Tales from the Hinterland: 2016/2017 edition

The chair says go.

And this is why (one of the reasons) I come here.

Great to see you boys back at it!

The maintenance shots from this past fall were super cool btw. I love that stuff.

Well it was friggen cold today, but there was skiing to be done, given the 2 feet of snow we recieved in the last 36 hours or so.  Jeff Le Cheff and I ventured out a bit north of our usual stomping grounds to Burks Falls.  Our
Destination was a local hill known as Peg's Mountain.  There's a summer hiking trail to a lookout point, but Jeff led me to the "easier" route up.  Yeah, right.  I set the skin track, while he followed cleaning up some of the twiggery with his Sandvik.  

Once up through the initial thicket, it opened up to a nice mature hardwood natural glade.  We made our way to the lookout high point then deskinned and had a pretty nice ski down.. And called it a day.  


We parked right on the road and hoped for the best.. It had already been plowed so no issues..

Jeff surveying the view from the top.  It was too cold to hangout and yak.

Yours truly, navigating the thickets.. It was slo-mo skiing, given the dense cold snow and frozen bodies..

Heres a pic of the backside of Peg's back in November.  The lookout pic of Jeff was taken just to the top left of the scree field in the middle of the pic.

Duuudes! Which gully did you ski? Bonus points for going out in the frigid morning of today. At 8.30 am it was -21 C (-6 F). Brrrrrr!

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Duuudes! Which gully did you ski? Bonus points for going out in the frigid morning of today. At 8.30 am it was -21 C (-6 F). Brrrrrr!

Bwahahahaha....

The gully on the backside of that face. .. Which is in fact, a hardwood glade.  We saved the first descent of the aforementioned scree slope for you...  

Are those cliffs? I think I see some sweet mini golf lines that might need a bit o clearing but would probably go with 2 or 3 more feet of snow. From the pic it's hard to say but it looks like there might be a couple double drop, two stager lines in there.

raisingarizona wrote

Are those cliffs? I think I see some sweet mini golf lines that might need a bit o clearing but would probably go with 2 or 3 more feet of snow. From the pic it's hard to say but it looks like there might be a couple double drop, two stager lines in there.

Yup.  And yes, with a goodly amount of snow, maybe...  Chuurles is game.  He also bounces better than us old farts.

Let's wait for some more snow. Then it is on xD

Sick!

You might want to kill some shrubbery eh? It looks pretty open though, as long as the scree field isn't a bunch of sharp giant boulders you should be good with a solid base and then a big 1 to 2 foot dump eh?

In the right conditions I would still be ok with a couple of 20 to 40 foot drops but by right I mean perfect!

If you guys get the chance post up an updated photo of that zone with new snow, thanks!

Ah, ya. There are some pretty big rocks in there.  It would - or will - be a nice pillow line with another 4-5 feet of snow, which is totally possible in these parts.  We got 7' in December 2014..  And another 5 feet ealy January 2015.  Then it got cold and Lake Huron (our lake effect snow gun) froze up.

Today was a XC ski day with Bon.  It was a no brainer to classic ski (as opposed to skateski) as it was -15c, which makes for easy peasy grip waxing.   Arrowhead Nordic, our local nordic skiing centre had just about all of its 27 k's open, gromed and trackset - a great start compared to last years post New Years opening.  

Bonnie finishing a cold 8k's

Empty skiracks... The city hordes have yet to swarm our little chunk of paradise for X-mas..

Run you turkeys!
 dumbasses!

Hello Gents,

I've been looking for new terrain for awhile in Ontario and I came on NYblog while looking for routes in NY. How many spots do you have in (near) Huntsville and on average what is the vertical.

Also have you guys ever been near Sudbury...if so how did you find the terrain there.

Your adventures and the work you do for your routes is quite amazing.

Thanks a million

Alex

Freebeeez wrote

Hello Gents,

I've been looking for new terrain for awhile in Ontario and I came on NYblog while looking for routes in NY. How many spots do you have in (near) Huntsville and on average what is the vertical.

Also have you guys ever been near Sudbury...if so how did you find the terrain there.

Your adventures and the work you do for your routes is quite amazing.

Thanks a million

Alex

Hi Alex, welcome aboard. There are about five places we ski on a somewhat regular basis, depending on conditions, time window, who is going and level of ambition. Vertical ranges from 100 to 300 feet. These are all within 15 minutes drive of Huntsville. There are a few other areas that we'll go to occasionally with more vert, but they are more remote and require some planning, energy and pretty much a full day. I haven't skied around Sudbury but would think there should be some good potential. There is a history of backcountry skiing in Killarney PP but you'll need to be prepared for winter camping. Chuuurles posts here, he has skied there. If you live in Sudbury, you are not too far from Algoma, which is well developed and boasts a core group of skiers. Check out Bellevue Valley Lodge and the Snowflea Festival. If you are on FB, join this group, it's a good way to connect with other like-minded folks.

It's nice to know that the Canadian turkeys are just as dumb as the ones here in the USA

Hi SBR,

Thanks for the info. I'm actually in the GTA but I like getting out of it when I'm not working. I was looking at the maps, I know you guys  ski the pipeline but have you ever tried the powerlines?

Freebeeez wrote

I was looking at the maps, I know you guys  ski the pipeline but have you ever tried the powerlines?

Looking at maps is key. Yes, we have skied some powerlines. The local pipeline right-of-way is just more convenient. Whatever works is good.

Well, we have quite a lot of snow now and there has been some activity. Chuuurles, LeChef and others went on a foray to to Nickle Peak on Tuesday but few pictures have surfaced, other than a grainy video of Bob the Voyageur looking fantastic in his traditional garb while flailing on NNN. Wish I had been there.

TD and and I went for a short tour on the "skinny" skis today, out in the local backbush. The snow has consolidated in the mild temps and we weren't sure what to expect.



We toured out to Secret Hill. Again. Every trip is different. Not sure what Dave is doing in the background.



TD scored first tracks, we concluded that the narrower skis were a better choice today: more control (less speed).



Tracks were made, we decided that it would be too much work to slog up (no skins) and set off on a tour.



After skiing over hill and dale, we crossed the bog and headed back.

Nice! The snow looks like it's starting to really stack up out there.

Snowy Christmas and Happy Pow Year to all the NYSBers from all of us here in the Hinterlands!

Edit: Christmas Day post-snowshoe family portrait, Hinterland-style.

Merry Christmas Mr and Mrs SBR.