Christmas Camp

Location: Quechee Lakes Golf Course, Quechee, VT
Days: 4
km skied: ~60
Average snow depth: 1"
Better than: Rollerskiing

When we left my parent's house in CT on Tuesday, we were pretty sure we were heading to VT for hiking and running. but, Ullr be praised, the Quechee golf course had about 2" of crusty snow, enough for skiing. Being resourceful people, we set up a 4k loop, and got our cross country skiing on. Our options were few. Mountain Top and Grafton had 1k loops; Craftesbury, 2 hours away, had a 5k lake loop, and that was it for New England.

Tuesday it was warm, so, we didn't ski. Wednesday morning, it was cold and the snow was fast and crusty. Connie and I skated in the morning, about 18k. We returned in the afternoon for 8k of waxless classic skiing. I used my mom's Fischer Revolutions, which were fantastic for resistance training. Thursday it was still cold in the morning, and, like a fool, I skied classic on grundwax covered with purple. I had kick...for about 5 minutes. So, I made it work, and did some specific strength. I am not very strong right now. I'm a have to work on that. Friday and Saturday it was warm and mushy, and I skated, and again it was slow, but conditions held up and the golf course was more or less skiable, provided one had the ability to jump over cart paths.

All in all, not bad, especially given the conditions. I headed up to Trapp on Saturday night and Alex and I skied Stowe on Sunday. They were hurting for base, but they had a little snow which made the moguls skiable and the woods absolutely lovely. We ducked ropes from 1 p.m. till closing with the attitude that if we got caught, at least we'd skied the good stuff while it was fresh. Rain came on New Years Eve, and so the next day we snowshoed through the woods for a few hours.

We need more snow...please