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.



Children’s mystery book about skiing in the Alps

I was doing some research on Zermatt and St Moritz on the internet archive digital library, and started reading this gem. Probably good for a 3-6th grader, so if my grandson Dave really takes to skiing in the next couple of years, maybe this will be under the Christmas tree for him soon.





Saturday, February 17, 2024

Best Toll Road tour of the season

A hard packed base covered with 2-3 inches of new powder. It was windy, so the single track was mostly covered over, and I was often breaking trail.

The flurries continue today, so it feels like winter is back.

Thursday, February 15, 2024

Skimo sanctioned races

If you are doing an ISMF or a USSMA sanctioned events these are three critical pieces of gear that will be checked.

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Taking another book off my alpine shelf

Just the other day I spent the cocktail hour perusing TRACKING THE WILD COOMBA: the life of legendary skier doug coombs. So many great stories from east coast, to the Rockies, on to Alaska, and of course, La Grave in the Alps.

Enclosed below is a good one … skiing off piste, but with racing bib and binoculars in hand, so he wouldn't miss his start on the D1 college racing circuit.

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

It is February and I haven’t done a single Jackrabbit Trail tour.

Lots of skiing at Mount Van Hoevenberg on manmade loops, and Whiteface, skinning at Gore, as well as touring on Scott's Cobble. But, I am really missing the backcountry options. (However, I am enjoying this poster which I won at a raffle at NCS, after Tony Goodwin gave his slideshow on the history of the Jackrabbit Trail.)

Monday, February 12, 2024

Another antique postcard from my collection

This 1939 print was inspired by the famous schuss of the headwall at Tuckermans Ravine, by Toni Matt at the Inferno Race.

On a different note, despite the continuing poor winter we are having, I had a productive training week. I logged 159k (108k bike, 42k ski, 9k run), with 5500' vertical, on just under 16 hours. I also managed one strength workout, one morning alpine skiing, and another morning skinning laps.

Sunday, February 11, 2024

BACK AGAIN … last skier standing

It usually lasts for 60+ hours, before the winner emerges!




When I am too old to bag peaks …

Then I will hopefully still be able to haul my carcass up to spend a night in the alpine zone.  So, these are on my bucket list to visit, and/or revisit. (Check out the website, it's a good one.)





Friday, February 9, 2024

Skinning laps at Gore

Warm, excellent grooming, and a bluebird day made for a wonderful morning, with just under a total of 2000' vertical. Maybe next trip, I'll also bring nordic gear and do some laps at the adjacent nordic center.