Tales from the Hinterland: 2017/2018 edition

My apologies, I am still under the weather and have been negligent in snow chair reporting. Today:



Also today, before adding wind chill:



I stayed inside and cleaned out the woodstove.

Great big fun today, the whole gang of desperadoes assembled at one of our favorite hills in the North Hinterlands.  The temperature even warmed up to a balmy -15c.

Churrrles and Fat Dave showed up the night before to get a jump start on the rest of us, but we caught them napping ..

We tried to set a new skin track from our trad route.. But a few downed trees and it turned into a grumble-fuck.

Churrrles kindly set the skin track!

Me, the only time I was able to stay upright due to a nasty sinus bug that made my head spin....(more than usual!)

Churrrles, making everything easy

Fat Dave given'er
Alex, rejoicing in the abundance of snow (he lives in the city where snow is a rarity)
mangia!

^^ Good that the crew got out before the short but lethal thaw.

What a difference 48 hours makes, the image below is from a few minutes ago. The temp was a few degrees above freezing when I got up, by noon the mercury had dropped about 12 degrees. We are currently under a "flash freeze warning," so at least the base will set up for Winter 2.0 and a return to the deep freeze.

What's going on with the chair?

tjf1967 wrote

What's going on with the chair?

Not much. An inch or two since the last photo. Both TD and I have the plague, so not skiing lately. It has been a slow winter in the Hinterlands.

We do appreciate your concern, however.

I did get the tractor stuck the other night, which was entertaining. Had to pull out the 1988 Kubota with the 2003 Tacoma. Blue Toes had all four wheels spinning on the truck, even in low range. Good times.

Other than that, my outdoor activity has been this:

Sick Bird Rider wrote

tjf1967 wrote

What's going on with the chair?

Not much. An inch or two since the last photo. Both TD and I have the plague, so not skiing lately.

I've gotten better. No longer a newt.
Going XC track set figure 11's tomorrow.   I'll try and get some kewl pics and post an embellished  TR to make up for the aridity of this thread..

Greetings from Ice Planet Hoth. Here are someone else's chairs, they are stuck till spring:



Kicking myself for giving away my ice skates. It is very rare that conditions are this perfect for lake skating:



There is significant snow in today's forecast, though, so we live in hope.

SBR....looking at those chairs, does anyone have a contest or pool as to when the ice is officially gone?  I've heard of gaming where a chair is tied to a dock and the day/hour that it's submerged the ice is deemed to be gone.  Just wondering if there's something similar your way.

D.B. Cooper wrote

SBR....looking at those chairs, does anyone have a contest or pool as to when the ice is officially gone?  I've heard of gaming where a chair is tied to a dock and the day/hour that it's submerged the ice is deemed to be gone.  Just wondering if there's something similar your way.

Yes, those contests are pretty common around here. They are typically a local thing among the lake residents, so not well publicized. Usually someone puts out a Christmas tree or something benign. Back in the day some places would put an old car out on the ice but the enviromeddlers have put a stop to that.

Sick Bird Rider wrote

D.B. Cooper wrote

SBR....looking at those chairs, does anyone have a contest or pool as to when the ice is officially gone?  I've heard of gaming where a chair is tied to a dock and the day/hour that it's submerged the ice is deemed to be gone.  Just wondering if there's something similar your way.

Yes, those contests are pretty common around here. They are typically a local thing among the lake residents, so not well publicized. Usually someone puts out a Christmas tree or something benign. Back in the day some places would put an old car out on the ice but the enviromeddlers have put a stop to that.

The Tanana River Tripod is the one I'm most familiar with
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nenana_Ice_Classic

After about six weeks of coughing and hacking, I finally felt the energy to go outside and do something. Bronchitis sucks. Conditions have improved dramatically in the last few days, there is now a nice layer of fresh snow over the death crust:



Adding to the stoke, I was able to borrow demo pair of Altai Hok skishoes. Before you all laugh, let me tell you that these things are a blast. Faster and more fun than slowshoeing, lightweight, maneuverable, ideal for bushwhacking and bombing around through the bush. And you get to wear your comfy and warm winter boots.

Here you go, 125 cm of fun, with the "universal binding."



I chose my favourite Sorel Caribous for the tour. Might as well go for the full experience and skip ski boots!



I made it all the way out to Utah's Rock (left the dog at home due to frigid temps). Hoks lean on rocks as well as any bike:



Turns are possible but there is not a lot of precision with this setup. Bamboo poles and big mitts don't help much.



Regular readers will know of our affection for Bonk Hill. It is skiable on Hoks, though the snowplowamark is required and the turns are a little surfy:



If you get a chance, try them out. Super fun for bushwhacking and ideal for setting tracks for future skiing.

Well, I couldn't convince TD to try the Hoks, so we clamped on the Chargers and went for a mellow tour. Lovely snow, no pics to speak of. We had a nice outing to Secret Hill, over to Telemark Hill, across the bog and up the logging road. Kind of "there and back again.'

Good thing TD was sporting his new red jacket.

All the snow on the arm of the chair has fallen in the last five days or so. Things are looking good for Twigfest 2018 this weekend, if you get bored of skiing the new snow in New York, come on up to the Hinterlands for some turn-earning shenanigans.

Great day in the backbush today.. Jeff LeCheff organized the second annual TwigFest..  Ullr was there for us!  Certainly not what we are normally blessed with, but given this winter's abysmal conditions, pretty nice.



Meet up in downtown Kearney.  No one got smoked by the local slednecks, so we counted out blessings and continued on to Nickle Peak.




LeCheffie had set up a hot tent we named Hodge Podge Lodge to use for hanging out and warming up.


SBR, cruising down Turning Japanese.

TD beat me to it!

A few more from Twigfest...

Turns were hard-earned:


TD is all casual above the steep pitch on Turning Japanese:


And then commits to the turn:


LeChef outlining the lay of the land while other Jeff checks his map:


Here is a link to other Jeff's Flickr page, complete with rare video of TD and I skiing downhill. Jeff and his pal Bryce opted to do a tour rather than yo-yo like us:
Twigfest on Flickr

Great to see that you are back in action SBR!

Harvey wrote

Great to see that you are back in action SBR!

Thanks, Harv. Still not 100% and definitely feeling it today.

Hodge Podge Lodge ---- looks like a great time

campgottagopee wrote

Hodge Podge Lodge ---- looks like a great time

It's open for another week or so, come on up.

As usual, the chair tells the story.



We have lots of snow but it is of a strange quality. With a light crust on top of lubricated sugar, even the normally grippy S-Bounds were slipping on the gentlest of uphills.



I stayed away from the steeper hills, and just went touring on the old bush roads as part of my effort to get back into skiing shape before winter is over. The low-angle downhills were fast and loud on fishscaled skis.



What would a ski tour be without the odd obstacle?



Although I started at my house, the trail brought me out of the woods a little ways down the road. Pro-tip, don't ski on the sandy part:



SBR says, enjoy what you have while you have it!



Here is the video snow report. Turn your volume up to 11 for the full effect: