Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sunny, 52°, and set tracks

It won't last too much longer, but this was hard to beat!

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Nice morning at Whiteface

Unfortunately, warming trend will quickly dispatch the recent foot of new snow. As a matter of fact, at 6am this morning it was 41 degrees.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

From the shelf of Hock’s Alpine Library

TRAINING FOR THE UPHILL ATHLETE has a terrific amount of useful information for trail runners, alpinists, and skimo racers.  Of course, it also has wonderful graphs, charts, and beautiful photographs. Perusing this the other day, made me realize - given recent PT experience - that I ought to read-read the sections on strength. 




Monday, March 25, 2024

Full moon setting over our farm

The return to winter brought another good training week. I logged just under 16 hours, on 124k (80k bike, 32k ski, 12k run), with 3750' vertical.  I also managed six PT stretching sessions, and two easy PT strength sessions for my shoulder. 





Sunday, March 24, 2024

The return of winter

Well, it's 2 degrees this morning; with a big bright full moon, and despite the storm underperforming, it looks and feels like mid-winter. Yesterday, I did a morning and afternoon ski tour, starting from our front door, out on to the 1980 biathlon trails.

Saturday, March 23, 2024

New issue of Skiing History

A great organization to belong too, with a superb digital archive, and a magazine you look forward to every other month. The cover art is from 1955, to advertise the recently opened Sugarloaf ski area in Maine. Among the interesting articles were the stories about Robert Redford and the Sundance ski area, a 100 year history of the FIS, and a look at an old advertisement about Wengen in the Swiss Alps.

Friday, March 22, 2024

Watching World Cup Bobsled

I just did my PT and two sessions on the exercise bike before and after several hours watching these folks cruise down at 80+ mph. I had a great time with a college buddy and his wife.

Thursday, March 21, 2024

BLAST FROM THE PAST … original jensen pack

This is an ad from Mountain #27 (May 1973); I still have two of these packs, the expedition model with beefy snap on side pockets, and the smaller model for several overnights. Still use them, although zippers have had to be replaced.

Super comfortable carrying loads.

Don’t Put Those Skis Away Yet!

In addition to the 3-4 inches we got in the past few days, more is coming.



Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Yesterday was the best ski of the season

Terrific conditions; hard pack base with two inches of powder on top … it was glorious. Today will be my 100th day on snow this season, and conditions should be just as good.

Monday, March 18, 2024

A good training week

Last week I logged over 16 hours, and just under 4400' vertical, on 127k (91k bike, 20k ski, and 16k run). I also managed four PT stretch sessions, and two mornings of alpine skiing, but sadly no strength sessions.

And the second picture!

The next is from my hour-long workout on Sunday, at the Mount Van Hoevenberg World Cup competition trails, next door to our farm.

A tale of two pictures

The first is my 1.25k warmup on Sunday with Stash, around the perimeter of our farm's pasture.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Jessie Diggins wins final race of the season and the crystal globe

Fantastic 20k race, with a dominant performance going wire to wire!





Friday, March 15, 2024

Thursday, March 14, 2024

It’s not trail running season yet, but it’s coming soon!

This video will help you get back into the swing of things after a long winter of skiing.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Backcountry skiing is wonderful but it is dangerous

A backcountry skier died in a fall this week in Tuckermans Ravine, and then this death out west.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/us/oregon-avalanche-forecaster-killed.html




Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Beautiful day and plenty of snow

Ski tour on the Whiteface toll road.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Still snowing and blowing

Snow accumulation continues to underperform; although it certainly looks and feels like winter. With Mount Van Hoevenberg off limits due to the Junior Nationals, the Whiteface toll road looks to be the go to alternative.

On a related note, given that last week looked more like late April, rather than early March, I did manage a decent week of training. I logged just under 16 hours, on 138k (114k bike, 19k run, 5k ski), with 2800'. I also managed five PT stretch sessions, two mornings alpine skiing, and one strength session.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Well it looks like winter again

However, the storm has underperformed so far, hoping to pick up a few more inches tonight. 



Saturday, March 9, 2024

I skied at Whiteface yesterday but …

I continue to add some transition activities into my training. Although I hope the potential winter storm this weekend out performs expectations, and prolongs our ski season.

Friday, March 8, 2024

Another book from Hock’s alpine library

A cultural history of the changing way humans have viewed mountain landscapes over the past 300+ years.  It was shortlisted for both the Boardman Tasker, and The Banff Mountain Literature awards. 




Thursday, March 7, 2024

Hard to imagine …

It's early March and there are not even patches of snow in our cow pasture!

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Glaciers continue to retreat and vanish

This of course has promoted new marketing opportunities in terms of "last chance tourism."




First day back on my mountain bike

The ski season is not over, but the collegiate clubs are having their nordic ski championships at Mount Van Hoevenberg, and so exercise options were a bit limited.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

More sad news for northeastern skiers

Yesterday's data point was about precipitation - basically rain - and todays data point is for warmer than normal temperatures. So, we are probably looking at a March without natural snow, and a March without snow making, as well as a March where accumulated snowpack is melting not growing. YUCK. 





Monday, March 4, 2024

Another grim data point for northeastern skiers






Yesterday was my 90th day on snow this season

My soft tissue, foot injury - from last week's race - is slowly getting better, and I was able to do a 50 minute ski session without ibuprofen, for the first time this week. 

On a related note, despite the injury I was able to do a good bit of pain free, low level training on the exercise bike. So, l logged 15.5 hours, on 174k (154k bike, 17k ski, 3k run), with 2000' vertical. I did four PT and one strength session.





Sunday, March 3, 2024

Mountaineering Fiction

A short overview by George Pokorny found while perusing some old issues of the British Alpine Club Journal. (I have many of the volumes cited in this article in my collection.)

Saturday, March 2, 2024

The Valentine House … an excellent novel set in the French Alps

This is a multi-generational saga, starting with "Sir A" one of the founding members of the British Alpine Club; over the next 100 years, all the action takes place at the summer compound (Arete) overlooking the Hext valley, near Chamonix. Climbing and hiking are tangential; the central focus are the mountains and the relationships between the Upper class English (in the patois referred to as the "rostbifs"), and the peasant guides and house staff (the women are referred to as "the uglies").  Enclosed below is an excerpt from the book review in the 2017 edition of the Alpine Club (page 376).

The Valentine House
Emma Henderson
Sceptre, 2017, pp338, £18
This is a novel in love with place. From the lascivious descriptions of the French Alps in the startling open pages to the lingering evocations of the high farms and pastures of Haute Savoie, it is clear Henderson relishes these landscapes. It is in Arete, the Valentine mountain holiday retreat that a story spanning a century plays out.





Friday, March 1, 2024

More data northeastern skiers won’t be happy about



From my antique mountain postcard collection

A postcard from Chamonix, depicting guides and clients heading to the Col de Geant.
I am looking forward to my trip to Chamonix with Selden in October. I won't be leading her on a tour of that glacier, but she will get to see it from the Aiguille du Midi.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

The Swiss And Their Mountains: a study of the influence of mountains on man

I am reading a few chapters of this - quite academic - book  by Arnold Lunn on the internet, but mostly just enjoying the reproductions of paintings and engravings.  This is an oil painting by Calame of the Wetterhorn.




Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Jan Reynolds … climber, biathlete, ski mountaineer, and guide

The Glass Summit, is the newest edition - autographed - to my alpine library.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Monday, February 26, 2024

A good race but …

Any time the evening before a race, you get an email suggesting race volunteers wear nanospikes, and racers go into their basement and dig out those old 1990 fishscale touring skis … you know there will be some sketchy sections! However, many thanks to Mike Battisti and his volunteer crew.

On a different note, with another race this weekend, my training totals were again, modest. I logged just under 13 hours, and just under 2500', on 121k (87k bike, 31k ski, and 3k run). I also managed a morning of alpine skiing and five sessions of PT stretching. The upcoming week looks like it will be slim indeed, given my foot injury.

Adirondack TdS

A Herculean effort by the staff to pull this race off.

With three straight days of temperatures in the 40s and then two nights of zero degree weather … it was an icefest. Blew my mind that people were on race gear, I opted for backcountry fishscale setup. Good to see some folks.

My goal was to stay on my feet - which I did - but somehow with a misstep I pulled something in my ankle. I will be off snow for awhile.

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Another book off my shelf

Some great photos from Jimmy Chin on Everest, and a gripping account of skiing down the Lhotse face of Everest. (This is the face that the Japanese skier - Miura - fell down in the 1970s).

Any way you look at it, skiing the seven summits is pretty impressive.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

A wonderful 90 minutes at Whiteface

I grabbed the first lift, and had wonderful corn snow for an hour, which rapidly turned to slush in the next half hour. Still, the best morning I had riding lifts this season.

Friday, February 23, 2024

Porter Mountain Loop


A wonderful ski but suffering these past few days of sun and mid-40 degree temperatures.










Great day out skiing Porter Mountain Loop

I think it's been a couple of seasons since I skied this iconic 1980 Olympic race course.

Thursday, February 22, 2024

On the agenda for this weekend

Of course, hopefully the forecasted warm weather, will still allow this race to proceed.






Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Putting this skimo event on my schedule

I had a good time last year. 





WEAK LAYERS … a ski comedy video

Now streaming on Prime Video and AppleTV following its theatrical release, follows three Lake Tahoe-based women on a hilarious quest to win a prestigious ski film competition in hopes of carving out their spot in the ski industry.



Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Fiction added to my Alpine Library in the past decade

My collection of mountain fiction has always been robust, however, in no particular order during the past decade I have added: Murder On Skis, The Fall, The Sound Of Gravity, Where Blood Runs Cold, La Patrouille, Cham, Electric Brad, Mer De Glacé, One By One, Aspen Pulp, An Afterclap Of Fate, Murder On The Matterhorn, Hazard's Way, The God Of Skiing, Madog Mountain, Surfing The Himalayas, The Longest Fall, Peak, and The Ski Bum. While most of these make no pretensions about great literature, a few have received attention from Boardman-Tasker and Banff Festival award committees.

Monday, February 19, 2024

Stratton Mountain Skimo race

Yesterday I traveled to Vermont for the second event, in the Stratton Skimo series. It was a small field of 25 racers with a couple of certified hotshots in spandex and lightweight racing gear. I was the fourth skier to top of the course (an 850' climb), and then passed by a couple on the downhill, so I finished sixth.

I spent the evening relaxing with a college buddy and his wife who have a house in Manchester. Wearing my Skimo Shirt awarded for being the oldest racer.

As for my previous week's training, it was lower volume as I tried to recover from the previous three hard weeks, and the start of a new round of PT for my shoulder. I logged just under 14 hours, just over 4500', and 106k (75k bike, 25k ski, 6k run). I also did five PT stretching sessions, one strength workout, and a morning alpine skiing.

Minneapolis World Cup delivers

This was the first time a nordic World Cup has been in America in 23 years, and our athletes delivered, and the two day event drew huge crowds. (My daughter flew out to meet up with dozens of her former collegian racers to cheer the Americans on.)

And of all the good results, the most unexpected was an American man winning the 10k.





Sunday, February 18, 2024

80th day on snow this season

Yesterday was my 80th day skiing this season, and it was a good one at Mount Van Hoevenberg.  Today I am heading out to meet a college buddy and do a skimo race at Stratton.