Hooray For Skis

I had a ski-tastic weekend, my second in a row in fact. Now, if we could only manage to keep the snow during the week somehow?

Thursday night we were somewhat surprised with an inch and a half of very fluffy snow. It made for a beautifully picturesque evening for Robin and my date night. Friday was warm though, and much of that got sticky. But at times I can be a skiing fool, so I went out to Ashton anyways. One other skiing fool had made tracks there earlier that day, but the conditions were really not that good. There was either light snow over sheets of ice or light snow with a healthy portion of grass peaking through. I spent fifteen or so minutes skiing around the course trying to find the sweet spots. I ended up just staying on the south side near the trees going back and forth, working on form and glide for about an hour. It was not great, but it was surprisingly satisfying.

Sometime early Saturday morning we got some more snow. This little storm truly was a surprise. It brought about two inches or so. So our local trails now had three and a half inches of snow over blocks of ice. Steve and I drove up to the MNRA thinking it would be groomed, but it was not. No worries though, for we brought our classic skis too. The temps were great, but it made for very sticky snow. Our skis seemed to either be caked with snow, or getting no grip. I think I can say that it was the most frustrating ski of the year. Slightly more frustrating than Friday's. But that said, it was a truly amazing day. We skied some great trails, found the nice spots, and we both managed to stay upright on the super steep and dangerously icy downhills.

Sunday did not bring more snow. I was going to go checkout Ashton, but we got word from the Eppens that the Reservoir was in great shape. So Steve and I headed back up north for some flat, but truly great, classic skiing. Here is how happy I was.

Note: photo property of bikeiowa (I suggest you go there, because there are lots of others too).

The skiing was great. We went out to the spillway that I vaguely recall crossing on my bike many years ago. The whole ski was about fifteen minutes shy of four hours. I plugged our route into a map. The whole ski was a hair over 16 miles.

It started snowing heavily right before we got back to the car. It continued for many hours and left us with 8 inches of fluffy goodness. Monday though, brought us some brief thunderstorms, but many inches still remain. So there will be more skiing. And word is brewing of a possible 6 to 10 inches Tuesday night. Think snow.