Tales from the Hinterland: 2019/2020 edition

All that snow looks pretty good. Hope there’s more on the way

Brownski wrote

All that snow looks pretty good. Hope there’s more on the way

They always have the best looking snow.

"Like hey 25cms fell this afternoon when we weren't looking."  I guess we'll have to head out for some nordic bliss.

Meanwhile down here we're like... "Skiology is calling for two inches at Windham!"

The chair is beautiful and evil at the same time. It taunts me!

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Woah!

I promise I will pay closer attention.

Harvey wrote

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Woah!

I promise I will pay closer attention.

I like the misc deck screws ---- every good work bench needs one of those

campgottagopee wrote

I like the misc deck screws ---- every good work bench needs one of those

Ha, ha, I wondered if anyone would notice that. That is the most-used container of fasteners that I possess. Deck screws have many purposes beyond the deck.

Ok. It’s intervention time.  Going to skip out of work early today to go for a ski - hopefully with SBR, if he’s home.  You can guess what needs to be said and done..  
Voile Love needs to happen..  

Harvey wrote

Brownski wrote

All that snow looks pretty good. Hope there’s more on the way

They always have the best looking snow.

"Like hey 25cms fell this afternoon when we weren't looking."  I guess we'll have to head out for some nordic bliss.

Meanwhile down here we're like... "Skiology is calling for two inches at Windham!"

The chair is beautiful and evil at the same time. It taunts me!

Ha ha, true, I guess we are a bit casual about it. That's life in the Lake Effect Zone. And we can lose it all in the blink of an eye.

Maybe the chair is your personal Holy Grail, all set to taunt you one more time:

THAT IS SUCH A FUNNY MOVIE!!!

I will laugh at those clips every single time.

Today's ski was a repeat of yesterday, except that TD joined in and I broke out the big boy skis. Check out eh Charger Love thread for wax nerd details.

Once we reached Secret Hill and TD observed that there was significantly less snow there than my driveway picture suggested, he actually agreed that maybe the Hoks weren't such a bad choice on the earlier forays. Ha.

I had camera focus issues, plus it was pretty gloomy, so the shots aren't the greatest. But, hey, it is mid-December and we are skiing thin pow.

TD wisely takes a conservative line on Secret Hill:



Over to Bonk Hill, where there are fewer rocks underneath:



The dude is just a blur in the woods:



SBR gives today a thumbs-up:

Couple pics of SBR, one on the trek from Secret to Bonk, the other on the long climb back up from the beaver ponds at the bottom of Bonk hill.




And actually, although I could understand SBR’s use of the kinder-skis, (sorry, Hoks), no way I’d want to use them myself.  I need every bit of my 191 Charger BCs to hold my fat ass up out of the low tide sharkey waters..  er, snow..  😎

Really been hammering out the XC night skiing sessions this year, best of all its quasi-rustic old skewl set-your-own-tracks stylie.  We ski at a golf course about a mile from our house, so easy peasy to get the gumption flowing..



Heading out for some daylight pro rated track set skiing at the local Nordic Centre today..  TR to follow.. 👍

Still pretty low tide in these parts, so I’ve been sticking to Goof Course meadowskipping at night after work..
At least there’s enough snow for the local Nordic Centre to set tracks, so there’s that..   and the local lift served bump is open for those who feel compelled to fork over a ridiculous amount of cash to ski 300’ of vert..  I’ll stick to poaching on dawn patrols prior to them grooming thank you very much.. 😆

Merry Crustmas from the Hinterlands! We haven't had any new snow for a while and what we do have is crusty and fast. I went for a nice bushwhack to work off a fine Christmas breakfast but avoided any significant hills.

If you don't pizza here, you might get your French fries wet.



First of three successful crik crossings. Need to be light on your feet for this trick.



EDIT: here are a couple more pics

This is actually a trail, I need to do a little clean up. The emerald ash borer is wreaking havoc on our white ash trees, and they are falling down faster than I can cut them up for firewood. Makes for a fun little whoop-de-doo on skis though.



The second creek crossing was less straightforward and required sidestepping out of the creek bed afterwards. If you come along on a bushwhack with SBR, you are guaranteed to have an adventure. Funny how so few take me up on the opportunity.

For no good reason other than to ski, I visited our local golf course a mile down the road.. usually we sorta XC meadowskip, again, for no other reason than to ski.  Today however, it was a VoileLove kinda day, I meadowskipped and earned nano-vert turns wherever I could imagine them.  Everything was fair game, given the impending warm spell and predicted rain/freezing rain crap..  


I spotted some potentially potential down the last hole of the back nine.  



There were some steps up to the tee that had been already slowshoed, soooo...

After smugly admiring my nice tracks, I had to haul fat ass back to my car as the rain started raining on my ski parade.  I’m always amazed how little it takes to entertain me when I’m on skis..  

So yesterday instead of skipping about the goof course with VoileLove tm, Bon and I did our standard self-track-set meadowskip on our standard habitat-for -humanity ReStore $15 skis..  They have earned their place in our quivers this season, given the lack of snow and the minimalistic base.  If nothing else, we Hinterlandians are Ski-inclusive, as well as polite. (Mostly.. 😆)

 skis at the gate.  They even kindly left it open for us..  

1970’s Fischer Racing Crowns.  Because, skis.

You guys sure know how to make your own fun. Some times I punch “ski” into craigslist just to see what’s around and I’m always tempted to add a few pairs of old XC skis for my kids when I see how cheap I could get them for. Not sure how much use they would get though. Everything melts too quickly down here.
 

The last couple weeks has been the most dismal start to January - snow wise, that I can recall.  Freeze/thaws with rain for good (or bad) measure.  Maybe a foot, max, of snow pack on the ground in the woods, less in the open.  Yesterday it pored rain all day.. then changed to freezing rain briefly.  Thankfully it transmogrified to snow by midnight.. and we awoke to 8” of sugary, dry, dense weird but wonderful snow.  
So we went for an XC trackset ski..  it was a beautiful thing..  

So yesterday at work I got a text from Jeff the Mann asking if I wanted to hit up Limberlost (our local earn-your-turns “managed” backcountry hill).  Sure says I, a day off work to ski is always a good thing..
So this morning at the crack-o-nine I met up with Jeff and Hondo.  Best day at Limberlost this year.  100% dust on crust, no make that dust on glacier.  No matter.  It’s all skiing.  It was very scrapey and noisy..


The trudge up to the top of the old derelict t-bar..  I think I enjoyed the uphills today more than the down..


Hondo skiing just fine on the bottom low angle trees..



Jeff spraying because he could.  This was part way down a new run on the backside that was just gladed a couple months ago.  First ski tracks on it today.  Still pretty hairy as it could use about a foot or two of fresh to optimize the return on investment AKA fun factor.

Even the dust on crust is deeper up there.

Harvey wrote

Even the dust on crust is deeper up there.

Yes. Yes it is. Up over our edges today!