More Photos Below!Gallery
It’s late in the year for ski fun, but as a last hurrah, here’s a taste from the e-letters I’ve been getting up through April from OYB correspondent David Spieser about the northcountry backcountry scene:
Greetings Snow Dogs,
We are in the final week(s) ( i am hoping for plural) of snow and I am elated to report that, amazingly, all types of skiing are still great! Anything you wanna do; March 18! There is still around 1.5 to 2.5 feet of snow on the ground pretty much everywhere with powder on top of hard crust shell and more snow in the forecast starting today. This might be the best spring skiing I have seen in my life.
Six of us were on our skis at sunrise at Green Timbers, Pigeon River Country yesterday morning. Conditions were as I just described. Open flats are skatable and the lingering powder (it has been too cold to melt) allows lots of control on the hills.
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Freegliders…….
Crust cruising has been fantastic and late-morning-early-afternoon skating in the softer stuff has been just as good. We could even still be tree-skiing today! Will we ever see another spring like this?
I was at Green Timbers Monday morning and it was absolutely heavenly. One of the best skis ever. Since you can see the contours of the land for so far ahead you can plan your runs off of the hills to maximize coasting; using momentum to gain a little altitude on a rise and then getting a boost off of that to coast even farther. My longest continuous run was 8 minutes. The rest of them were a little over four minutes. I was strictly controlling my speed but doing very little or nothing to propel myself.
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I note that this is all FREE SKIING on public lands. Don’t need no grooming in crust season. Grooming is great, to be sure, if ya got it. My main point is that ALL SNOW LOVES TO BE SKIED! So if you don’t have grooming, don’t worry, just use the right tool for the job and you’re golden! Namely, usually, a wider ski is all ya need and the ungroomed big wide world of snow is YOURS.
Catch the spirit that these northwoodsers have! …Or drive on up and find em and share in the fun!
Sure, nowadays snow is sometimes sketchy in the places we used to count on it being. Don’t give up! It’s usually still somewhere else quite nearby! …From Nov to Apr, anyway.
(So here’s to next season! But, uh, actually, I think they just got snowed on again. Their spring skiing just won’t quit!)
up down all around
Posse of six enjoying Green Timbers wild area — not a sound of an engine all day — a rare place! Hill and dale. Made for crust joy!
