A Snowstorm

This afternoon I woke up to a little more than a foot of snow on the ground. A good day to break out the cross country skis that I had missed in Colorado (I had two pairs of Telemark Skis and a pair of 3-pin touring skis but I had missed my backcountry xc skis). I am lucky in that I can ski from the back door when the snow is deep enough to ski in the woods. Today the snow was deep enough! Low density snow like the kind that should have fallen more last year in Leadville, I bogged down on all but one short steep hill as I skied around the McCabe Forest loop (2.25 miles from my back door). The ski was pleasant. I didn't push it at all and just focused on putting the track down to maximize the downhills and cut corners at proper angles beneficial for skiers. The most surprising part was that there were two ice bridges that were formed perfectly so that I was able to ski the entire loop without taking off my skis.

So that was the ski of the afternoon.

This evening I started to ponder what I would do for trail running this week (and every time it snows this much for the the rest of the winter). In Lynette Clemmons' article in December's Ultrarunning she talks about the three forms of traction aids: screws in the shoes, Microspikes, and Snowshoes. I have been stoked that the snow has been deep enough for only the first two. Now I am worried that I will need to shell out money for the snowshoes. I am usually excited to shell out money willynilly but this time I am worried because I have not been able to earn as much at snowmaking as I had planned on.

This got me thinking about what I had for resources. I have a pair of wooden snowshoes that are quite large and I have access to a pair of Tubbs Adventure 21s which are not running snowshoes per se. I am starting to wish that I had not left my MSRs in Colorado.

I decided to try out the new batteries in my headlamp and try the Adventure 21s out in a run down back on the trail I groomed out with skis earlier. The running was actually not all that bad as long as I stayed on the track. I ran all the way down the the parking lot (about .25 miles) and took a short excursion into the woods to try them out off trail. No bueno in snow that knee deep. Too much work. I think the way to go will be to hike a trail first with either the larger snowshoes or the Tubbs to stomp down a track. Then it will be much more appropriate to run in the smaller snowshoes until the trail is so packed down that I am able to use Microspikes again. We shall see how this goes in the future.

The weather forecast is looking to remain cold for a while so there will be no warmup to reduce the snowpack. Looks like I will be doing some backcountry skiing in the near future. Maybe a trip to the Mt. Washington area is in order. I bet they have much more snow up there.