Luddite
02-13-2004, 02:53 PM
Not to bum ya out Skilasnow but....
Hell bluebird, high 30s how could I not go? Performed exacto knife surgery on my cows last nite to get one more run out of them and besides,, it's Friday the 13th. The skin up was really different, this funny stuff on the ground - why it's corn! Indeed the shard of glass had melted enough on this aspect to actually much it around! I felt stoked. As I turned right on the trail to the summit I started looking at some of the shots off the backside, still mighty shiny, but my spirits held. So at the first summit the skimobile trail forks - take the left fork. From there the 32" inseam of my 5'10" body took exactly 103 skin strides to get to the trail head. On the left I could find the pink marker easily. Skins off, sliding in hmmm crunchy. Wore my Thor motocross knee/shin pads today, they're reallyl unobtrusuve once on and well there's a lot of rocks down there. The stuff I thinned and marked on Wednesday skied real nice. In these higher trees the snow was pretty soft and there's lots of lines left. I went up on the first bike jump and thought better of it. If you go up and are into it, be aware these jumps are made of sapling branches - round - so if they're not filled in with snow (like now) the ride is, well, interesting :)
Made it down to the place where it crosses the trail in one piece. You have to look a little bit to the right here to see the next pink marker, but you will, so I decided to do more thinning and marking on this next pitch. The first section is pretty low angle, tight and fun but not threatening. This next section is quite a bit steeper, depending what line you pick. I decided to take the top section in a long traverse, as the sound of ice falling over the crust as I broke though was disconcerting. My tracks are easy to find & follow. You will go right, then left and you'll start seeingi the pink markers again. The line they mark is kind of amorphous, but in general leave them to skier's left. Stop and look back up and you're gonna see lines that will speak to you, lot of possibilities. Some need some thinning, some I thinned today and some is wide open. This section is my favorite, I can't wait for some pow. You will see a place where I put markers on 2 trees like an entrance, then after a couple more turns the markers will disappear. If you look downhill you'll see the platforms of despair. I skied around them. The runout is narrower than I remembered. For a rush straightline it and when you go off the rock make sure you head towards the pointiest part to miss the other rock below it. After a brief tree section you will see where I markedd trees with 2 markers, one below the other. This is as far as I got today, and is where you should start skinning. Head left and you'll see the markers, then Moose S--- rock, a good place to put skins on. Shortly after this I ran out of markers, but it's easy, take your compass and follow a heading of around 207. It'll go from flat to steep and those lines below you are damned tempting. They're also a stream bed full of boulders and logs so watch it! Follow this heading, descending slightly and you'll come to the trail out. It'll probably be tracked heavily as it's a game trail (it was today). Duck under the tree and in around 200' you'll go a little uphill (the game tracks will probably go back down the ridge here). It's straightforward from here out. You'll intersect the snowmobile trail to the top in about 10 minutes. Take a left and follow. At the first left turn you'll see a house and the trail starts to climb. In 150' another snowmobile trail heads off to the right - this will bring you back to Uncanoonuc Gardens and is the fastest loop. It follows a stone wall for a lot of it's length. There are a few places where the snowmobilers went back up the mountain, just stay right and ignore them. Through out this whole skin back you're gonna see stuff you have to ski. It's like a candy store for turns, especially off the game trail. Both sides have good stuff, but ya gotta hike back up to thew game trail to get out. Sounds like no one's going Monday, but i may do some nooners next week, I'll let ya know...
Hell bluebird, high 30s how could I not go? Performed exacto knife surgery on my cows last nite to get one more run out of them and besides,, it's Friday the 13th. The skin up was really different, this funny stuff on the ground - why it's corn! Indeed the shard of glass had melted enough on this aspect to actually much it around! I felt stoked. As I turned right on the trail to the summit I started looking at some of the shots off the backside, still mighty shiny, but my spirits held. So at the first summit the skimobile trail forks - take the left fork. From there the 32" inseam of my 5'10" body took exactly 103 skin strides to get to the trail head. On the left I could find the pink marker easily. Skins off, sliding in hmmm crunchy. Wore my Thor motocross knee/shin pads today, they're reallyl unobtrusuve once on and well there's a lot of rocks down there. The stuff I thinned and marked on Wednesday skied real nice. In these higher trees the snow was pretty soft and there's lots of lines left. I went up on the first bike jump and thought better of it. If you go up and are into it, be aware these jumps are made of sapling branches - round - so if they're not filled in with snow (like now) the ride is, well, interesting :)
Made it down to the place where it crosses the trail in one piece. You have to look a little bit to the right here to see the next pink marker, but you will, so I decided to do more thinning and marking on this next pitch. The first section is pretty low angle, tight and fun but not threatening. This next section is quite a bit steeper, depending what line you pick. I decided to take the top section in a long traverse, as the sound of ice falling over the crust as I broke though was disconcerting. My tracks are easy to find & follow. You will go right, then left and you'll start seeingi the pink markers again. The line they mark is kind of amorphous, but in general leave them to skier's left. Stop and look back up and you're gonna see lines that will speak to you, lot of possibilities. Some need some thinning, some I thinned today and some is wide open. This section is my favorite, I can't wait for some pow. You will see a place where I put markers on 2 trees like an entrance, then after a couple more turns the markers will disappear. If you look downhill you'll see the platforms of despair. I skied around them. The runout is narrower than I remembered. For a rush straightline it and when you go off the rock make sure you head towards the pointiest part to miss the other rock below it. After a brief tree section you will see where I markedd trees with 2 markers, one below the other. This is as far as I got today, and is where you should start skinning. Head left and you'll see the markers, then Moose S--- rock, a good place to put skins on. Shortly after this I ran out of markers, but it's easy, take your compass and follow a heading of around 207. It'll go from flat to steep and those lines below you are damned tempting. They're also a stream bed full of boulders and logs so watch it! Follow this heading, descending slightly and you'll come to the trail out. It'll probably be tracked heavily as it's a game trail (it was today). Duck under the tree and in around 200' you'll go a little uphill (the game tracks will probably go back down the ridge here). It's straightforward from here out. You'll intersect the snowmobile trail to the top in about 10 minutes. Take a left and follow. At the first left turn you'll see a house and the trail starts to climb. In 150' another snowmobile trail heads off to the right - this will bring you back to Uncanoonuc Gardens and is the fastest loop. It follows a stone wall for a lot of it's length. There are a few places where the snowmobilers went back up the mountain, just stay right and ignore them. Through out this whole skin back you're gonna see stuff you have to ski. It's like a candy store for turns, especially off the game trail. Both sides have good stuff, but ya gotta hike back up to thew game trail to get out. Sounds like no one's going Monday, but i may do some nooners next week, I'll let ya know...