Western Land Use

An excellent short essay ...

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/02/opinion-lands-fight-utah-symbolism/

Power still out ...

The rain-sleet-heavy snow brought down all kinds of trees.

Power Outage for the past 13 hours ...

and still no word when it will be back. However, the temperatures dropped we got several inches of snow, and it looks like winter again.

Definition of a hayseed ...

But beautiful and intelligent despite her outfit for chores!

Vintage Adirondack Posters

Nordic World Championships ...

What a great start for the USST; silver and bronze medals in the sprints.

Still skiing but ...

The sugaring season has started!

Stockpiling snow

Several days of very warm temperatures are reducing the snowpack. And although all 50k are tracked they postponed the loppet. I assume there are concerns about the junior nationals next week. So, they are making snow 24/7 to be sure they have reserves for the junior nationals. This is the second or third pile so far that is roughly 40 feet long and 15 feet high.

Ode to klister ...

Klister signals the coming of spring and the end to winter. Klister is messy as hell and hard to get off your skis and hands. Klister needs your body heat (arm pit, groin, or stomach) to help spread it on your skis out in the field. However, there is nothing faster than blue klister and no kick more bombproof than red klister.

Make sure you have a good supply of hand cleaner!

Middlebury Winter Carnival

A short video about Saturday's team sprints; Lucy gets a quick start and has a good day.

http://vimeo.com/204755982

Skimeister

This week we had the 34th annual intermural competition. When the school started in 1938 skiing was a much simpler sport. Whether you cross-country skied, ski jumped, ran slalom gates, or tucked a downhill course, you always used the same set of gear. And so if you raced you were a four event skier.

To pay homage to this concept, we always take one day in February to be outside on her skis and snowboards all day. We always hold an informal nordic and biathlon race, set up a small slalom course, and do some freestyle jumping. The bronze – silver – gold medals are chocolate chip cookies, as you can see in the picture below.

Fantastic. View from Fairhope Farm

Skiing Mount Marcy

One of my trustees came over with some buddies to take advantage of the awesome new snow ... unfortunately I had to work.

Spectacularly beautiful 90 seconds

Skimeister

Back in the old days, ski racers competed in four events. For the past 34 years at NCS we honor that tradition with a skimeister intramural competition and celebration of winter ... Nordic, biathlon, slalom, and freestyle events.

A ski profile of Lucy

India, one of Lucy's buddies at SLU is a film major.  She also gets paid by EISA to do the weekly video summaries of the college carnivals.  This profile was done as one of her course requirements.

Artist residencies in the wilderness

Excellent article ... https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/02/get-paid-make-art-public-lands/

Winter Olympics ... one year away

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/travel/pyeongchang-south-korea-skiing-2018-winter-olympics.html?hpw&rref=travel&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Another good weekend for Lucy

In the 3x5k skate relay she had the 12th fastest leg of all collegians. In the classic 5k on Saturday she finished 22nd, closer to the big dogs than in the past, so it may have been very good for her USSA points.

How do we convince climate change deniers?

An excellent short essay ... bottom line ... Changing hearts and minds about climate change is not about the facts, it is about the values.

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/02/trouble-climate-change-truths-dont-like/

Climate Change Is Real, Not A Chinese Hoax

https://vimeo.com/198306286

The sagebrush rebellion continues

https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/02/outdoor-industry-flexes-muscle-utah-public-lands/

History of bouldering grades

http://www.climbing.com/news/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-bouldering-grades/

UVM Winter Carnival Sprints

Campus tour and ski hill laps with my AT gear

OLD SCHOOL ... skiing the way it was almost 70 years ago ... Mad River Glen

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_SqK9OJyrHo&ebc=ANyPxKr6h59NmOuR7LiovArh60iNh9jFlmtaQGgdFSF172W_tx6E-10cuVP4pHk8-NSbXeUb9NIikz7ctN-buaNoOpYcwt-_jw

UVM Winter Carnival ... Lucy takes 5th

Here she is wining her quarterfinal heat.

Michael Franklin and Mike Brochu ... BLAST FROM THE PAST

Now, almost 40 years ago!

Old Mountain Road

Trying to run once a week so that the transition in the spring won't be so painful.