We have had about 1.7 m or snow, and the skiing is just lovely. With all that snow, the brush is completely buried. You can go almost anywhere, so let's go skiing on the loop. This is a trail I broke out this winter. Since out here there are no groomed trails, you get to do it all yourself. The loop begins at home, of course. We have carved, with the ice axe, a place where I can clamber up on the snow. Our route lies off to the left of the picture, but first we must warm up.
And now I am on my warmup track. The track is the first thing I break out when the first snowfall comes. It goes around my back yard, so to speak. I go around the warmup track four times. In college, the track coach always made us do four laps to warm up. Vestigial memory. We pause at the far corner to see how the house is doing.
There is some buildup of snow where the chimney blocks the natural slope of the roof. Onward. We complete our laps, and branch off to the left of the first picture.
Now we are on the loop. We are headed roughly Southwest, up towards the ghost house. Notice the total absence of brush. It's all buried. Tough on the moose, but it is very nice for us. We now come to the first turn. In the woods, it is hard to ski in a straight line. There are always trees in the way. But this is the real SW corner of the loop. We pull off mittens so that we can operate the camera. Our hands freeze. No sacrifice too great for blog-land.
We note the downed birch at our right, hung up of course. Prime firewood candidate, and we may be able to get the tractor in there come spring. We are turning East, a longer leg of the loop. The leg looks a lot like the rest of the woods. But there are always interesting tracks. Maybe fox or weasel. Maybe even wolverine.
On we go. Eventually we can see Beryozova road. Halfway through now. Another left turn and we are running paralllel to Bery road. Going north now.
No tracks here. Too close for the road. Animals avoid us, and I don't blame them. So finally we get to the last left turn.
The house is but 200 meters away. Can't see it in the shot, center left. I had a shot of the final approach but deleted it by mistake. New interface to DigiKam. Not, in my opinion, entirely an improvement. Anyway, we do the 200m and we are home. It has taken us an hour, but it can be done with good snow in about 40 minutes. This time it took an hour, but we were taking pictures and pulling off mittens and the whole routine. Took a while longer. But the woods are really beautiful in deep snow. So you had a rest form the nanomill, and a nice ski in the woods.
And now I am on my warmup track. The track is the first thing I break out when the first snowfall comes. It goes around my back yard, so to speak. I go around the warmup track four times. In college, the track coach always made us do four laps to warm up. Vestigial memory. We pause at the far corner to see how the house is doing.
There is some buildup of snow where the chimney blocks the natural slope of the roof. Onward. We complete our laps, and branch off to the left of the first picture.
Now we are on the loop. We are headed roughly Southwest, up towards the ghost house. Notice the total absence of brush. It's all buried. Tough on the moose, but it is very nice for us. We now come to the first turn. In the woods, it is hard to ski in a straight line. There are always trees in the way. But this is the real SW corner of the loop. We pull off mittens so that we can operate the camera. Our hands freeze. No sacrifice too great for blog-land.
We note the downed birch at our right, hung up of course. Prime firewood candidate, and we may be able to get the tractor in there come spring. We are turning East, a longer leg of the loop. The leg looks a lot like the rest of the woods. But there are always interesting tracks. Maybe fox or weasel. Maybe even wolverine.
On we go. Eventually we can see Beryozova road. Halfway through now. Another left turn and we are running paralllel to Bery road. Going north now.
No tracks here. Too close for the road. Animals avoid us, and I don't blame them. So finally we get to the last left turn.
The house is but 200 meters away. Can't see it in the shot, center left. I had a shot of the final approach but deleted it by mistake. New interface to DigiKam. Not, in my opinion, entirely an improvement. Anyway, we do the 200m and we are home. It has taken us an hour, but it can be done with good snow in about 40 minutes. This time it took an hour, but we were taking pictures and pulling off mittens and the whole routine. Took a while longer. But the woods are really beautiful in deep snow. So you had a rest form the nanomill, and a nice ski in the woods.
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