Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Okemo, with Nancy. 13 runs before a lunch break. Nancy finally meets her nemesis on a good day. Snow was quite nice packed powder, temperature wasn't too cold (though it was kind of windy at times), and the crowds were tolerable. We went singles in the lift line a couple of times in order to get through faster.

Mt. Nemesis 3, Nancy 0. Three more runs, including a moderately serious disaster. We got up to the top of the mountain on the South Face quad lift around 3 PM, and needed to get back to the clocktower base. I suggested Outrage (double black diamond), but Nancy wasn't interested in anything with big warning signs on it. So we headed down Mountain Road, a long green run, the easiest top-to-bottom trail on the mountain. I then wanted to suggest that we cut down through Whispering Pines, an intermediate glade, but she was too far ahead and couldn't hear me yelling. Mountain Road got crowded lower down, and just after the merge with the trail coming from Jackson Gore, a snowboarder swerved in front of her despite her yelling "On your right!", and pushed her to the edge of the trail where she hit a tree square on. The snowboarder stopped for about a minute before skedaddling, and I took Nancy's skis off for her, and she stayed on the ground for about five minutes before getting up and skiing down, where she decided she needed to do one more lift ride to prove that she's stubborn. Banged her knee, and more noticeably her face, such that she now looks like a domestic abuse victim (black eye and puffy cheek). Likely no long-term ill effects, but at my suggestion, we decided to skip skiing on Sunday.

C • Ouch!! 3

80 situps.

Did I really do nothing? I think I did something, probably situps. But I forgot to write it down.

Mt. Wachusett, partially with Nancy. As far as I know, the last (only?) time I had skied here was around 1965, when it was T-bars and my father took me up between his legs (I have no memory of this). Since then, I've certainly hiked, bicycled, orienteered and drafted a map of this place, but I had never skied here, despite the fact that it's quite close to where I live. But with the recent snowfall, it seemed like a good idea to go out under the lights after work. Fourteen runs total (four before Nancy arrived, then nine with her, and one alone at the end). Covered pretty much everything there was, including one magic carpet (don't know if the other two were running, and the rope tow with handles was not). We had to skip the triple chair and the terrain park, because they require some special ticket.

I wasn't all that impressed, but for somebody who's really into skiing, I guess the convenient location would be good.

C • Somebody who’s really into skiing 3

Snow dealings, rounds 9a-d: Nancy's driveway. I had repaired her snowblower (belt had come off), but something is wrong and the belt won't stay on for more than about a second (pulleys appear to be misaligned, but I'm not sure how that could happen. So it was all shoveling. We both had to work from home in the storm, and I worked from her house so I could try and keep up with the snow. I did about 4" of pretty sticky stuff in the morning, then about a foot of fairly fluffy snow in the afternoon, and something like 5" more in the evening, then when we went out at 10 PM to clean off the cars, there was about another inch.

Snow dealings, round 9e: my driveway. No problem using the snowblower, but I did only as much as was necessary. Measured 13" in my driveway.

80 situps.

Snow dealings, round 8a: Nancy's driveway. The snow fell last week, and by the time we got back, there was about 8" of heart attack glop in her driveway. I started with the electric snowblower, but before I got to the street on the first swath, I had broken it (probably snapped the drive belt). So I shoveled instead.

Snow dealings, round 8b: my driveway. The gas snowblower was up to the task, but I wasn't very ambitious in terms of clearing any extra area.