Winter has been quite good this year. Lots of snow arrived early and stayed! Often those early snows are just a little too light to cover the roots and rocks... or a short melt brings everything back to square one. We've had neither drawback here in town and the skiing has been good.
Looks sunny but it was none too warm!
As in past years a few of us did a short one nighter at one of the yurts in Gatineau park before Christmas. It’s a good way to unwind before (or during) the hectic holiday season. This year we skied (we'll I did) into Richard yurt. It’s the most remote shelter in the park with a 13km ski... but there is a shortcut. A small snowshoe trail leads just a km from the Eardley escarpment road to the "back door" so to speak and is a well used trail to this yurt in particular. As it turns out we got a significant dump of snow on the day we were headed in so I was glad for the short cut. Hauling a sled of gear in 20 cm of soft wet snow - even for just 1k proved a tough task. The other guys snowshoed (pulling a sled) and it was no easier by any stretch. The payoff though is worth the effort as the Richard yurt sits on a remote lake deep in the park. The night we picked was in fact the winter solstice so moments after we arrived it got dark for the long night ahead. Still, with some good food, some good music and conversation it was overall an excellent retreat. And as always, Dave had the lightest sleeping bag and was first to get up to stoke the fire at 3am – so it all came together as per the plan.
A long evening ahead (photo borrowed from BVT)
Christmas skiing was a pretty cold affair as the temperature dropped down to the -20's. I skied a couple of nice loops on Christmas morning around P19 at Lac Phillipe which left me close enough to the car to bail out at almost any point if the digits lost all feeling. It was not necessary though as I was plenty warm throughout. From there the season continued with quite a bit of cold weather but good skiing to be had if you could warm up fast enough to enjoy it.
Fresh grooming was my Christmas present
In January I signed up to help out with the ADK "Winterfest” this year and took it as an opportunity to go down and do a bit of hiking. As it turned out "Winterfest" became "Waterfest" as the mercury climbed to +10°C and it rained (hard!) all day. The Adirondacks have had precious little snow all season and this rain managed to wash it away almost completely. Still, some folks came out and enjoyed the music in the big tent, food and festivities. The hikes in the woods were mostly canceled (as were the ski sessions) and the skating (and curling!) on Heart lake got scrubbed as it took on the more spring like appearance of a pond. Still, I executed my duties by waiting in the driving rain for the (big) crowds to arrive in the parking lot and direct them to the fun - but it was never more than a trickle (yes I get the pun). As a result my task was somewhat superfluous but they couldn't have predicted a light turnout (until a day or 2 out) so I was happy to be available. After my shift I made a hike up Mt Jo and the trail was a cascade of ice and water which was really quite beautiful. Fortunately the µspikes were quite good as the warm temperatures had made the ice quite soft.
The utter lack of snow should be the clue that things didn't go quite as planned...
Trails of fast melting ice
I had been able to predict the weather and opted to drive down a day early to get a "somewhat" wintery hike (before the big melt) in on my own. I opted for a loop over Dial and Nippletop. It proved a nice day although the views were somewhat subpar. It was only barely a winter hike as there was mostly an icy track up to the ridgeline. Only as I got to the last 1/2 mile or so (above 4000ft) did I actually encounter some snow and then mostly only a few pesky drifts. Not enough to warrant the snowshoes though which I had left in the car anyway. The µspikes had served me well on the climb but the descent from Nippletop is a steep chute and I figured - with a little snow over the ice - that it was best to put on the crampons for more security. I haven't used my crampons in a while and they take a little getting used to but, in the end, I was happy to have them as the ice falls were pretty straightforward with them on. You can't move too fast in crampons but once you are comfortable with your foot plants... your feet stay put! Easy to stumble though if you lose focus and errantly catch a spike.
The best (and only) view of the day
Snowy up top but the views were non-exsistant
Back home we went through another cold week or so which turned the ski trails into "white concrete". Easy enough to ski the main groomers but not something you would want to venture off onto the steep and (in this case not so)deep side trails. Fortunately a fresh layer of powder fell on Monday and I took the opportunity to ski some of the backcountry trails. A lot of these trails got closed last Christmas (2012) when we had that significantly heavy wet dump of snow which brought down a lot of trees. The smaller trails never got cleared over the course of the winter (the NCC ran out of money for the work!) so I haven't had a chance to ski a lot of these trail in 2 years. Fortunately a group of volunteers helped to clear out the trails over the summer (many thanks!) and I finally got my chance to ski some old favourites again. I've been waiting most of the winter for a good powder day and Monday was certainly it! Add to it being a Monday and I had the park seemingly to myself. Of course the die hards had already been out and I found most of the good pistes had already been broken out but that didn't detract from my outing.
Good day to tackle the "seamonster"
So with January now in the books and winter half over I'm looking forward to some good skiing in the "second half". More comfortable temperatures in the short term and some more snow falling as we speak. So much so that I'm not sure any groundhog around these parts will be able to dig himself out tomorrow morning to check for his shadow! That could mean - for me - a visit to "Frank", "Mr Sparks" and "Doug"... And a Scottish fling or two if time and stamina permit tomorrow morning. I’ll have to get the wide boards ready tonight. Its looking like it will be a "Super Sunday" indeed. With luck there will be some skiing in the Adirondacks soon enough as well. Snow levels are starting to rise down there but it still seems like there isn't enough yet to make it worth taking the "Pass" - at least not just yet.
Sun is setting later now - Bring on February!
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