Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The bitch is back

La Nina, that is.
















I took the sled up to road's end for a look-see to see how things are shaping up for skiing. The answer - not yet, and likely not soon. :( It doesn't look like the snowmobilers are going up much past the turnaround, and for good reason. There isn't anything close to adequate snow cover yet. It was pretty obvious what I was going to find, but I threw the skins on anyway and headed uphill, more for the exercise than anything else. I turned around just short of the Launching Pad, as it was clear that I was just going to tear up my skis coming back downhill.

Kevin M. was up there too, for much the same reason. He skinned all the way up to Liberty Pass. He said that it never did get any better. He got about six turns in First Dollar, but it was really dicey and not worth skinning up.

He summed it up pretty succinctly: "That sucked."

The good part is that I got that first-day shakeout done, the sled runs, the boots still fit, the new skins stayed where they were supposed to stay, the dog loaded onto the snowmobile willingly, AND I got some exercise. I'll be honest, though - it'll take a fair bit more snow for me to want to bust out the snowmobile again. I'll be sticking to hiking, ice climbing and XC skiing for a while.

I have some old skis that I was going to give to a friend to turn into a fence. I'm thinking they need to be sacrificed to Ullr instead.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Road closed for the winter

Very fast update - the Lamoille Canyon Road is closed for the winter at its usual spot, just past Pete's Corner. I ran into a USFS law enforcement officer (LEO) up there today - he's issuing citations for folks who drive past the closure, so be advised. There's not a whole heck of a lot of snow on the road yet, very drivable, but I guess they're being proactive. Or nanny-statish, take your pick.

Anyway, some friends of mine have been up making turns - skied the Lake Shot on Friday. I was up on XC skis today (sweet!)... busy with work tomorrow but will head up Wednesday for a real ski report.