November Powder

 

These pictures are all from Wednesday and Thursday when we had a mid week powder dump.  It rained hard in town, but we got powder on high.

On Wednesday the snow was pretty wet and slow. So come Thursday, after the snow stopped and it froze, I was expecting crusty conditions on high.  Usually the best time to ski is during the storm when it is still warm and the snow has not turned to ice.  But not so this time.  It must have continued to snow after I quit on Wednesday and sort of created a few inches of snow on a soft crust.  If you bounced you could go way down into the snow.

However, it was not good everywhere on the mountain.  Below 1000 feet it was a crusty mess, and the good skiing was only in places that had been sheltered from the wind.  The South Bowl and Jibber were excellent, but everywhere else was windblown and variable.

On the drive back I loved looking back up into the south bowl and seeing my tracks lit up on high in the evening light.

Patrick

Short Walks

 

Still taking the new puppy Red on lots of short hikes.  She is a quick learner and her big brother Bodi has been a good teacher.  She is now completely potty trained - no mistakes in almost 2 weeks!  I still have her sleeping in her crate at night and on occasion I hear whining - I let her out and she rushes outside to go to the bathroom.  Then she comes back inside and goes right back into her crate.  Late in the evening she often even goes in there before it is bedtime.

On hikes she follows Bodi around and I can tell she already knows the 'pee' language at the park.  I see her intently sniffing everything.  Her and Bodi also rough house and play chase all the time.  And then I see them relax side by side in the back yard each gnawing on his/her own deer bone.

When I leave them in the house alone, I still crate Red up and I leave them both in my bedroom.  I could probably leave them both out but I fear Red might go on a house chewing craze.  So I am still crating her up when I leave the house.  But she seems to like the crate and I think both Bodi and her do not mind the down time.

Patrick

Early Ice

 

Today it is rainy, windy and warm, but on Sunday it was cold and sunny.  The last day in a long stretch of cold weather.  I actually went skiing everyday for more than a week straight.  Mostly I just went skate skiing at the golf course.  It took a week for the local ponds to freeze, and by Sunday even some of the bigger lakes were safe for skating.

On Sunday the kids and I joined the cousins out the road at Kalsin Pond for some ice skating and kite winging. It was black ice conditions - perfectly smooth and you could see the bottom through the ice.  Kalsin is a pretty big pond too.  Normally the first few times I go ice skating it is on a tiny pond where you have to skate in tight circles.  Not so this year!

Great times ripping about on the ice in the sunshine.  

Patrick

No Base

 

It's early in the season, we got snow, and it's looking spectacular up there.  But don't let it fool you - the skiing is terrible.  It's all about the base.  Or as Meghan Trainor puts it, 'all about the bass'. And she's right.  

We got snow but no base. So the skiing is very bumpy and stop and go.  You'll be going along and break through the breakable crust and your ski tips will catch in the grass. Kinda brutal.  And up high the wind has scoured everything into drifts and bare alpine tundra.

However, what's up there now is the base - so after the next snow fall (fingers crossed) we ought to have good skiing.  And even if it rains, the snow and melt cycle ought to have knocked down the grass and bushes some.  

Still it is beautiful up there, and skiing is skiing!

Patrick

October Snow

 

It snowed Friday night and Saturday and has stayed cold and windy ever since. Right now it is 20 degrees outside.  It has also been frightfully windy.  So windy that the car goes this way and that as the gusts hit while you drive down the road.  So I have not been going up the mountain, but instead, I have been going to the golf course.  It is in the lee of Pyramid and it has been pretty nice skate skiing.

On Sunday Nora, Uncle Dicky, and Zeke went sledding while I skate skied.  Nora took the old flexible flyer that I used as a kid.  It is practically an antique, but with crusty snow like there is at the golf course it is the best.

I have also continued to take Red and Bodi for just short skis.  Each day I've been taking them for a ski/walk and then them driving home before I go on a longer ski by myself.  Bodi and Red keep each other company at home while I am away.

Patrick

A little windy up there!

Blowing snow on the mountain tops