details

Fill in some epic ski details for you folks now I guess. Really was pretty wasted last night with a whole lot of stuff to do involving moving back in. Still a lot to do, including get some bloody groceries! Nothing to eat here right now. Have to buy a bagel for breakfast when I get to school. For now, an espresso and some blogging. 8am departure seemed early for many of us, but apparently every other cyclist in the world seemed to have left for a ski (also along Ridge Road trail 1) even earlier. Odd sometimes to be skiing along, with no grip (even with freaking klister) through some seriously dense fog only to find another large group of cyclists flailing along the other direction. Needless to say, to to my "grip conditions" I spent a lot of time exhausting my cycling guns double polling. We got up to Mikinstry, soaked from the wet, warm conditions for our snack break in the cabin. Many debates raged over cookies and the non-existent 12 lbs. of choco (poor Dave forgot it on his counter at home) about whether to pull out the dry clothes now, or wait until after the backcountry portion. Backcountry won out, for obvious reasons. Up a little further, with flippin Dodson still setting a crushing tempo on the front. But soon, with a right hander off the groomed stuff it would become Sandy's turn to shine. When I come down a hill (usually ful tilt, off balance in a partial tuck - partial full on flail) people move. I have found myself to have very little control, which is part of the reason I am usually asked to descend last. That and the others have a better view of my circus method of descending on skis. Luckily the several feet of wet, cushy snow saved me from injury. Though some adventures through fresh pow in the underbrush made my life interesting. That and I managed to create a sink hole which Kiwi had to pull me out of after I managed to sink down into this hole about 3-4 feet. And continued to sink the more I moved to get out. Few hours of flailing through the woods before popping out towards Wakefield somewhere on trail 50 or 54 or something. Ski along for a while (longer than was thought) to Herrige cabin for lunch. All were agreed, that our various forms of grilled cheese in tin foil on the wood stove were undoubtedly the premier sammies we had ever eaten. Pure cheese and ham gold in my case. Kiwi broke out the cokes he had been toting all over the park, though we made fun of him - they were well enjoyed and we had a jolly good time laughing at Nick's pictures of me and having oddball conversations that are mostly un-repeatable on this medium due to a possibly younger audience. Pop on some dry/fresh clothes if you were lucky, a quick group photo op and then the remaining few hours on trail back to the cars through the ever present fog. Fog added a pretty wicked cool element to the ski I must say. Bam. 7 hours away from the car, about 6 hours skiing and now off for coffee. This is the EPIC. Hopefully, pictures soon to follow.