Day 32: State Hospital Thicket

Today's tour was an early afternoon matinee to try to get ahead of the warm front moving in on the edge of warm winds from the south. With temperatures headed towards the high 40s, the top layers of the snow pack compressed into a 3 to 4" crust just capable of supporting my weight on the uphill slog. Downhill, life was a bit scarier trying to avoid the ankle-grabbing snow snake. Effective turns were made and the second half of the tour transformed into a 3-pin grocery store adventure. A top shelf shopping score was made with the purchase of a case of Blue Light which came with the Crackerjack-like prize of a Labatt hockey toque. Good Times!

Day 31: The Homestead

Looking out from the Snow Sports Cabin through my Tele Rossis:



Downside of the day -- being skunked on private lessons. The upside -- lots and lots of quality lurk pole practice on the teleboards. Special guests Mike Coco and daughter Maggie made an afternoon appearance shortly before 4-H to enjoy a fine Sunday afternoon on the hill.

Day 30: Hickory Hills

Attack of the pink helmets at Hickory -- girls ages 6 and under can do a fine job of clogging up a ski area. All is forgiven when you see one taking a break by temporarily resting the forehead of their helmet on the ground while standing up.

Nice grooming work by the crew to produce three small tabletops on Swede -- I was there when the rope dropped as well as about 30 twin tip hipsters and early teen snowboarders.

Day 29: State Hospital Thicket

Day 28: Schuss Mountain

Day 27: Hickory Hills

Here's to the good people at the Hick -- caring for a high traffic kids' hill can't be easy. Tonight's conditions was the classic cordaroy pavement -- just a friendly reminder that the tele skis are probably best left in the box on a night like this.

Day 26: Crystal Mountain: TeleTuesday

Day 25: Thicket behind the State Hospital

Day 24: The Homestead

With at least 20 mph of wind off the lake from the north and single digit temps, The Homestead offered its annual dose of jet-blasted sheet ice on the lakeside. Throw in a huge number of clueless beginners and it was a real scene.

In other interesting finds, the very odd addition to the Mountain Flowers lodge at the Homestead features a women's restroom with picture windows and a unique etched glass window with the phrase "Welcome to Women". What that means, I have no idea.

Day 23: Crystal Mountain

Day 22: Hickory Hills

Day 21: Caberfae

This weeks addition of the Thursday Afternoon Touring Ski Club heade south to Caberfae -- the "Alta of the Midwest". Craig, Brina and I had a lovely afternoon with B on her snowboard, C on his new Rossi B4s, while I retreated to my alpine rig on the PEs to gain back a little dignity. Suspiciously, the place was filled with a goodly number of school-aged kids, including a miscellaneous Church Group complete with girls skiing in skirts. We made our best effort to stay safe by retreating to the far North hill, but each of us found an opportunity to wipeout in style, yours truely at high speed on a compression feature on a groomer.

Day 20: Hickory Hills

The snow wash continues -- more bad, overthought freeheel skiing tonight at Hickory --complete with the obligatory "you alright, mister?" from small children. Ice, uneven conditions made a fine companion to my continued overthinking of technique. The result was several snowboard style wipeouts, the best of which involved the last bit of untouched, ungroomed powder at Hickory when the concrete crust tried to break my ankles once my tips submarined.

Day 19: Crystal Mountain

TeleTuesday -- I officially was reminded that I have a heck of a lot to learn. The TeleGang that I met last night did a more than sufficient job in working me over. Highlights included many snow washes and one runaway ski. The assembled group worked th Crystal property like I've never seen -- skiing trees and chutes that I didn't even know were there. Nice folk and excellent skiers. Trying to hang with the can't help but improve my skiing.

Day 18: Around Hickory Hills BC

With the best of intentions to make a short little tour, I shuffled off on my 3-pin Rebounds on the XC trail at Hickory Hills on Monday night. Hoping to make a quick lap and return back to the piste to work on making turns on the skinny skis, I turned down a trail which I thought would bring me back around to the rope tows. Of course, this was not to be the case. In the fresh snow, I tromped into the woods connecting a series of untracked trails -- keeping in mind that I wanted to continue on around to the right to get back to Hickory. After mostly going up, and a bit of down, and crashing through snow weighted branches, I popped in to a sheltered neighborhood that I deduced to be on the otherside of Hickory. Gliding my way down the road I came within sight of M72 before seeing the lights of the Swede hill -- with a bit more thicketeering I made it back to XTerra. Just a friendly reminder that stomping around unfamiliar woods on unfamiliar trails may not be such a good idea.

Day 17: The Homestead

Wet, wet, wet....but no rain -- just big, thick Benzie beer-foam powder that soaks through any ski outfit. Just as ugly was trying to keep a set of goggles or glasses clear. Besides the practical challenges of the day -- especially with the "C" lift serving the favorite blues and blacks being down, many quality runs on the alpine gear were made with special guest stars Craig and Brina.

Craig:


Brina:


Captain America:

Day 16: Hickory Hills

New Snow!! -- In comparison with a couple of days ago, things are looking up.

Day 15: Crystal Mountain

Fresh snow -- 6" of heavy wet lake effect stuff. Good enoiigh to make for a quality morning to enjoy Crystal before the masses from the South arrive. Unfortunately, my left leg wasn't in the same frame of mind as my right, yet a good time was had by all.

Day 14: Hickory Hills

Snow tomorrow, ice today. Ski Club malanga!

Day 13: Hickory Hills

Ski life looks like it's returning to normal. The good folks at the Grand Traverse Ski Club had their kids up and going taking laps at the Hick, the uber-cool twin tip gang was out, and the mini-van pilots conference at the bottom of the hill was back in session. The condition of the hill itself was like a million ground up sno-cones, but good enough for ten runs or so. Good news for the immediate future holds that 6 to 8" of new cover is on the way for Friday. Stay tuned for a return to off-piste adventure.

Day 12: Hickory Hills

Day 11: Hickory Hills

Well, the weather here has officially turned to crap. The giant low that sweeped off the Pacific and dumped foot after foot of snow on the Sierras and more of the same in Colorado also managed to scoop warm air up in the Southwest and push it towards the upper Midwest. The result means we've got three to four days of rain and temps in the 40s. Bad news for for the local snowpack -- I just returned from making three slippery runs with the climbing skis on the rapidly deteriorating Swede, the big back hill at Hickory. It wasn't pretty. On the upside -- looks like I'll get a rare midwinter opportunity to go on poop patrol through the backyard.

Day 10: The Homestead Resort

Rain -- the crappy sort of rain which brings out a golf course from under a ski hill. The Homestead seemed pretty quiet as the Christmas break holiday has run its course -- only a couple lessons were booked for the entire instructor staff. I took probably less than twelve tele runs on the Karhus while passing the day and then taught the first session of our program run through the Leelanau 4-H club. I had four intermediate snowboarders on may had and we rode for an hour through the late afternoon to get our fill before getting too wet.

Day 9: Hickory Hills

Nice little day on the groomers as the base starts to get a little squishy -- the warm-up resulting from the massive low dumping record amounts in the west is scooping up warm air from the south and shoving it on us. Not so great for our hard earned base.

Skied tele at the Hick' on the Agents -- still working on weighting the back ski, especially the left. Took a couple of classic low speed/no speed cross-ski falls just to keep humble. Unfortunately Swede, the big back hill at Hickory, still remained closed. Hopefully that will open up at the end of next week when the new snow comes starting Thursday.

Day 8: Crystal Mountain

Last day of the Christmas break -- potentially the last day of decent snow with a warming trend on the way. Ironic in the fact that the California Sierras look to get 5 to 10 feet in the next 48 hours while we're going to get temps in the mid-40s.

Day 7: Golf Course Poach -- Traverse City Country Club

After six weeks of drive-by scouting, I made my first move of the western approaches of the Traverse City Country Club. The property sits on a bluff directly to the west of Boardman Lake, due south of the downtown area. From the only roadside views of the golf course, I could see a gentle ridgeline which would remain unmolested by sledders. With some crafty parking, I was able to access the hill easily and able to make an hour long tour of the ridge making 10 or so runs and climbs. While the hill held no special challenges, it was made for nice repetitions to get a feel for the Rebounds.

Day 6: Hickory Hills

With three or four inches of lake effect on the ground this morning, the schools were out and Hickory Hills was the place to be. Luckily I timed my visit this afternoon to watch the conditions change from bluebird to near white out. As I was having significant problems with fogging up in both my sunglasses and my goggles, I figured the 50 snowboarders wunder the age of fifteen were probably as well. This fact, along with that the backside (the long "Swede" run) was closed for snowmaking and my boots were giving me a bit of bother was enough for me to back it in after 45 minutes or so. On the upside, my wife Laura's Christmas skis (Line 167 twins with Salomon S710s) seemed to track quite nicely. No doubt that my XXL frame does a pretty good job mashing the life out of the size L ski, it seems quite handy to have a set of skis in that range of the quiver.

Day 5: State Hospital Meadows -- Happy Newf Year!!

With a fresh four inches of lake effect Benzie beer foam style powder on the ground, I took to the meadows behind the former Traverse City State Hospital. The rolling hills and thickets sit above what was once the farm fields of the massive institution.










The largest of the old barns next to the first of the hills:







For the first time, I got the true feel of the Fisher Rebound nordic cruisers in combination with Voile 3-pin bindings and Asolosport Leathers. While I had many awkward moments, I also had an equal number where things came together with the gear and my technique, both uphill and downhill. After a couple laps, I'd had enough to be both tired and wanting more. Satisfaction enough. I'll be back for more.



The old State Hospital on New Year's Day:

A New Year's Day Michigan Miracle, Maryland Style

(Edit. Note: Budweiser 10 oz. cans are a cultural mainstay on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, from where I moved to Michigan -- this is from an e-mail to a group of Maryland friends)

On Monday afternoon, on walking into my local ski shop -- Don Orr's Ski Haus -- the proprietor greeted me with my latest pair of skis and a cold beer in thanks for my continued patronage. The odd fact was that the beer was a Budweiser -- not our usual local Labatt Blue - and it was a 10 oz.er!! I immediately demanded to know where they came from, as Michigan is far from the natural habitat of the 10 oz.er. He explained they were on deep clearance at my own regular grocery, as the stock had been delivered there by mistake!! After an early afternoon ski around the grounds of our old State Hospital this afternoon, I combed the walk-in beer cooler at the Oleson's to find 4 cases of 10 oz.ers -- which now reside with me.

Coincidently, on Sunday I randomly saw a fellow ski instructor munching on a bag of chips with a familiar logo. Sure enough they were Utz Crab Chips! Instructor Al feigned ignorance, saying that his wife packed his lunch, but I'll crack his source before the season is through. In the real coincidence, just last week as apart of a Secret Santa group (thanks again Esther!!) spread across the nation, I received a Maryland care package filled with Baltimore & Maryland, including National Boh wear, Clipper City brew and Utz Crab Chips!! Good times -- good times indeed.