Pasted!

 

It rained all day Friday and washed away the cross country skiing at the golf course, but it was all snow on high. Saturday morning I got to the pass and found snow to the road and 1-2 feet of new snow higher up on the mountain. I actually did not have high expectations and brought my 25 year old skis expecting lots of rocks. But it was mid season conditions! It is rare that we get so much snow in mid November.

The problem was my 25 year old skis. How did we ski on those things? I had a hard time turning. Worst of all they are old tele bindings with the 'mouse trap' to clamp the toe. So there is not a free swinging hinge at the toe like all climbing skis have today. So climbing up in the deep powder my bindings wanted to push my ski tips down under the snow. The old ski gear was also super heavy!  It seems ski gear has gotten a lot better in the 21rst century.

Up high it was too deep for the dogs and they had to follow along behind me in the broken ski trail. Then going home I skied all the way to the car. Admittedly, the last 500 vertical was basically combat skiing, but hey I skied to the car. I did not get to do that very much last winter, or not until March anyway. Fingers crossed it is just the start of a snowy winter.

Patrick