Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Felt good, and that was surely partly because the snow felt fast underneath my skis.

The reports emerging from Copenhagen about Kissy are so disturbing, so sad. I fear that fundamentalist elements at Ratlum Mountain must have brainwashed her and radicalized her to their nefarious cause of Mountain Laurel extirpation.

C • M.L.E. 2

Colder by late afternoon, snow slower, wind winding down.

Brutal. Wasn't so terrible cold--maybe only 0F, so nothing extreme there--but this was the first cold day combined with some classic big SE winds. The winds in town are 30+ mph, and they had to have been bigger up top. Wind chills of what, maybe -30F? It doesn't matter; it was cold. The Zone of Death was in especially fine form, and was trying to crawl out into the trail net and get bigger and bigger.

It was also the first day to see what the recipe of a lot of beetle killed pines + big winds equaled, which was a veritable rain of bark, twigs, pine cones, branches, and needles down on the trails, which despite all the fresh snow yesterday, were already probably the dirtiest I've ever seen. Gotta luv them beetles!

Still, being out on the trails beats sitting at home, twiddling thumbs.

Even though there were a good number of cars in the Zone of Death when I got done, from the time I left the campground until I came back, I didn't see a single skier. My suspicious is that everybody else was huddled up close together in the warming hut.

C • hut 3

The blinding snow and bitter cold weren't so bad. But the brutal wind out of the north took things well into Yowsa!!! 5 territory. Definite Yowsa!!!

Not going to be any skiing for me today. It's -5F here in town in the afternoon, and at least for me, when it's that cold, I might as well be skiing on sandpaper. Plus, with the wind, it's cold enough that I have problems keeping my face and hands warm. I'll wait for something warmer.

C • I'm surprised you are takin... 3

Whew--nippy at -7F. I don't mind facing the cold, but facing up the wind is a whole other thing. Still, beautiful to see everything all frosted over, with the sun disappearing over the mountains, and banks of ice fogs in different shapes and sizes scattered around the valley.

Could it be true what they say about Yowsa!!!--that even bad Yowsa!!! is still pretty good?

At any rate, conditions have been in place all day long for really great....
Yowsa!!!

Light powder was drifting down all day long, so there was plenty of fresh snow on the trails, which were in terrific shape. And it was a little warmer out than had been predicted plus the air was practically dead calm. Totally so fine!