A season ends

Ski season is pretty much over. There are a few alpine resorts still open and I'm sure we'll be tele-skiing up on Mount Washington for some time, but for the most part the skis will be soon put away and cycling will be the primary focus. But before you put the skis away for the summer don't forget their summer coat of storage wax!


Speaking of Nordic skiing, one of the sports biggest supporters here in the Mount Washington Valley passed away on Friday, Steve Eastman. Steve was the founder of the Mountain Ear and always gave Nordic a great plug. He was a personal friend and mentor and will be greatly missed. My thoughts go out to his family.

Blisters

I've been off my skis now for over a week due to an epic blister that I got over a week ago. I hate to do this to you, but here is the blister the day I got it:



And then here is is a week later (a week in which I didn't wear shoes- just crocs or birks and lots of neosporin):

Ok now that that is over, the skiing I head is fantastic, and I plan on getting out again soon! This blister should be skiable by the weekend- or at least that's what I keep telling myself!

Have fun out there.

Wild Winter

I just got done salting our road, now I'm trying to decide- go for a ski or grab the bike? 40 degrees- hmmm may not get this again for awhile- I think the bike wins!

Onto other news- any local HS or college racer (MWV resident) that wants to ski the TD Banknorth WM Classic 30k on the 26th let me know. The MWNC has some FREE entries! Drop me a line and I'll get you the details.

later.

Tour de Ski

I think this is such a cool concept. I sent Howie and email up at GGTOC about doing somehting like this here in the MWV- I think it could be pretty cool.

Also on the TDS site my hero Vergard Ulvang has a blog- check it out.

Snow

I've been slacking on the posts as there has been so much snow that all I've been doing is skiing! It's been great, out the back door, at Whitaker, at GGTOC, skinning up Cranmore- it's been amazing.

I'm trying to get myself to realize that I need to maximize this winter as you don't know when you're going to get another one like it. So I've come up with a list of to do's:

1) ski WVT soon, and ideally start at GGTOC
2) ski to work
3) White Mountain 30K- ski faster then slow (does that make sense?)
4) teach big E to skate ski
5) ski the spine from Cranmore to Redstone

so there is my quick list- anyone want to pick any of those off with me?

Now get out and ski.

Mother Nature Hooking Us Up

Wow, I can't recall an early season with this much snow in a long time, I hope it holds up! I haven't made it to one of the touring centers yet but have been out on the skinny skis a fair amount this year. The track I cut for the kids is in good shape, and our "driveway terrain park" is already in production.

Last night the girls and I got out and skied for about an hour, it was great. The snow was fast and quite and the snow was still falling.

This weekend we'll get out to one of the touring centers and give you an update. I'm thinking this might be the year that we get to ski the Wildcat Valley Trail in December!

Get out and ski!

The Good the Bad and in Indifferent

I missed the sprints up at GGTOC. Bummed me out as there were 127 racers and some fast kids out there racing- it could have been fun. I don't even have a good excuse. I worked at RSN in the morning then met my wife up at Cranmore to take a few runs, with the idea that I'd snag a couple lift serve runs, head over to my parents house to pick up the kids and then head up to GGTOC to do some skiing and maybe even some racing.

It all went according to plan until our first run a Cranmore when a young kid launched himself into the woods and K and I spent a good chuck of time trying to help him out. I've got to say I've never seen K come out of her skis and get off the trail adn into the woods that fast. She saw the whole thing and I think she was thinking ABC's (airway, breathing, circulation) as the speed at which he went in, and the crap he bounced off, hit, and landed in I was thinking the same. I set up our skis to keep others from getting too close the edge and hopefully giving us a bit of protection, I then tacked a ski schooler and tried to get him to understnad that I needed him to use his radio to call patrol- which he did after a while of us going back and forth about what I was asking for (I know I can be pretty confusing- but I thought I was being clear). I then jumped down into the woods to help K. At this point the kids dad was realzing what was going on as he didn't know where his kid was and he started to hike back up the trail. I got down there and did a quick check of head and spine and was shocked to see no blood, not dents in his helmet, no screaming in pain, all his teeth- I'm pretty sure he had a busted arm and will be sore but other then that I think he'll be ok. Patrol showed up and we helped pack down the exit route, and eventually we climbed out ourselves and took a couple more runs. But the experience shook me a bit as my oldest is at that place where she skis to fast and it won't surprise me if she launches like that at some point- yikes! Needless to say by the time I got home I was pretty psyched to get her out on XC gear that afternoon.

Now I'll be honest I was a bit behind is my schedule, but I got over to pick up the kids and we headed home with the intention of going up to GGTOC. Now at this point I knew I wasn't going to be racing as it was already 12:45 and the racing started at 1pm, but the thinking was it would be fun to go watch and ski with the kids.

So I had the kids grab their gear- and suddenly realized neither of the kids had boots that fit, and in Emma's case the skis I had planned on her using were still way to big! Argh. Needless to say the day fell apart from there for a short bit, but by 6pm the kids had the gear we needed, I had customized an old pair of Salomon Profil bindings to fit more like a junior binding and mounted up Emma's new skis and by 8pm we were out skiing under the stars and having a ball.

So I'm bummed I missed the sprints, I'm glad the kid that went off the trail wasn't seriously injured, and I'm ready to get out and do some skiing.

In other news talked to Cort over at Ragged Mountain - MWVST and their new groomer is here and ready to roll. It'll be exciting to see what they can do in Whitaker Woods this winter- early morning ski anyone? Also chatted with Thom at JSTF- here is they're new groomer:


Cool idea- if I had a trail that was groomable I'd buy one of these in a heartbeat.

That's it at the moment. Let's keep the snow falling.