Ski day. I got up early and drove up to Tony Grove with Ben, Dave, and Jon to do a few backcountry runs. The road to Tony Grove was a lot more rutted and in worse condition than on Sunday, and my Forester barely made it. My tires are worn and I don't have chains, but it managed to get the job done (with a little pushing help from my three passengers). Temperature of 7 degrees when we finally started skinning up, but it quickly warmed up to the point where I was sweating. It was a perfect bluebird day. We did a couple runs, and they generally went well, aside from an unneccesary tumble on my first run. The snow was inverted, in that a dense layer from Monday was on top of a lighter layer from Saturday. The cold last night wicked away the moisture in the top couple inches of snow, so the very top was powdery. The end result was riding very high in the snow, and overall fast skiing condititions. It took me a few turns to adjust to that. What makes skiing so interesting is that every day the snow is a little bit different, so the same run is always different on different days. Made it back down the road afterwards without getting stuck or veering off a cliff. The road has about had for the year (it will close soon), and my tires have about had it too. Back to running tomorrow. | 