...and back to Ithaca.

So Mont-Sainte-Anne was about as perfect as cross country skiing can get.

We got up to Beaupre, QC last Friday after about 10 hours of driving from Ithaca. This involved lots of open highway, a $42 parking ticket in Montreal, rush hour traffic out of Montreal, and virtually impassable roads between Montreal and Quebec City in a snowstorm. But the pizza in Montreal was worth it.

Following the snow that accumulated Friday night, the remainder of our week consisted of packed powder, sunny days, and temperatures between 15-25F. Tracks were firm and blue (bleu) was kicking like it should.

I probably got to ski 3-4 hours per day with a slight bias toward the classic persuasion. Best of all, no death-march ODs. Tuesday had a gruppeto of us tackle the "36 est" backcountry trail that was yet untracked. Some maps have this marked and others don't. Regardless, it's allegedly 1.5 kilometers in length, but feels like 3k since you're slogging through a bunch of deep snow. At the top there's a "Point de Vue" where the snowshoe trails meet up. It's a pretty good view of the St. Lawrence valley. Pictures don't do it justice, but I took a couple anyway. Even though I've skied "Bruno's Bowl" and "Old Bud's Revenge", this was the pinnacle of renegade backcountry action.

The alleged race for this weekend was moved, and we weren't told until we were driving around aimlessly on the Army base in Jericho, VT. We relocated to Prospect Mtn, which was great since it put us several hours closer to Ithaca and had much better snow. Unfortunately they scrapped the 15k skate in favor of <1k sprints. And we didn't get to shoot rifles. It was largely disappointing, in typical USCSA fashion. I didn't try in the "sprint" and skipped out on the elimination brackets in favor of skiing a few loops around the trails. We also decided that we were tired of living like refugees and headed back to Ithaca immediately following the race.

Now for some pictures.

Looking pensive/stupid on trail 11 (the river trail):



The view from the "Point de vue":




Cool guy 80's angled photo. (This was taken by hanging the camera on a branch and using the timer)


Looking back at our tracks on the descent of 36 est:

Outta here.

For the next week I'm leaving behind the rain and Ithacan shades of grey for greener (whiter) skiing pastures at Mont Ste Anne in Quebec. For mine and others' sanity there'd better be snow falling here in the meantime...

As I leave, I'm reminded of perhaps the greatest moment in extreme nordic which happened at Mont Ste Anne, courtesy of great timing and Jordan's infallible style.

Back In Ithaca and a new year

Another case of clouds having silver linings...or however that saying goes.

Warm temps apparently ruined all the snow in Ithaca, so going home to LI wasn't as tragic as I might have expected. I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd gone for any sort of training ride or used the rollers...but my legs told me it had indeed been some time after a two hour mtb ride. My legs hadn't felt that heavy for a little while now. All in all, I managed to get out on my mountain bike five times (1.5-2hrs each) and the cross bike twice- riding in nothing but sand. I'm hoping this will pay some dividends when I hit the dirt next fall (and not permanently ruin my drivetrain). In any case, there's some really great singletrack on the island and it sure beats fighting SUV driving "Lawn guy land"ers for space on the shoulder.

I got back to Ithaca yesterday to see a few inches of skiable snow that had just arrived. Looks like I'm going to be classic skiing for the next few days, or at least until the thaw comes and melts it all. Weather.com predicts a high of 55 for Tuesday. Ugh.

For the upcoming road season I guess I'm going to be riding with NorEast Cycling on some kind of "elite" team. Originally I was expecting to be riding on a startup team with a friend from Ithaca College and some other cat 2's, but it seems the effort has been merged with some other cat 2's from NorEast. We allegedly get free kits, a free Orbea Opal frameset (MSRP $2100), and some serious discounts otherwise. I've heard prices to the tune of $650 for a full SRAM Force group. I'm pretty pumped about that...in what other sport can you get so many handouts for doing relatively nothing??? The team is also sponsored by two New Hampshire breweries, so I'm sure there will be associated perks of the drinkable kind. And I almost forgot about the Timberland sponsorship...I can't wait to get pair of workboots and a puffy coat. I'm thinking I'll look pretty sharp in these...