Too early

Ridge road
Originally uploaded by kenmores

With the promise of a nice sunny morning I headed up to the park to get in another ski. Alas with work commitments I had to go pretty early and in the end it proved too early for good conditions. A cool night coupled with yesterdays rain left the tracks frozen solid and icy. I skied up from P7... well, skied might be the wrong term. Skittered and scraped my way up might better define it. Up top on the ridge conditions were better but the descents were pretty fast and a little bit harrowing. Once to gossip corner I turned back with thoughts of a tough descent back to the parking lot. I walked some of it and could have used my crampons at that. Its too bad as an hour or two later conditions would be excellent as the warm sun softened the tracks making for some great skiing - and I would be sitting at my desk looking longingly out at the hills. Only saw one farmiliar car at P5 as I was driving out so I assume most of the other folks were wise enough - and didn't have any early meetings - to let the tracks soften a little before heading up for a morning ski. Rain on the schedule for the next couple of days.... what will happen to the trails then...

No foolin'

I guess skiing is free now?
Originally uploaded by kenmores

Went for a ski this morning… and it was actually quite nice. I also had a nice ski last night. Between the two outings I probably skied on roughly 30km of trails and only really had to “portage” twice over some exposed mud and no more than a few steps at that. Last Sunday’s rain smoothed everything out (and probably helped melt some of it away) but there is still lots of good snow to be had. Should be able to get some skiing in this weekend although at this time of the year you can never be too sure. As I pulled out from home this morning a bold red sun was rising in the east. That’s bad news for sailors but as a skier I was undeterred. Before I got up to the park the clouds had rolled over so in fact the trails were a little icy(no warm morning sun to soften the tracks). That said the trails weren’t too badly rutted and skiing was fast and easy. Once again I was alone on the trails with one other skier starting out as I arrived back at the lot. Quite a difference from Saturday’s crowd scene at P10 with an overflowing lot but of course that's to be expected. I also met some Demsis staff (at least I hope that’s who it was ;-) removing the trail fee pay box… so I guess I can leave my ski pass at home from now on. Nothing better than free skiing…

The weatherman called for the rain to start overnight and basically rain all day but when I got up it wasn’t raining at all. I made periodic reviews of the satellite shots while I was watching the Australian Grand Prix and it looked like, if I hurried, I might get a ski in before the rain got underway. Loaded up the rock skis and raced up to the park deciding on P16 as a nice alternative to P10 (where I’ve started the last few days).

Under grey skies I skied up the first big hill (getting thin) and sure enough once into the trees the snow was excellent. Pine Road hasn’t been groomed in a while (some may say that's the best thing for it based on the comments of shoddy grooming along here I've read about) so the classic track was mostly melted away but this left a nice extra wide, smooth track for skating… Just excellent. I skied out to Lac Phillippe finding a few muddy spots that required portaging but with my rock skis on I just picked the softest, grassiest line and trotted across. They were never more than a few steps and I was off and skiing again in short order. After Healy/Herridge I noticed that Demsis had made their (presumably) last visit to the huts today on Quad bikes which had left some nasty ruts in the track but it wasn’t too bad. In fact the biggest headache was crossing sections of pine needles that littered the track in spots. It was certainly easy to understand how Pine road got its name. I haven’t yet figured the wax that glides well(or at all) over pine needles. Suffice to say purple wax isn’t the right choice. Fortunately the worst sections of needles were relatively short, few and far between so the skiing was for the most part fast and easy.

Once I got to the lake – as Mr. Murphy would have told me – the heavy rain started to fall which made my decision easy to turn for home. Passed a couple of other people out for a soggy ski as I worked my way along, getting back to the car somewhat drenched but never cold or uncomfortable so another good ski. It rained pretty hard the rest of the day so we’ll see what that does to the ski track in the days to come. The snow base along Pine road was still pretty good most of the way along so, like Ridge road, I expect it’ll last for a while… but no big snow dumps in the forecast that I can see.

Spring time

Burma road
Originally uploaded by kenmores

Today was pretty much a carbon copy of yesterday. Glorious sunshine, great trails... maybe a little less wind but all in all a great chance to be out on the skis. I skied out from P10 again. Strangely there was no grooming today so yesterdays ruts and slush on the Parkway were pretty choppy but still skiable. Surprisingly Ridge road was in excellent shape. I skied out to the Wolf trail and the track was solid, wide and beautiful to ski. Lots of folks out making a last, long ski of the season to the firetower. Having just been there a couple of days ago I opted to turn back and take some more sun at Brule lookout before taking one more ski down Burma road. Burma was still skiable but the couple of muddy gaps were noticably wider than yesterday. Tomorrow its going to rain... a bunch :( That will likely eat significantly into the snow on the Parkways but Ridge road might survive. That'll mean a bit of walking to get to some skiing... but the more hardy souls won't be phased. I think tomorrow I'll clean up my good skis and put on some storage wax for the season. I'll still keep a couple of pairs of rock skis ready by the door though, just in case...

Sunny skies meant a chance to get out and get some vitamin D. Mike and Bryan wanted to get a spring ski in so I met up with them around 10:30 at P10 and we headed off to Huron. Conditions were pretty firm with the top layer starting to melt down… but no one was in a rush today. Time to enjoy the warm weather. To my surprise we were hardly around the first bend when a fleet of groomers came rolling down the parkway. I guess they were finishing up there mornings grooming but by now the snow was already transforming into a slushy surface. Seems like they were a bit late today. Hopefully on Saturday they’ll get after it a little earlier with the big weekend crowds sure to be up for one last ski. Oh well, I’m not a grooming expert (nor do I play one on TV) so I guess they have a plan. We made our way along the parkway and – to my further surprise - the big parkway groomer caught up to us again at gossip corner and parked to chat with a friend. No time to see where he was going so we skied along Ridge road, took a quick pit stop at Shilly Shally before climbing up to Huron lookout. Ridge road was in excellent shape indeed. Upon arriving at the lookout I pulled out the cell phone to call my friend Pete at work. Nothing is funnier then chatting with a friend who is chained to his cubicle while you are basking in the sun on a great ski day. Unfortunately it backfired slightly as he was at home “sick”. Sounded like he was on his patio enjoying a beverage himself… but I can’t be sure of that ;-)

Time for lunch and a cold beverage of our own to toast the season that was. A bit of a breeze blowing but the warm sun was out now and much time was spent enjoying the rays, discussing the season that was and debating plans for the upcoming hiking season. Finally I had to push on (had to get back to work for a few minutes to make it look like I was there;-) so I left the guys at Ridge and took a quick ski down Burma road. It was actually quite nice. It hadn’t been groomed in a while but the base was firm with occasional slushy bits in the sunny spots. Once back to the parkway things were downright sloppy with water over the boots as I splashed my way back to P10. No regrets though as it was a beautiful day out in the sun… Hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same.

Skiing in the rain

Still good coverage at P10
Originally uploaded by kenmores

Another morning ski today. This time a light drizzle was falling and temperatures never really fell below freezing overnight. That meant no grooming (too wet) although the groomer garages were a beehive of activity when I drove past (spring chores before parking the groomers for the summer?). In fact the worst part of the ski was the drive up. With the drizzle falling the road surface was just cold enough for a thin layer of ice to form and I skidded a few times on the road boosting my adrenaline before I had even strapped on the skis. No one in P10 this morning but the trails were actually pretty nice. No big ruts from yesterday’s skiers and the base had frozen (from the bottom up) overnight so skiing was fast and effortless. I did a short tour up to the lookouts where the snow stopped and then dodged back into the woods to loop 1A and 1B before heading back down to the lot. One other car pulled in as I was taking my ski boots off. I guess not too much excitement to ski in the rain today... but too soon the snow will be gone so I’ll try to ski a few more times before packing the skis away.

Went for a ski after work last night. The sun is staying up a little longer now and conditions remained cold all day so I was hopeful for some nice tracks. Got more than I bargained for when I pulled into P12. The groomer had been by in the afternoon and no one else had skied since. I had untouched corduroy all to myself – Sweet! While technically the trail up from P12 is “classic only” I chose to skate the fresh tracks. Most of the trail is too steep for the groomer to put in double tracks and the flat spots that do have classic tracks I double poled. Besides, I was the only one out there. Time to be a little self indulgent. Once up the escarpment and on to 24 and Ridge road, others had found the fresh grooming so I had to share…. But it was still pretty nice. I skied out to McKinstry as the sun was setting. Conditions were beautiful all the way out. A couple of the south facing, exposed hills were a little icy but for the most part it was excellent snow. Once to McKinstry the fresh grooming stopped but the track beyond looked totally skiable. I decided not venture on to the firetower as it was starting to get dark. I still had a ways to go and while I know the trail well enough that I could probably ski it with my eyes shut I’d rather not have to prove that fact. There’s not much moon currently and out here there isn’t much ambient light from the city so once it got dark… it got pretty dark. The ski back was pretty nice though - more downhill than up made for some fast skiing.

As I was descending the second last steep hill to the parking lot (almost home) I noticed a dark low figure rumbling up the trail towards me. I was moving pretty fast and sudden evasive action was required, not to mention my adrenaline shot through the roof. It was pretty dark and what light there was was dead flat. I hadn’t seen another soul on my entire ski and suddenly something was coming out of the gloom at me and it clearly wasn’t a skier! I was in the woods here after all and it was just a week ago that this roaming fella was spotted over at the Luskville falls (none too far from where I was). Before I could do much the two of us were hurtled together and desperately trying to avoid each other in a flurry of skis and limbs and poles. Turns out it was a big lovable dog trying to be friends… and picking the wrong time and space to do it. Its owner came running up apologizing profusely (he wasn’t on skis either!)… but come on! The ski trails are supposed to be dog free and especially not unleashed dogs for just this reason – to prevent sudden impacts at high speed protecting both skiers and dogs. I'm a dog lover and certainly don’t want to skewer some poor dog with my ski poles – something I was preparing to do if it proved to be a marauding bear coming back from a garbage bin raid along the Meech lake road. The dog owner did park next to my car so they must have known a skier was out there. Sigh, no harm done to either of us thankfully so it was a beautiful ski with some excitement thrown in. Never a dull moment.

Warm days

Warm days
Originally uploaded by kenmores

I got a good ski in on Sunday. Sadly I had to work on Saturday so I missed out on the really warm sunny day this weekend - but I rarely have to work on weekends so no complaints. Sunday was a little cooler, never making it above zero.... you know, kinda winterlike. The trails were in pretty good shape considering the weather we've had. The climb up from P7 was a bit dirty but once on top the track was groomed and had a nice texture to it. Even though it was cold, the sun worked its magic turning the top of the track into a nice velvety corn while the base stayed firm and fast. I skied a ways out Ridge and then back via the parkways. The lookouts are starting to show a lot of exposed asphalt but they're always the first to go with their southern exposure. It was surprising to me how the parkways deteriorated pretty quickly since my Friday ski. Still pretty good but some of the hills have become pretty icy (no yellow line peeking through the ice yet though). From Black Lake hill I made the short jaunt across trail 8 back to P7. A few of the creeks have opened up so I may be the last one to ski across there this year. Warm days this week and rain forecast for the weekend could spell the end of the season. March may be going out like a lion.... but it looks like it will be a wet, grumpy lion. Long range forecasts suggest some snow in April. Might be a little too late - fingers crossed though.

Morning ski

Nice fresh tracks
Originally uploaded by kenmores

Went for a ski this morning before work. The parkway loop was nicely groomed so I did a lap. As I skied I could hear groomers working off to the sides renovating other trails so their should be some nice skiing this weekend. For the most part the parkways were in good shape. No asphalt peeking out yet and only a few icy spots to contend with. If the current weather continues we should get skiable snow until April but some more rainy days or hot weather could wash it all away. The long range forecast doesn't seem to suggest a late season dump of snow, but I remain hopeful. Parking at P10 I saw one other skier as I started and no one else until I looped past P8 where a few other skiers were getting set. While I skied the loop alone, I did have one set of ski tracks on the fresh corduroy to follow. Someone was out earlier than I it seems and had set a nice pace to follow. Left me forever peering around the next bend to see if I was catching them... but I remained (as is often the case) forever chasing.

Lusk Lake Cabin
Originally uploaded by kenmores

A little late in my posting but… Sunday morning I got up pretty slowly. Things were pretty stiff and sore after Saturday’s big hike. That said, the spring skiing was bound to be sublime so I felt compelled to get suited up and hit the trails. Okay, pulling on my ski gear was another exercise in discomfort but I finally got underway with a pair of skis and a lunch in my pack. Spring skiing is all about timing. Go too early and the overnight freeze renders the tracks frozen solid ice. Go too late and the warm sun turns the trails into slush. With my slow start I was a little off in my timing but overall not too bad. Decided to head up to Lac Phillippe. I knew there would be less people up there and, with the warming sun, there would be fewer skis to turn the softening tracks into a pile of slop. True enough the lot was ¾ full when I pulled in at 11. The trails were still reasonably firm with the parts exposed to full sun starting to get slushy so I skied up to Lusk lake which is mostly a shady trail. Found the ski rack pretty full but rather strangely there were two families inside the hut clustered around the wood stove…. What the?!? It was about +8C and sunny! More room on the front porch for me I guess so I took up my station and had half my lunch while basking in the sun. Inside the kids were screeching and hollering and having a great time. Fun for them but it kind of broke the wilderness silence for me so I packed up, stripped down to my t-shirt and skied off to do a bit of a circumnavigation of Lusk Lake. With the firm base, the crust cruising was excellent and I was able to lap the lake in short order before returning to the main trail to descend off to Taylor lake where I found a nice picnic bench (no screaming kids) and enjoyed the second half of my lunch and my last Blackberry Wheat (now available year round!! but only in the states :( ) before having a snooze in the sun. Time to roll home and by then (about 2:30pm) the tracks were decaying rapidly into a slush fest. The last couple of hills while not too big certainly took their toll and after yesterdays hike and today’s ski I was glad to get to my car for the drive home. Beautiful weekend indeed. Unfortunately I discovered mid trail that my camera has had a critical breakdown so this is an old pic of the Lusk Lake cabin (it still looks the same ;-). You’ll just have to imagine how nice the day was for your self…

I’ve been wanting to do a winter hike in the high peaks for a couple of winters now. Last winter, err. .scratch that, spring Pete and I did a climb of Colden in April. It was snow covered the whole way but it was +22C under a hot sun. We sloshed our way through the slush in shorts and T-shirts and then enjoyed a cold beer on the patio in town before heading home. Not quite a winter ascent in any sense. This winter I again debated a winter hike… but procrastinated until finally it was the last full weekend of winter – now or never (or until next winter anyway). So Friday night I loaded my gear and set the alarm for 3:45. When the alarm went off I hedged some more. I would after all be missing out on some great spring skiing here in town which I could do if I slept a little longer… NO!! I’m going!! So I dragged myself out of bed, loaded up and drove down to Lake Placid. On the drive down I debated what to climb. Tried to avoid the peaks with big water crossings as they might be dicey at this time of year. Didn’t want to go to the southern part of the park – too long a drive. Finally settled on Gothics via Pyramid. A classic climb with a huge payoff on the summit of Pyramid.

Got to the AMR trailhead at 8 and was on my way a little after that. For those curious, the walk up the Lake road is no more exciting in winter than it is in summer… and I think it’s just about as long. It was a little cold at -8C but I knew it was to warm up considerably to +5C so I wasn’t too worried. Once across the dam I strapped on my snowshoes and started the climb up the Weld trail. Someone had been up it recently so it was an easy walk. Alas, once I got to the Sawteeth/Gothics col the tracks turned left and I was headed right. I had to break trail for the last mile (and 1200ft vert.) which proved challenging. The snow had a nice ½ layer of ice on the top and a sugary base. As things got steep (and they get very steep in that last mile) each step had two parts. First a heavy stomp of the snowshoe to break the ice and then another tromp to get the crampon to bite and propel myself forward. Add insult to injury in that my ski poles would periodically ricochet off the ice surface sending me sprawling forward. Made for some slow going but I finally topped out to the four star, double A+ vista at the top of Pyramid. Cloudless sky, warming sun, limitless view….. stunning.


After a little snack/photo break I made the last push up Gothics and met my first people of the day. They were wearing crampons and looked at my snowshoes like I was a non-swimmer in the deep end of the wave pool – "Sure you should be here son?" Okay they didn’t actually say it but that was their look. As I tromped/skidded along the frozen icy surface on top of Gothics (much thicker ice now) I realized they were exactly right and promptly switched over to crampons… which made everything easier. I wore them almost all of the rest of the day as I walked along the ridge trail and even as I went down before finally switching back to snowshoes in the valley when the snow started to get soft.

Off the summit of Gothics is a long narrow (ice covered) cornice. In summer you descend through a narrow trench of scrubby bush but in winter the trees were completely buried. Someone I met later on Armstrong said it best as he eagerly anticipated climbing up the cornice. “Climbing that lets you imagine you’re climbing something pretty exotic somewhere else in the world and not just here in the Adirondacks”. Not that the Adirondacks aren’t exotic… but I got his meaning. As I descended to the cornice another party of climbers was coming up. I was forced to wait my turn as there was only one lane to travel and steep, thousand foot, blissful (terminal) oblivion on either side. As I waited I was transported to the Hillary Step waiting for other climbers to clamber up while I waited my turn to descend to thicker air… Okay, at 4700 feet I’m hardly in Himalaya territory… but it was nice to dream for a minute or two. The dream came to a crashing end as the other climbers – a group of 20 something guys who had clearly never climbed before - marched up, constantly repeating that this was badass! (I’m somewhat paraphrasing their language here but they said it like 30 times). I think one of them also asked if I had a smoke… cause he left his in the car :(

Down the cornice I went and on to Armstrong which was an easy stroll along the ridge line. From there I decided to continue on via Upper Wolfjaw before heading down. Now in crampons the steep descents were mostly trivial (though the ladder in the steepest point was lost under the snow and ice). Finally the walk down to the valley and back to the car was a lovely spring walk(on snow) as the day had warmed up considerably. Alas, the walk out the Lake road was equally unenjoyable as it had been in the morning…. Although in fairness I was feeling pretty beat at that point and just longing to be done.

So I’m now a W3er and I can already hear you asking, “Kenmore, are you working towards you’re winter 46? Are you racing back next Saturday (last day of winter hiking) to bag a few more?” Whoa there, hang on, not exactly my plan. I can see doing a hike or two each winter but by no means am I rushing towards the winter 46 goal just yet. Although, at two peaks per winter maybe I should book my hotel room for 2030 to attend the winter 46rs season end banquet to receive my certificate…. Or maybe not. In fact my biggest heartbreak of the day was that it only occurred to me on the drive home that I had had a chance to “up” my 46S count (a snowman on each of the 46 high peaks)and totally forgotten to do so. Drat! It was kinda the wrong snow anyway so perhaps not all was lost.

Lessons learned
- Crampons aren’t just cool looking, they work great in icy conditions.
- There are no blackflies in March.I can't emphasize enough how this makes winter hiking attractive.
- The trapezius muscles will hate you for a long time if you take a long hike without wearing a heavy pack for 4 months – and they aren’t afraid to tell you so!
- High peak hiking in winter can be enjoyable but it has its own unique challenges.
- Winter is too short.
- Don’t stop to take pictures on a bridge over a creek. You are bound to drop your hiking poles in the water… and might not be lucky enough to fish them out (like me).

This weekend proved to be some excellent spring skiing – even if it seems spring is arriving a little early. On Saturday Mike and I had traded some voicemails about maybe skiing up to Lusk Lake. I was also eager to ski trail 56 which I haven’t been on this winter and it was beginning to appear like I would run out of time. No worries though If I hustled I could ski 56, cut down to Taylor lake and still catch up to Mike up at Lusk Lake…. Not so fast! With the temperature getting close to double digits on the positive side of the scale the trails were pretty sloppy. As I skied up past Richard Lake Yurt it was clear I wasn’t going to set any speed records getting over to Lusk so I slowed up and enjoyed the skiing with no fixed plan for the day. Turns out Mike got the sunny porch at Lusk all to himself for some time… so I’m kinda jealous in that regard. With the plan ditched I skied up to the Pontiac lookout for lunch and then down the trail to Taylor lake (no crossing the lake today) before turning around and heading back. Trail 56 is a really nice little trail at the extreme north of the ski trail network. I’m glad I got a chance to ski it before it melts away for another year. In the hot sun the snow base was occasionally rotten which made for unexpected sinking of the skis – which requires evasive action to stay upright. Certainly kept me on my toes (or maybe that was the problem?). I skied pretty much on my own all day. I did run across two ladies that had stayed in the yurt for a couple of nights. They were up from Nova Scotia on vacation and commented how Ottawa winters are just like theirs… slushy! I tried to correct them that this isn’t the normal weather for early March but they seemed somewhat suspicious. At any rate they were headed to town to skate on the canal so I expect they would again be disappointed on that regard.

Sunday proved another beautiful day. While it rained all night, by morning it actually cooled down enough for the groomers to roll around the park repairing the tracks… repaired at least for a while until the hot sun started to work its magic. I skied the parkways from P6, skating up to the lookouts and then along Burma before returning to Ridge road and Penguin. I perhaps started a little late in the day which made the ski a little challenging. In the shade the tracks were fast and icy but in the sun they went from a nice velvety corn to wet slush. Made the whole ski an exercise in balance as the skis raced on the ice and braked (hard) on the slush. That said it was a beautiful day to be out so well worth the effort. Ski season almost over? …Not so fast! A big snow storm is coming in tonight. How much will we get? Who knows? Some colder weather later in the week so we may not be done with winter just yet.

Someone else must love spring skiing as well

With last week’s rain followed by the cold weather on the weekend (and early this week) we’re back to fast, icy conditions. Pete was staying in town for a rare midweek overnight so we headed up Wednesday night to ski along the Pine road. Conditions were beautiful with the icy winds of Monday and Tuesday no longer a factor and the temperature climbing to a comfortable -6C. After spending some time on Pine road we popped into Herridge shelter to warm up and debate the merits of Ottawa’s new goalie vs quality defence men. It was a long debate and I’m not sure who won… of course it’s all irrelevant if the home team returns to winning form next year. Skiing back to the car was nice and fast under an almost full moon. The moon was so bright in fact that (moon)shadows of the trees were cast on the snow. Makes it a little tricky sometimes to discern the trail from the snow banks when moving at speed. Conditions were so nice in fact – and we’re headed for a big warm up over the weekend –that I decided to get right back out for a ski before work the next morning. Things were a little cooler (-15C) but the snow was still lightening fast. The trails were pretty good although somewhat well “used”. I did hear the groomers out working the tracks though so the midday skiers would get some nice fresh trails (edit: apparently I was hearing things... NCC website reports no new grooming :( so no luck for skiers later in the day). I haven’t been out before work since before the bus strike. It certainly makes for a nice way to start the day – quick ski then home for a shower and a bite of food before heading off to work. I’ll probably do a fair bit more of that now that spring is around the corner. It’s nice to take advantage of the colder overnight temperatures and ski on some fast snow rather than ski in the slush after a warm day.

March comes in like a lamb… albeit a cold lamb. The big storm on Friday(still February) was really quite impressive. It was raining and +10C at lunch time and by midnight it was -20C - Boom! We certainly never get those huge temperature swings in the summer time so it’s impressive to see. With that sudden drop in temperature I figured there was no chance the ski trails would be in good shape on Saturday so I opted to do errands. Turns out not so. Things were groomed up tout suite so I guess I missed out on a good ski day – drat! No worries, Sunday was a repeat weatherwise so I headed out to check out the tracks. I still had green klister on a pair of my classic skis from Loppet weekend so I just coated them in hard wax (after freezing the gooey klister) and once again they were bomb proof grip and excellent glide. I skied around the lower part of the park today sking up 29, 15 and along the Parkways. Everything was in excellent shape trails wise. Today was also "Norway Day" so I made a pit stop to check out this year’s edition and partake in some vaffles with Ski Queen cheese and solderberry toddy courtesy of the Norwegian Embassy. This year they had set up the picnic at Le Relais. I much prefer the previous versions where they brought the picnic to one of the interior shelters forcing us to “earn” our vaffles with a little skiing first. I suppose it was easier logistically to set up right at the parking lot at Le Relais but it didn’t have quite the same feel to me. That said I did “earn” my snack with some skiing before and after my visit and mostly others did as well although there were a few “walk ups”. I would have thought there would be more people but the crowds never seemed outrageous while I was there. Perhaps it was that there was more open space so the crowds didn’t seem huge… or perhaps lots of others expected it to be a massive crowd scene and stayed away. Either way it was a nice pit stop/snack and I appreciate the embassy setting it up each year. It certainly has become a fixture of the ski season in the park.

The past few days have been pretty close to perfect skiing in the park. Comfortable temperatures and fresh snow have made for some really nice skiing. Saturday, with a few inches of fresh snow down, last week’s hard, icy tracks had been transformed. Not to say that the icy tracks – with their infinite glide - aren’t enjoyable but the new snow is what it’s all about. Everything was groomed up nicely on Saturday so I chose to skate some of the staples of the park as well as getting onto the Camp Fortune race trails. The race trails are less used by park skiers but they offer some really nice twists and turns and have a nice rhythm to them. Granted they don’t go anywhere per se as you end up right back where you started but they’re still a lot of fun. Sunday brought a few more inches of fresh snow so I strapped on the classic skis and headed onto the smaller trails to take in some powder. Despite my late start I even got to break in a few of the tracks… but I missed out on first tracks of some of the more sweet lines – gotta set my alarm earlier. I spent 5 hours randomly roaming along the trails and - had I brought enough food and water - I might still be up there. Monday brought different conditions again. The trails were now skied in and pretty fast but the temperature had dropped (to -10 C not too bad really) but a stiff breeze had blown up making it pretty cold in the open. Bryan had taken the day off work so I met up with him at Western for lunch. I would suspect Western to be pretty quiet on a Monday lunchtime but today was “ski day” for some local high school and there were kids everywhere (along the trails, in the huts) enjoying the snow. Bryan had nabbed the last two seats in the hut so we managed to enjoy lunch amidst the din. We also managed to avoid the bulk of the kids on the trails in the afternoon thanks to the teacher who ANNOUNCED SEVERAL TIMES AT HIGH VOLUME their route for the rest of the day. From Western we skied out to the Ramparts before catching back on to Western trail and then along Ridge and back down to P7. Some of these trails were a first for Bryan so there was lots of added excitement at a few of the drops. Conditions are fast now that the trails have been skied in but there’s lots of soft snow on the side should one have to ditch so no worries.

Certainly a great few days on the trails and it makes all the bitter cold, dark nights of skiing in January worth it to get out and fully enjoy the trails in prime shape now. It also reminds me that the season is slowly approaching an end. Only another month of guaranteed good skiing and then…. Maybe a few days(a week? 2?) into April … base willing. Time to make sure I get all my ski plans (tracks to ski, places to go) in place before I have to coat the boards in storage wax and put them on the shelf for another year.

Have you skied Charlie's descente yet this year? Times running out!

Loppet Weekend

Sunday was Loppet morning and time for me to chase around the park, following the pack to see the race unfold. With a careful, time-tested strategy I can catch the racers using shortcuts on my skis and of course my car to leapfrog the racers and see the race unfold at various points. Always good fun and the day was shaping up to be a beauty. Today would be more driving/less skiing then the full course as they’d rerouted the course to all parkway skiing but I could always go for a ski after the races wrapped up. At the startline there was a bit of a nasty breeze blowing but the temperature was decidedly warmer than past years. The groomed trail was in excellent shape and looked to be particularly fast – it was bound to be a fast race. I positioned myself at “turn 1” for the start and the thundering herd bore down at the starter’s horn. I was lucky enough to be spot on for a crash in the pack –lucky for me but perhaps not so much for the two involved. That said it was only two racers that crashed amidst the melee of racers so they should count themselves lucky as the masses magically parted around them allowing the two downed skiers to spring back up and get on with their race. From the start line I sprinted down a horrifically icy track (ungroomed) to catch the leaders through the 5k mark before driving up into the park to watch them u-turn at Penguin for the first out and back portion of the parkway. From there I drove a little further up to MacKenzie King and skied down to the parkway to watch the race head out and then return from Champlain lookout. The lead pack looked strong and fast and I had to keep recalculating their expected times as they were always faster than I anticipated (race speed was 25k/hr for 53k!). The fast conditions meant solo skiing would be tough and instead packs of skiers drafted along – woe to the individuals who got caught off the back of a train as it would mean some hard chasing to get back on. After the bulk of the racers had gone by me and headed for the finish line I headed off to get a ski in but alas just a few hundred meters along my ski hit a gel pack on the trail… and it was like throwing out an anchor. My work with the Race Weekend has fostered a heavy dislike for gel packs and this didn’t do anything to improve my dim view of them. With a ski that was now collecting gobs of snow I opted to head back to the car and drive to the finish line and see what I could before driving home to watch the 500. Once that race was over I headed back to the park for an evening ski on freshly cleaned skis…. Being sure to steer clear of the parkways where the water stations were located. Lots of pictures of the loppet can be found here

Refreshed tracks
I opted to not take in the first day of the Gatineau Loppet (classic ski race day). I was a little put off by the organizers last minute decision to make the weekends races an all Parkway course rather than the excellent loop through the trails that they traditionally use. While I admit that we had some pretty warm, wet weather this past week and a hard, fast freeze following the rains, it seems to me that there was plenty of time to renovate the trails and get them in top shape for the race weekend…. But they opted against even trying. Seems the thought of a little hard work and perhaps some late nights was too off putting. I guess the organizers aren’t really keen to revive this once great event and are content to let it slowly reduce in size and stature to a little regional race rather than rebuild its reputation as the international event it once was…. Too bad. Instead I went up to Lac Phillippe and found…. Perfectly groomed tracks?!? If they can groom up the general trails to perfect condition in the back woods of the park, why can’t they get Ridge road and Burma prepared in time for the races…. Strange. I’ll go out tomorrow to watch the main event but with an “all Parkway” course it minimizes the number of points I can catch the racers so it won’t be the same. Still , it’s loppet weekend so I’ll take in what I can.

Feeling unhappy about the loppet I went for a ski around the Wakefield triangle. This is a great loop filled with all sorts of different terrain - steep climbs, old growth forests, farmer’s fields, lakes and streams. While I expected a hard fast trail – and this would normally make me lean towards skate skiing – I opted instead to classic ski. It’s not every weekend that you get professional waxing advice from ski techs who have spent days refining their advice. The recipe called for green glider which worked great…. but I won’t give the pros much credit for that. The icy transformed snow was fast and if I’d chosen to wax my skiis with peanut butter it probably would have given me good glide (and attracted many squirrels). The grip wax advice was more challenging however. Super binder klister heated in with a blue hard wax cover on top. I’ve never tried to put a hard wax over a klister but decided today was the day to try. The key is to apply the klister with a torch and then freeze the skis outside before applying the hard wax top coat and it proved to be straightforward. The combination proved a master stroke and was bullet proof. I skied for about 30k’s and don’t think I slipped once yet had perfect glide throughout the day. Any other hard wax combo I might have tried and I would have had to rewax time and time and time again on the trail so major props to the pros on their selection. Hope it worked out well for the racers. Post ski my mood had improved and I now have my camera bag ready for tomorrows races… off to catch what I can.

An Evening in the Park

Monday night Mike and Bryan had decided we were long overdue to pack in dinner to one of the huts and enjoy an evening ski. I probably ski more at night than I do during the day so the night ski wasn’t anything special but I haven’t stopped into the huts during my night skis for more than a quick chance to warm up. It’s been a few years since I packed in dinner so that was certainly going to be nice. I had Monday off so I packed up my dinner, stove and a few other accessories and headed up around 2:00 to get in a nice ski before meeting up with Bryan and Mike. Conditions were fast after the weekends brief thaw but the grooming rigs had been around the main trails munching up the ice and making it skiable. The backcountry trails on the otherhand will have to wait until we get some more snow as they were glassy and hard. The guys ditched work a little early and we soon hooked up on the Fortune parkway as the sun started to sink. After a quick pit (pint?) stop at Shilly Shally we rolled over to Huron lookout to take in the sunset but an incoming front system made the sunset somewhat disappointing.

From there it was a short hop back to Huron lodge to set up dinner. To my surprise we had it to ourselves for most of the evening. No worries, the fire needed a little stoking and we spread out a good feast with a baguette and a nice cheese to start, chili, panini, soup and even some chocolate with a few more pints to wash it all down. After a quality feed we all settled down for a bit of a rest to watch the fire. Finally another crew joined us in the hut (they for a birthday celebration) and we decided we had probably rested enough and it was time to get skiing and earn some of the calories. Along the trail there were some good opportunities for some moonlight shots as a full moon peeked its head out from behind some rolling clouds. Add to my list for gear to carry next time is a tripod to set up the camera as my long exposure shots didn’t do it justice. But there will be a full moon again I’m sure so I’ll get another chance… as there will most likely be another dinner in the park as this worked out well.

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.

Home
This past weekend held some excellent skiing. To be honest, after coming back from above zero weather on the west coast, it was hard to get excited about going out in the -20C Ottawa weather that welcomed me home. It took me a few days to finally don the extra layers and head out into the park and in the end I was glad I did as fresh snow had fallen and the trails were in excellent shape. On Saturday I had made some vague plans with Mike to meet at Lac Phillippe. I got a really late start so when I arrived at the lot he had already headed out. I chased hard but turns out I went down the wrong trail so I didn’t catch him. Rather we bumped into each other at the Taylor Lake Yurt so it worked out rather well. From there we broke trail across the Lake and up to the Pontiac lookout. Bluebird skys with just a little cold wind made for an excellent climb and an even better descent. Back at the Yurt we opted for the same trail I had skied up in the morning but no complaints as 55 is a beautiful little valley to ski down.

On Sunday some weather had moved in. In the morning it was reportedly freezing drizzle at -13C. How does that work? Who cares as the end result was all the trees were frosted with a light coating of… ummm, white stuff. No, not snow and not ice either but rather a strange combination of the two. Looked great whatever it was. I toured around the backcountry trails linking one together with another. Tried hard to minimize my time on the groomed runs but occasionally I popped out and was “forced” to ski in perfect tracks before picking up another powder trail. Another great day out on the trails and glad I’m home