest the sun actually set on us. On the way home the guys introduced me to “Le Stop” where we indulged in a poutine to celebrate the end of the hiking season. Snow has fallen in Ottawa as I write this so I’m just wrapping this up before I head off to ski! Cheers to another hiking season… but bring on the snow!
We explored along the ridgeline for a bit. There was a little ice on the trails but never too bad that you couldn’t step around it. Managed to find a few choice lookouts to grab a seat and have a bite of lunch and perhaps an ale while soaking in the view. Soon enough it was time to head down – lest the sun actually set on us. On the way home the guys introduced me to “Le Stop” where we indulged in a poutine to celebrate the end of the hiking season. Snow has fallen in Ottawa as I write this so I’m just wrapping this up before I head off to ski! Cheers to another hiking season… but bring on the snow!
Monday, November 19, 2007
A last hike for the season
After I finished skiing at Whiteface on Saturday morning I had a quick bite of lunch in the village of Wilmington down below. I still had half a day and didn’t want to drive home right away. I thought maybe it would be best not to overdo the skiing by going back up Whiteface – even though the cloud cover had now lifted. Instead I headed to nearby Poke-o-Moonshine peak for a climb to visit another firetower. This peak is considerably lower than Whiteface and somewhat in its shadow (weather-wise) so there was only a small amount of snow on the trail – back to fall after a short ½ hour drive!
The climb is pretty steep (1200ft in a mile) though so it was a good afternoon workout. Care had to be taken in a few spots as the rocks were somewhat icy but for the most part the climb was straightforward. The tower sits on a mostly bald summit with a particularly nice view east to the Green mountains of Vermont. They were looking decidedly white as well so I guess high elevation peaks throughout the northeast got brushed by the same storm. After some time spent soaking in the views I started to make my way back down to the car. It’s getting dark really early these days.
This will probably be my last climbing of the season. It’s been a good year despite the sprained ankle and the broken fingers. I climbed 16 4000fters and 9 “firetower peaks”. That number would surely have been higher if I hadn’t been forced to take a 6 week “break” in the middle of the summer. I didn’t camp enough and I got perhaps a little too focused on the Adirondacks this year. These are items I can work on next year. Making the longer drive to Maine and New Hampshire will force me to camp a bit more so I’ll probably fix those up with one adjustment to my itinerary. Not that I won’t still come back to the Daks… but rather expand the range again to cover more ground. With luck Ottawa will start to get some snow this week and the ski season at home can begin in earnest. Time to get all my skis out and strip off the storage wax and get them ready to roll.
The climb is pretty steep (1200ft in a mile) though so it was a good afternoon workout. Care had to be taken in a few spots as the rocks were somewhat icy but for the most part the climb was straightforward. The tower sits on a mostly bald summit with a particularly nice view east to the Green mountains of Vermont. They were looking decidedly white as well so I guess high elevation peaks throughout the northeast got brushed by the same storm. After some time spent soaking in the views I started to make my way back down to the car. It’s getting dark really early these days.
This will probably be my last climbing of the season. It’s been a good year despite the sprained ankle and the broken fingers. I climbed 16 4000fters and 9 “firetower peaks”. That number would surely have been higher if I hadn’t been forced to take a 6 week “break” in the middle of the summer. I didn’t camp enough and I got perhaps a little too focused on the Adirondacks this year. These are items I can work on next year. Making the longer drive to Maine and New Hampshire will force me to camp a bit more so I’ll probably fix those up with one adjustment to my itinerary. Not that I won’t still come back to the Daks… but rather expand the range again to cover more ground. With luck Ottawa will start to get some snow this week and the ski season at home can begin in earnest. Time to get all my skis out and strip off the storage wax and get them ready to roll.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Skiing to the sky
It usually happens this time of year. The snow falls… somewhere else. I end up reading about people traveling to snowy destinations to get in some early skiing while I’m at home roller skiing or riding in the cold, dark woods... but no snow. This year was looking to be much the same until, as I sat looking out the window on Friday afternoon, several flakes of snow drifted by. That was it. Only ten flakes of snow fell in the capital but it was enough to motivate me that I wasn’t going riding this weekend. No roller skiing for me - time to strap on the boards!
Loaded up the car and drove to Lake Placid, which was enjoying it’s first dump of snow of the season. Word had it the Whiteface toll road was in good shape so I grabbed a few pairs of skis, two pairs of boots and several sets of poles so I’d be ready for any kind of conditions I’d meet. A lengthy discussion with the border guard (I am going skiing, yes there really is snow down there, No, I’m not part of an illicit ring of used ski importers) and I was off. Things started to look up. Traces of snow grew to inches of snow and then poorly plowed roads told me I was getting closer. Whiteface was completely enshrouded in clouds (more snow falling!) so it was hard to see what I would be in for but there was at least 6 inches of snow in the woods along the road so I was pretty excited.
At the closed toll road gate I found lots of snow and 8 cars parked along the road. I leapt out checked out the conditions, grabbed some skis and a pack of gear and started to charge up the mountain. For those of you familiar with the Whiteface toll road you won’t be surprised to hear that I stopped “charging” up the mountain about 200 meters along. This road goes up…. up, up, up. Once its done going up, it goes up some more. This is followed by a little more up before it gets down to some serious climbing. It's about 5 ½ miles long and climbs more than 2000 ft. There are no flats to recover anywhere. This can probably not be described as cross country skiing but more aptly "uphill skiing"….. but the operative word here is skiing - fantastic!!
That said I settled into a rhythm and started to enjoy the climb. The snow got deeper and deeper as I got higher – probably 2 foot deep near the top. Fortunately there were a few people ahead of me so a track had been well broken in. I skied steadily up to the final two long switchbacks where things turned decidedly more arctic. Here the tree cover is pretty minimal and it was blowing a gale so the –5C air temperature dropped to a pretty nasty windchill (-20's maybe?). Worse the snow was either drifted into soft cruddy drifts or scrapped right off the pavement entirely. I skied up through the switchback and on to the next - the “Wilmington” turn (the last turn before the top) - and decided to stop there. The road through the curve was bare pavement and the last 5–600 meters to the summit house was dead into a headwind so I opted to turn back here rather than turn into a popsicle on my first outing of the season. Views were limited but starting to open up. I grabbed a few shots and stopped to take a few more on the descent.
The ride down was a lot of fun. Not super fast but jumping into the “skied in” track allowed you to pick up some speed before leaping into the soft powder to crank some turns. Don’t think I’ve covered 5 miles so fast in my life. As I descended I came across more and more people… and a lot of dogs (with their people) out enjoying the snow. All the dogs were sporting very seasonally appropriate flash orange vests – clearly all the rage for the K9 set during the month of November. Back at the car I counted some 40 cars lining the roads… and lots of smiling faces on the skiers (mine was one of them) and I believe what appeared to be smiling dogs as well. First tracks of the season and well worth the trip. Back to roller skiing in Ottawa…. for now.
Loaded up the car and drove to Lake Placid, which was enjoying it’s first dump of snow of the season. Word had it the Whiteface toll road was in good shape so I grabbed a few pairs of skis, two pairs of boots and several sets of poles so I’d be ready for any kind of conditions I’d meet. A lengthy discussion with the border guard (I am going skiing, yes there really is snow down there, No, I’m not part of an illicit ring of used ski importers) and I was off. Things started to look up. Traces of snow grew to inches of snow and then poorly plowed roads told me I was getting closer. Whiteface was completely enshrouded in clouds (more snow falling!) so it was hard to see what I would be in for but there was at least 6 inches of snow in the woods along the road so I was pretty excited.
At the closed toll road gate I found lots of snow and 8 cars parked along the road. I leapt out checked out the conditions, grabbed some skis and a pack of gear and started to charge up the mountain. For those of you familiar with the Whiteface toll road you won’t be surprised to hear that I stopped “charging” up the mountain about 200 meters along. This road goes up…. up, up, up. Once its done going up, it goes up some more. This is followed by a little more up before it gets down to some serious climbing. It's about 5 ½ miles long and climbs more than 2000 ft. There are no flats to recover anywhere. This can probably not be described as cross country skiing but more aptly "uphill skiing"….. but the operative word here is skiing - fantastic!!
That said I settled into a rhythm and started to enjoy the climb. The snow got deeper and deeper as I got higher – probably 2 foot deep near the top. Fortunately there were a few people ahead of me so a track had been well broken in. I skied steadily up to the final two long switchbacks where things turned decidedly more arctic. Here the tree cover is pretty minimal and it was blowing a gale so the –5C air temperature dropped to a pretty nasty windchill (-20's maybe?). Worse the snow was either drifted into soft cruddy drifts or scrapped right off the pavement entirely. I skied up through the switchback and on to the next - the “Wilmington” turn (the last turn before the top) - and decided to stop there. The road through the curve was bare pavement and the last 5–600 meters to the summit house was dead into a headwind so I opted to turn back here rather than turn into a popsicle on my first outing of the season. Views were limited but starting to open up. I grabbed a few shots and stopped to take a few more on the descent.
The ride down was a lot of fun. Not super fast but jumping into the “skied in” track allowed you to pick up some speed before leaping into the soft powder to crank some turns. Don’t think I’ve covered 5 miles so fast in my life. As I descended I came across more and more people… and a lot of dogs (with their people) out enjoying the snow. All the dogs were sporting very seasonally appropriate flash orange vests – clearly all the rage for the K9 set during the month of November. Back at the car I counted some 40 cars lining the roads… and lots of smiling faces on the skiers (mine was one of them) and I believe what appeared to be smiling dogs as well. First tracks of the season and well worth the trip. Back to roller skiing in Ottawa…. for now.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
A weekend of highs and lows
The weekend started and ended well... but somewhere in the middle things got off the rails. Saturday morning was the "Cookie Run" - a 5/10k race that I've helped out with for a few years now. It supports the Girl Guides (hence the name) so there are usually lots of cookies for sale. Always a fun morning, the day was perfect - sunny and cool. We got a good crowd out and I even managed to get back to the start/finish area in time to buy a few boxes of cookies.
Shortly after this - once all the happy runners had headed home - I had the task of putting some of the gear back in the storage garage and somewhere in my haste I managed to jam my fingers in the rapidly closing garage door. The rest of my Saturday went poof in a blinding bit of pain. An afternoon at the hospital, two broken fingers and the rest of the day watching TV with my hand elevated left me deciding to downgrade my Sunday plans. I had hoped to do a "High Peaks" hike but felt now that it would be unwise to head into the deep wilderness with 1 1/2 operating hands so I picked a slightly easier goal - St. Regis mountain. I can hear you saying why hike at all.... but I spent most of Saturday sitting around so I wasn't gonna waste a perfectly beautiful Sunday as well! Plus there's an extra hour in the day (daylight savings time) so that had to be put to good use!!
St. Regis is a short drive into the Adirondacks and Sunday was a beautiful fall day - temps in the +8C range and mostly sunny. The hike itself is pretty straightforward - a couple of gentle miles to warm up on and then a short steep climb up to the summit. The firetower is in pretty rough shape but you don't even need it as the views from the summit are pretty much uninterrupted. Spent a half hour basking in the views before making the short trek down. All in all a good Sunday after all so at least the weekend ended on a high note.
Now to see how the injured hand will affect my rollerskiing....
Shortly after this - once all the happy runners had headed home - I had the task of putting some of the gear back in the storage garage and somewhere in my haste I managed to jam my fingers in the rapidly closing garage door. The rest of my Saturday went poof in a blinding bit of pain. An afternoon at the hospital, two broken fingers and the rest of the day watching TV with my hand elevated left me deciding to downgrade my Sunday plans. I had hoped to do a "High Peaks" hike but felt now that it would be unwise to head into the deep wilderness with 1 1/2 operating hands so I picked a slightly easier goal - St. Regis mountain. I can hear you saying why hike at all.... but I spent most of Saturday sitting around so I wasn't gonna waste a perfectly beautiful Sunday as well! Plus there's an extra hour in the day (daylight savings time) so that had to be put to good use!!
St. Regis is a short drive into the Adirondacks and Sunday was a beautiful fall day - temps in the +8C range and mostly sunny. The hike itself is pretty straightforward - a couple of gentle miles to warm up on and then a short steep climb up to the summit. The firetower is in pretty rough shape but you don't even need it as the views from the summit are pretty much uninterrupted. Spent a half hour basking in the views before making the short trek down. All in all a good Sunday after all so at least the weekend ended on a high note.
Now to see how the injured hand will affect my rollerskiing....
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