Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Woke up to a pleasant surprise: 6" of new snow on the ground in town, when the forecast had called for maybe an inch if we were lucky.

So, naturally new snow! presented the opportunity for some most excellent...Yowsa!--and the conditions really were nice, with the fluffy, dry new snow, sunshine, and no wind. Nothing wrong with wind, but it's really better for Yowsa! if the wind restrains itself for a bit.

This picture shows conditions pre-Yowsa!, with the favored Yowsa! implementation device prominently featured:

From publiken

C • Yowsa! 6

Went up skiing late-ish in the afternoon, and found the parking lot was still quite a mess. A Forest Service mini dozer with blower was there and had partly cleared the lot, there was a jackknifed trailer in the lot, there was a sheriff's deputy in the road directing traffic, the highway itself was mostly ice, and a whole bunch of cars were parked on the dirt road across the highway since it wasn't possible to get into the parking lot.

The trails were soft from all the new snow, but they had been rolled and also corduroy had been laid down. There were about as many skiers skiing after sunset as there were while it was still light, maybe because people (somehow) found out about the parking situation and so came up late. With the moon out, visibility on the trails was plenty good without a light.

Not cold today, somewhat offset up top by very generous helpings of wind, which was effortlessly filling in the parking lot with snow drifts. A good day for 4 wheels of drive! Anyway, so not cold, but thanks to Sir Wind, not warm either. Snow had a greasy feel to it, and was on the faster side of the spectrum, considering overall the trails were still a bit soft with the newer snow.

It always seems like there are fewer skiers out on MLK Day than there should be, and I guess that's because while it's officially a holiday, for many people it's not a holiday. Sometimes I think I need to get more up to speed on holidays, like which ones are real, and which ones are just for show, and so on. And what about stuff like Canadian holidays? Do they even count at all, and if they do, how would you figure out when they occur? Man, the world is so complicated!

C • Canadians 7

5 o-clock day!

Conditions at Happy Jack were toppermost. Skied half the time with Tyler and another half the time just with me. By dusk, the parking lot had been reduced to 3 vehicles (a snow biker, another skier, and me), and driving home in the dark on the interstate, it was pitch dark except for my headlights all the way form the Summit down into the valley. That never happens unless the Broncos are playing. Or else if the interstate has been closed down both at Cheyenne and at Laramie--which proved to be the close. Must have been wreckage to the east, because the stretch of interstate between the Summit and town was almost completely dry with no ice.

Gusto! winds made for gusto skiing today. And nothing wrong with that--too many days in a row without wind in SE Wyoming, and something begins to feel off, like something is wrong but you don't know what it is. I think I-80 closed in the early evening because of blowing snow and ice (probably causing wrecks which led to the closure.)

Skied in great conditions. Light snow started falling in mid-afternoon, and was falling more at a medium rate for most of the 2+ hours I was out. It was a perfect rate, since it wasn't so heavy that the trails were becoming too deep in new snow to skate through, nor were you gagging on the snow as you breathed. So already very good conditions became even better!

Skiing in nice conditions (meaning the wind was up) in daylight and running afterwards in moonlight--not much more needs to be added to that.

C • two questions 4

Intervals on Summit Loop (x6) followed by sum easy runnin' on the snow bike trails. It really makes more sense to call them snow bike trails rather than snow shoe trails, since the snow bikers totally dominate the usage count. And I may be the sole person running on them most of the time.