More Photos Below!Gallery
So, not enuf snow today for the Potto Raid. Maybe we can grab it another weekend soon. BUT! RadNord and I did have a MARVELOUS 2-hour ski throughout all of Stinchfield. And more!
We even explored some amazing new big-hill territory! We also had a couple MASSIVE uphill jams up some wonderfully long climbs. I was starting to black out a bit near the top of the biggest one. It was THAT good! I think our effort made 110% seem a bit minimal. I’d rate that one climb 120% output.
We also discovered 5 new mountain ranges at Stinch! Beyond the Ford… Can you imagine? We’ve been skiing there for 30 years! What wonders…
Here’s the crazy thing: we’ve both had bad backs the past week or so! I’ve been laid up. Rad has been doing emergency nonstop PT. Yet we still busted out today! I feel fine still. It was something else glitching my back, not XC, thank heavens. Although weird moves or missing a kick would feel unstable/weird. Rad had a hard time bending down to pick up poles. But we both pushed thru!
Where was everyone else? The wires shoulda been blazing with demand for ACTION. It’s gonna all be gone after tomorrow afternoon.
So after Stinch we went to the Chain o’ Lakes on South Lake between Chelsea and Stockbridge and skied the virgin powder ice for 1.5 hrs. It was so white and unbroken and smooth that it was disorienting. In the best way. I’d label gliding fast through 3″ of snow on a mile of unmarked frozen lake as a “bucket list” experience. …Seeing skis slicing through snow. Silent, floating glide. Priceless! We reveled in it for a LONG time. We explored far off bays and inlets and savored the diverse views of Michigan: aspen, cedars, pines, maple, oak, ridges, swamps, swales, whiteness…
And to think the last time I was there was last summer snorkeling thru one of the inlets we skied over. It looked so small now. Rad said it was 95F when he was last there.
“Oblique” is how he described our experience.
We wrapped it up with 20-minutes at full-throttle back across the lake. Rad was striding, I was hop-shufflin’ — a fast move like V1 without any wastage. So the Raid was dead but long live the Raid! (I posted a vid of the lake bliss at YouTube.)
And, yeah, we ended up skiing just as long and about as hard as a Raid. 3.5 hours! …And with such nice diversity.
So, if it’s been cold, even if it’s low snow there’s always SOMEWHERE local with the good action!
Keep the faith!
(…25 local ski outings so far this season.)
On the wide open all white lake. Pure powder!
Moving away…
All Potto Shuffle all the time!
The white oblique… Very oblique.
