Schweitzer Nordics #432

 27°        

Dec 12, 2011… Nordics…hike # 432     

While driving out the driveway, it felt like I had too few layers on…just past the first switchback, I realized I forgot my fleece jacket. Turned around and went back up to get it. It would not have been good had I not had that jacket!

The sun was out and it was cold. The sky was blue. It was so windy in the village and cold while we were putting the skis on, that I almost dug out my face mask. But as usual, as soon as we got on the trails, the wind was very light. The skins we ordered for the skis arrived in time to try them out today. We met two of our neighbors today, one on the x-country trail and the other in the village.

We looked for Frank at the ski shop but were told that he had just left for a couple of days of skiing at Glacier. We wanted to show him the skins on our skis.

The skins worked a lot better, the sticking was better going uphill and it was slower and more controlled going downhill but we both still had some issues with sideway slippage. I decided I am going to try the old Karvers next week just for a comparison. Part of the problems we have are the boots we wear…while we wear what is recommended, not having a hard boot as in regular ski boots, makes it more difficult to turn on the edge and snowplow to stop. The snow was excellent today…we think we probably have the best snow in the country!

We started out on the first x-c trail rather than go up the cattrack…we weren’t sure yet how the skis would work out. Up to Picnic Point, past the shed, over to Moose 

Trot, then up Cloudwalker to Wolf Ridge. Turned around there after walking a bit up ‘Zip Down’ run to eat lunch and drink hot chocolate…our legs were getting tired. It felt like we were out a lot longer than we were. Using different muscles surely get your attention. It was good to get back to the truck and home.

Left home                    9:10

Got to Schweitzer        9:45

Started up                   10:00

Got to truck                 2:30     

Total miles hiked          6.7 miles         

Total hiking time           4 hours, 30 minutes