Very snow, such wow

S. New England going off

This has been a wild winter. Powder skiing on a local hit we never would have expected to have snow like this. Historic snowpack--if you're ever going to ski some of this stuff, do it now. Alex and I made it out of town on the morning of the fourth major storm in a short succession to take many short laps on a small mountain.

First ones into the parking lot (which, amazingly, the town plows out even during storms). I am standing on top of an 8 foot high snowbank as Alex step into his skis in a little ground blizzard.

Not meant to be a crotch shot...just a photo of over-the-knee snow depths. 

 Doesn't look like much, but this little cut in the woods was good for thousands of feet of skiing. You play the cards you're dealt; go where the snow falls.

 Although it could have, of course, used a few more thousand feet of vert, this is about as good as tree skiing gets.

Jackson 2: 25 Short

Another highlight of the recent Jackson trip was skiing 25 Short again. Although we didn't get the phenomenal views of last time (photos here...1, or 2, or 3), the rotten snow we had last time was a distant memory. This was among the best 2500 feet of skiing I've experienced.

Mark skinning up.

The snow is really working in our favor here.

 After a couple hours of climbing, we were up against our time limits, and near the top anyway, so we ripped skins and skied. Thanks to Mark for the next three photos.

Excellent light powder.  

 As Mark reminded us, this snow was about 5% water and 95% air, so this is as close as you can come to flying without wings.

 BOOM--documented face shot for Rosie.

Rosie skiing. Thanks for the video, Mark.

 Mark smiling the smile of a man with 1500 feet of powder still below him.

Mark's video of Pat:

 Shit eatin' grin!

 Rosie, either wrestling an alligator or skiing thigh deep pow.

 Pow.

 Mark skiing it out.

Jackson 1: Return to Shadow Mountain

After wildly stressful days, Rosie and I made it to Jackson on Christmas Eve! The day after Christmas we got out on skis, meeting up with MITOC friends Aaron and Anna. We skied up and down Shadow Mountain, a memorable mountain, as this is where we got engaged two years before. I've also mountain biked up and down on two other occasions.

It was really pretty.

 Meadows for meadowskipping, which we did on the way down.

 Still very pretty. Buck at left, Nez Perce, the Grand, and to Teewinot at right.

 The final push to the craggy, alpine summit of formidable Shadow Mountain.

 We skied, cutting down our many switchbacks through perfect, cold, 4% powder. It was perfect--we could basically point our skinny skis straight down, lean back, and enjoy. After about 1500 feet of descent, we popped out to the valley flats, and kicked and glided back to the car.

Summer of 2014 blog drop

Again, clearing the decks for the true purpose of this blog: skiing.

Summer of 2014 happened. The earth was farther from the sun, but the angle of its axis of rotation with respect to the sun caused longer days, shorter nights, and greater insolation--thus higher than average temperatures--here in the northern hemisphere. It was remarkable three months, indeed.

Speaking of seasonal changes in solar exposure, here is a great chart: it shows the azimuth and elevation of the sun above the horizon during its daily path across the sky.

source: http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/needham-massachusetts.html

The summer solstice is represented by the curve at top, in green, showing the sun rising at an azimuth of about 55 deg and 5:08, and setting at 305 deg at 20:25. At the other extreme is the winter solstice, where the sun traverses only 120 deg across the horizon and rises less than 30 deg up. Meanwhile, the equinox is in grey. At noon on the equinox, the sun is (90 - 42) deg above the horizon because we are at 42 deg above the equator. 

Interestingly, note that the sun rises to its highest elevation about 45 min after noon in the spring and summer, and just after noon in the fall and winter (see green and purple dots, which are labeled with clock times).

Edward R Tufte would flipping love this graphic.

Other things happened too:

Mountain biking at Adams Farm, Walpole.

 Hiking Speckled Mountain, in the Caribou Speckled Mountain Wilderness.

 Rosie is known to be shy.

 Kezar Lake at left, Pleasant Mtn a few miles beyond that.

Rosie and Sammy sharing a moment at camp Wallace...

 One of Sammy's distant cousins at the Squam Lake Science Center.

 Rosie, Greg, Kristina and I built a deer skeleton. Ah, so many memories.

 A mountain lion, or puma, or catamount...

More mtn biking, at Hale Reservation.

Sunset at Ridge Hill Reservation.