Get psyched ... the ice climbing season is about to start

To whet your appetite, watch some Euros on Macho Direct ...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M26VUS-D6x0

Thankfully my snow depression has ended but ...

there may still be folks out there struggling with this issue; I hope Annie Pokorny's analysis will help.

Mount Van Hoevenberg Opened

I skated an easy 10k before heading to work, and maybe 10k more this afternoon!

Avalanche Awareness

Know Before You Go from Trent Meisenheimer on Vimeo.

Looking more wintry ...

More snow expected tonight, but the toll road was scratchy but skiable.

Getting a little anxious ...

Planning a March hut to hut ski trip in the Alps but it seems they are as bad, or maybe, even worse than the Northeast. This picture from Davos is pretty grim.

Nordic Skiing ... after the lifts close

A 45 minute classic workout by headlamp; about 7 kilometers and 800' vertical.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcCJ22jmXNk

Christmas reading

As always, the favored gifts for everyone in the family, were books. I have a lot of great reading to do.

Merry Christmas ...

The return of winter with ice forming on the lake.

Merry Christmas

The temperatures have started to drop, but at 48° it feels like a late September or October!

It was 60° but ...

Still skiing laps before the lifts open at Whiteface. We only did a 45 minute workout, as Lucy had a long day yesterday – an hour on snow and then a two hour rollerski.

How Nordic skiers survive in a bad winter

http://youtu.be/eXt2cc2J_p0

No snow but ...

Another good skate workout on the mixing bowl at Whiteface, the bottom GPS photo records my convoluted traverses.  It was 45 degrees, and I skied 6k with 400'+ vertical, in 40 minutes.

Apogee

Apogée - Memorial film for Andreas Fransson and JP Auclair from Bjarne Salén on Vimeo.

Hardly any snow so ...

I grabbed another book off the shelves and decided just to continue reading about skiing!

Whiteface toll road

Well a two hour ski up-and-down the toll road on 3 inches of snow certainly isn't orgasmic, however it was certainly better than all the other alternatives.

Brutal workout

40 minutes skating in very heavy wet, man-made snow on the mixing bowl at Whiteface ... Heart rate was way up and thought I might puke.

The Death Of Classic Skiing

Thought you would like this ...

NCS crag cabin

We had an overnight up here and the kids climbed all day in balmy 50° weather – unbelievable for the second week in December!

The Ski Whisperer

Click here to read the Outside magazine article

Nice ski by headlamp

Yesterday I did a nice 5k classic workout on the bunny slope at Whiteface ... the only game in town.

Ueli on the classic 1938 route again

click here to watch the short video

Blast from the Past ... Bill Koch the man who started it all

The Nordic skiing boom in America during the late 1970s, coincided with the running boom, as well as the the silver medal he won in the 30k race in Seefeld at the 1976 Olympics

Click here to watch a short clip from that race

More snowless winters in the Sierras?

Click here to read more

Another glimpse into Hock's library

This is the time of year - praying for snow - when I dip into my skiing related books. Novels like A MEDAL OF HONOR or THE SNOW GODS, and non-fiction titles like WILD SNOW or TWO PLANKS AND A PASSION claim my attention.

This morning I re-read the chapter about Nansen crossing Greenland on skis, and it reminded me that he was the first person to make a ski ascent of Whiteface shortly before World War I.

Another great ski tour

Whiteface Toll Road

A spectacular day!

Re-reading An Eye At The Top Of The World

I pulled Pete Takeda's book off my shelves. My memory was that the historical portion of the book was highly engaging, but that the account of this expedition was something of a snooze. Nevertheless it is mind-boggling that after all these years we still have no real idea of what the heck happened!

If you want to get a small taste of the book and this important cold war story, click on the link to read the magazine article.

http://www.coppworks.com/articles/RnIceTakeda156.pdf

Nice easy run

Just a short, relatively flat 5k, somewhere about 50 miles north of Thermopolis, Wyoming.

Ski Touring In The Bitterroots

A nice two hour ski tour to break up the five hour drive to have dinner with alumni.

Pretty chilly!

The legendary jackrabbit Johannsen

https://www.nfb.ca/film/jack_rabbit#temp-share-panel

WADA ... and another book off the library shelves

I pulled this terrific novel about biathlon off my shelves, and one of the central story lines was doping. Amazingly, by happenstance this re-reading corresponded with the recently released World Anti-Doping Agency report. Unfortunately the agency research is exactly like the fictional account.

The Night Shift

Doing laps with Lucy on skinny skis. If you are a Nordic racer, you gotta do what you gotta do, to get the mileage in.

The Dawn Patrol

Over two dozen people skinning up Whiteface by headlamp on Sunday morning.

Everything you need to know about Skimo skins

Click on the link below to view a great website and a wonderful summary.

http://www.skimolife.com/journal/2015/10/19/the-essential-climbing-skin.html

Skimo boots and climbing ... dual purpose

I was sold on this idea quite a few years ago when I met Dane in Chamonix, and saw all these Euros heading off to do laps on big ice routes in their dynafit boots. Lighter, smaller footprint, versatility ... what's not to like ... Often the price.

Click the link and head to the very useful Cold Thistle website:

http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2015/11/climbing-in-skimo-boots.html

Skinning up Whiteface

Thoughts On Thanksgiving ... a poem from Robinson Jeffers