For those of you not in the know you may be sorely disappointed, as was Stephen, when you learn that by "ass" I mean that I had a great session of Adventure Skate Skiing. And you might be equally surprised to learn that getting some A.S.S. can be as fun and rewarding as getting some ass. Its kept me satisfied all winter! Check it out for yourself: Google it or just go to AdventureSkateSkiing.com!
I had finally extracted myself from the grip of that indoor inertia that sets in when I’ve got a ton of catching up to do and the steaming cups of coffee just keep pouring from my French press. My feet are like dogs and prefer being curled up in front of the heater vent all winter instead of going out into the weather and being stuffed into sweat-inducing Nordic boots. I’d been so busy this morning trying to check tasks off my list that I hadn’t noticed that the morning fog had burned off, and as I bounced down the snow-packed road towards the Snopark I shielded my eyes from the sun. I hoped it would be better skiing conditions today than my 18-mile ski around Meadow Loop on Monday, but why should it be any different? The sugary, overworked snow should be the same on all the trails out here where snowmobiles have been ripping it up for the past 3-weeks without any new snowpack. So I expected the worst knowing that the worst is still pretty damn amazing!
I pulled up to the gate and pumped my fist: only one other car was parked there and it was the Montero belonging to Rob, the owner of Plain Hardware, who I’d never skied with but who’d invited me to ski with him out here on Wednesdays. But as usual I’d gotten a late start and had forgotten to call him, so not only would I be skiing alone again but the place would probably be crawling with Snowmobiles. My expectations perked a bit when I observed the lack of trailer-toting 4X4’s.
I followed two fresh skate tracks past the first turn to “meadow” and “pole” routes and headed out the Chiwawa Valley on the insanely wide stretch of grooming wondering what the groomed route of the day would be. The guys that do the grooming have either gotten lazy or purposely quit leaving a grooming report on the Snopark bulletin board this year and so it has become even more of a crap-shoot than in the past. On this day I was hoping to find the fresh corduroy tracks continuing straight ahead towards Trinity instead of turning right and up, up, up to “faultline”, “alder” and “beaver”. The odds were against me and so I wasn’t surprised and took the turn to the right without stopping and then quickly began climbing. I’d planned to keep my heart-rate low and settled into an easy V-1, but as I focused my thoughts on my technique and began tweaking all those aspects of good skiing that give me trouble -- ankle flex and weight forward, pole swing and timing, hip thrust and weight transfer -- and before I knew it I was flying and my heartrate was soaring. And so it goes.
To shortern what could be an interminably long entry, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Trinity HAD been groomed last night after all, and even better, after the turn up Alder Creek it was entirely entouched by man. And so I went forth, bravely, like an explorer on an uncharted course. Yeah, it was tough... it was tough turning around and coming back! Had I the energy and enough daylight I would have skied all the way to Trinity, 22-miles each way, but I was satisfied with about 10-12 miles in each direction. For skate skiers, I'll leave you with this: groomed corduroy more than 20-feet across over moderately undulating terrain on clear, bluebird afternoon in mid-winter. A pic to prove it forthcoming.
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