Skiing Moosliauke

Yesterday, Ben, Yeuhi, and I skied Moosliauke. There was a pretty decent amount of snow, and they picked up 5 inches or so in the last weather system Saturday.

 A bridge.

Yeuhi going up the Gorge Brook trail.

Ben after he lost his balance while digging out his gorp and fell upside down into that tree.

My goggles case.

Ben preparing to enter the wind tunnel.

Following Yeuhi up to the summit in low-vis. Also, my mitten.

Sorry for the bad photos. It was so windy we could barely stand up and got knocked over at least once.

Yeuhi in the trenches.

The lee of the summit rock.

We ripped skins (except Yeuhi) and poked cairn to cairn along to the south summit for a quarter mile of some of the most punishing conditions I've been in. 0 F and 40-60 mph wind. Sometimes I was snowplowing to resist the force of the wind.

Reentered the trees and got down onto the Carriage Road. Creamy first tracks up high, but it had seen probably half a dozen skiers for much of its mid-section. Still good snow and a lot of nice turns though.

Ben moonwalking.

The Dartmouth Outing Club's Ravine Lodge.

Skating out the Ravine Lodge Road back to the car.

Good timing for the ski out.

11.8 mi, 2700 ft of relief.

Skiing cardigan

For Christmas, our gift was snow, something we didn't see much of last year. On Friday, a bunch of us did the classic Cardigan Hat Trick (The Duke's, the Alexandria, and the Kimball ski trails in a day).

 
 Going up the Duke's.

 Hurry up guys, we're missing first tracks!

Our party got third tracks on the Duke's, then headed up to the top of the Alexandria after lunch.

Greg making it happen.

 

Never fear, Sammy the snow dog is on the way...

...to beg for food.

Rosie enjoying a typical wild Saturday night. (After she recovered from Cardigan.)

 

the blog's not dead, it's got odds and ends

Here are some (perhaps) blog-worthy pictures from the last few months.

 Sammy hiding under an end table.

Our apartment:
 

 

 

 

Best feature: pantry.

 

 

 

Because I am so cheap, here's an example of what it looks like when I retire a piece of gear: an utterly spent pair of bike shoes.
The bottom-left thread of the dogbone insert is stripped out and the screw got lost. On the other side, the dogbone is all warped out so the screws aren't parallel, and some of the threads are stripped there, too.

 

Shredded the right shoe open on the big ring of my old road bike.

 

 The tread blocks are worn down to nubs, no rubber left.

Christmastime: so many cookies.

So many cookies!

Next in the "Sammy helps" series: Sammy helps wrap presents!

 

Orange leaves and stuff

In case anyone thought the fun was over now that we're back in New England, I'm here to tell you that is not the case. For instance, last week I cleaned the condenser coils under the refrigerator. Before cleaning, it looked like someone has taken fiberglass insulation and rammed it in among the coils.

Before:


After: 

Woo, the road goes on forever and the party never ends.
But it could save a lot of electricity.


Also been mountain biking a lot in the town forest, just down the road. There is a model train setup in the woods called Martini Junction, built by someone in the neighborhood.

Mini martinis.

A typical exciting dinner:

My plate is on the left. Yes Mom, that is how much I eat when I am doing the cooking. I needed to carry it with two hands.

We usually have salad too though.


Sammy with a stick.

He really liked that stick. He carried it for more than a mile. Very unusual.

More mountain biking, with Erik.

 

A High Rock.

A tree. It's orange because it's fall.

Awwwww

This tree is a treasure.