Conditions HH — We skied Sunday in the rain! It was OK. Tuesday night, 5 of us hiked while it was snowing. The base is still there (about 1-3″) and we got another 2-3″ last night … so it is skiable just barely right now. Some places the base is worse, like the snowmobile trails and the fireroads. But the woodsy less traveled trails are nicer. We may try skiing Thursday night! I’ll post another note tomorrow morning. Photos here. I forgot to take one this morning (wed), but you can see the base from Monday’s pic - we did not loose too much of that base before the powder hit. Most recent photo is always at the end of this album: http://picasaweb.google.com/michael.ludgate/SnowPicsForCanaanInstituteOutdoorBLOGBikeSkiGroup#5415079774611458546

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Sunday morning March 15th 2009. Click on the photo for a larger image. This was up on porcupine ridge. That is the north south running ridge east of and parallel to Hammond Hill ridge … there is very little snow left in the open areas where the sun hits, however.

From BikeSki Outings

The last few outings we have been hiking on top of the frozen snow pack with yak trax. If you live in town it is hard to believe that there is still snow “in dem dar hills”. But it is still here! I would not recommend skiing on it, but it is here. Below is a pic from last night; up on porcupine ridge. The temp now as I write Friday morning is +12 F

From BikeSki Outings

Mike and Marilyn snow shoed on Tuesday night from Canaan Rd with 3 dogs.  We went up the sauna trail and took the snow mobile trail to Red Man Run.  There is still full coverage except for a very few south facing spots. In areas along side the drainage ditch along RMR, we could see that there is still well over a foot of base.  The base is hard with a 1/2 inch of powder on top.  I wouldn’t recommend skiing but if we get a few inches it should be skiable again soon.    It was 10 deg. F when we finished up around 8:15 pm.

From Snow Pics for Canaan Institute Outdoor BLOG - BikeSki Group

Despite the vast patches of brown, mushy grass in town with occasional remants of snow plow piles of white, there is still full coverage at Hammond Hill.   While Brenda reported that conditions were near perfect on Tuesday, I can’t say the same for tonight.  You could still get a good ski on soft snow in the woods, but the open trails were setting up after being in the sun all day.   Brenda, Pam, Steve, Mike, Raylene, Cindy, Marilyn and 3 dogs skied up the sauna trail, down R1. When we hit Red Man run, Marilyn was havin sock malfunctions and turned back with Mike for a fast ski down Red man. The rest of the group took y5 to y7 and got in about 15 minutes after we did.  They said it was good in the woods except for one bare patch at the bottom of y7.  Pam has been coaching through some more interesting photo poses. Notice that we spelled out M-I-K-E with the skis. With temps forecast upwards of 50 on Friday but around freezing on the weekend, conditions may suffer.

We were thinking what a great winter it has been. Many, many outings, sometimes in sub zero weather with no gear failures, not even a headlamp! Well last night, Murphy noticed us and attempted to make up for it …

Six of us gathered at the workshop, got our gear together, adjusted our headlamps and layers then started to head out. We had Tammi, Pam, Anne, Dan, myself and David who was a few minutes late. David was excited to test his new back country, light weight tele gear …

We crossed the long skinny 10-feet-up-in-the-air snow covered bridge (you can see it it the snow pics). And started a meandering route up the hill across the private land (our ‘back forty’) … David stopped to adjust his new bindings … I waited … he said “no worries, I’ll catch up” …

At the top of the ‘back forty’ hill near the sauna we paused for a bit. Anne took this as opportunity to help Tammi with her skis. The temperature had dropped considerably and her wax wasn’t right. Anne applied some softer kicker, so Tammi could make it up the big hill with out total exhaustion. David finally showed up as we were wondering where he might be. He was wearing different skis! His new gear had failed him … well the bindings were not adjusted right … rather than trying to do that in the 18 degree cold and dark, he put on his other pair of skis.

We all started up the big hill … David was fussing with his 2nd pair of skis as we headed up. Same conversation occured “I’ll catch up” I gave it no further thought - he always does.

At the top of the big hill we paused where we usually do before the long flat haul along porcupine ridge. I counted the headlamps … hmm one missing. David again. OK, let’s wait (we always do, it is sort of our group motto) … we waited and waited … no headlamp .. we waited … we grew impatient (well I did) … We decided to ski back a little an holler … no answer. I dug out my cell phone and called him: just voicemail. We talked about it some more and decided we would all ski back and find him … hopefully not lying in the woods with a busted leg!

We found him at the top of the back forty between the igloo and the sauna, walking. His 2nd set of skis had failed, he was walking home. He had tried to call me but could not get a signal and then lost his cell phone in the snow. [ that reminds me; we should carry more of those walkie talkies I have for BikeSki)! ] … David was ready to give up skiing … not just for the night “for good” … but we convinced him to walk back to the workshop where I found him a pair of skis that fit his boots.

No one wanted to climb ’sauna hill’ twice … so we went up Canaan Road and climbed Y7 and came back down the same way just for the fun of it. The skiing was excellent!

So now we have had all our gear failures for the ski season in one night all on one guy … better luck next outing David, if you are still skiing?? -m

We have more fresh powder! A group of us skied last night and it was awesome! More powder this morning. Get out and ski!

From Snow Pics for Canaan Institute Outdoor BLOG - BikeSki Group

Still plenty of snow. The warmer days and cooler nights are causing the base to crust up a bit … so the downhills are bit scary. Steve, Dan, Bianca and I did a loop to the radio tower last night. There was still enough powder stuff on the frozen base for a nice glide on the flats.

From BikeSki Outings

Having a whole day to ski I decided to venture off my usual routine and drove to Bear Swamp. I saw only two other skiiers, there was a ton of snow, it was cold and crisp but not crusty..so much fun to see some different trails. I parked at the Iowa Road spot and it was an about an hour drive from downtown Ithaca. The trails were all well marked and lots of nice loop options! Back to the kitchen!

Laurie Roe

We have some fresh powder at Hammond Hill this morning. Nice hi-density stuff. There are a few wet spots on the trails but overall plenty of base still. Air temp now +26 F Go ski! :-) To clarify. Yes, there is plenty enough base and fresh powder to ski on. 0-24 inch base. 2-4 inch fresh powder. See PHOTO

From Snow Pics for Canaan Institute Outdoor BLOG - BikeSki Group

Twelve of us (yeah 12!) skied on deep warm spring snow. Who was here? In photo Ben, Christy, Steve, Sara, Marissa, Dave, Raylene, Bianca, Dan, Brenda, Jim and myself as photographer. We did a long loop starting up and along Porcupine Ridge Trail then Lady Slipper (R1) to Y4,  taking Y8 down to the stone pile where we turned right and went across the trail next to the open pit shale mine and looped around Y1, Y6, Y5 back to Y8/Y5/Y7 area and home down the hill on Y7 and Canaan Rd. We skied for 3 hours and never saw any other skiers other than our own group - almost like a ghost town up here in the hills today! :-)

BikeSki group will ski tonight. We have a dusting of fresh powder here and looks like more on the way, BUT: it is very icy underneath. Down hills will be dangerous tonight: please consider your gear and skill level. Temperature now is +6 degrees: it won’t be much warmer today and might be colder tonight. http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=14817