Training Log Archive: jima

Skiing at Gunstock with my Ben. Well, met up with him at a few spots out there - I was having fun trying to go fast.
Reasonable early season conditions - some thin spots, and stuff churned up by the groomer. Oak had been rolled after the first snow, but not touched after the additional 3" - still light enough to move through easily.
They updated the trail map with a more artistic presentation similar to the downhill map. It looks like they got the trail layout right, hopefully pulled in from the trail map I've done for them in years past. On a couple of the trails high up on the N side of Cobble that are seldom groomed, they show a cut through the trees, but no trail or trail name - a good way to handle them.

Event: UNO: Beaver Brook meet & meeting
 

Long ski-o at Beaver Brook. Very nice course courtesy of Lex.
First part on a trail that the association had had to drive a trick down to place a porta-potty for the winter- Left 2 nicely spaces track suitable for snowshoeing or skiing along on, with a big band of deep between. That is, until it went down a swooping hill, where it had some more icy and chunky sections. Come folks coming up and I took the safe method of drop down on my butt rather than faceplant.
Ernst had gone out shortly before me - so although others had broken trail in recent days on snowshoes and skis, I had fresh track as an indicator of what the preferred route might be....
This was skiing like what I did as a kid - twisty, turning trails through the woods, uneven snow surface, deep snow on either side to complicate poling, tough uphills with catching ski tips on trees and bushes, then exhilarating (terrifying) downhills (keep balanced on your skis, don't try to snowplow, very quick step turns).
Long steep uphill - this will be a struggle to get up on skis, looks firm enough to hold me, let's bareboot up it. Wrong decision - it wasn't firm enough to hold me, just enough to have a hesitation before punching through, then have to drag my foot back up again. Skis back on at the next semi-flat spot and do the best you can on the next steep pitch.
Well attended and folks having a blast out there - glad I chimed in a convinced Lex to not cancel.
Ernst got me by about 7 minutes and I got Jonas Martner by 28 seconds. Ernst was skiing on a pair of 160s (versus my classic 210s) and Jonas was on skate skis. Young Tim Martner was another 4 minutes or so back - that whole family's enthusiasm is infectious,

C • 1:10:00 3

And then the UNO annual meeting - a small core group. Some good discussion, with different folks chiming in that we were off track and can we move on to the next agenda topic.
Somehow ended up saying I'd be Numero UNO again, and no one felt strongly that they'd rather hold the reins of power, such as they are.

4-5" of partially packed down white stuff. Been a while since I've run on snow - similar to running on sand, but not quite as much drag.
Calm and peaceful out there.