Winter XC Ski Weekend: Day 2

Crazy conditions at the lodge - that's me betwen the ski racks

Wait a minute, this wasn't in the forecast! The weather forecast had called for a warming trend over the weekend, but Canaan Valley weather can be unpredictable. I awoke Saturday to cold temps, light snow, and fierce winds. I watched the snow swirl around as I ate breakfast at the inn and chatted with a couple of other guests, all skiers. I was in no hurry to get outside. Saturday was also the day we had figured on going telemark skiing, but it turned out that some of us preferred going back to Whitegrass for XC. I picked up Peter and Suzanne at Hypnocoffee in Davis and the three of us headed over to Whitegrass. Dave and Cyndi, Reggie and Cat, Rob, and Jen headed for Timberline to telemark. Gina and Peter slept in a while. Nelson and Carolyn headed out separately to ski.

Taking a break at a shelter. Note horizontal snowfall

Have I mentioned it was windy? The closest weather history I could find online just now was Petersburg, WV, which recorded gusts of 45 MPH. Whitegrass weather is more extreme than Petersburg so I'm guessing the winds were upwards of 50 MPH there. Peter, Suzanne and I sat for a while in the lodge watching the wind try to rip the flags off their poles, thinking that maybe we were a little crazy for even considering going outside. I regretted not having brought a full face mask and a few more layers. Finally we headed out for a warm-up run, so to speak, of Springer Orchard Trail. This took us right into the wind. I was glad for the ski goggles (not normally used for XC) that Teddy had given me for the trip. The force of the wind wad unbelievable and the snow ground against us like we were being sandblasted. I was wearing ski gloves with chemical handwarmers in them and my hands were still freezing. The water in the drinking tube from my Camelback water bottle froze. After about five minutes we stopped and questioned whether we were doing this just to prove a point, but we pressed on. Adding a pair of glove liners helped warm up my hands, and once we were into the woods we were somewhat shielded from the wind, so things got better. I'm glad we did, since conditions were great. Fresh powder over the existing base. The scenery was beautiful too. We skied for about two hours before heading back to the lodge for some marvelously warm soup (spicy curried lentil ... mmmmmmm). The afternoon was a similar story: back out into the blistering winds, this time to the Timberline trail. This is a beautiful trail which eventually leads into some woods. We skied for a while in the virgin snow of the woods, which was nice, though we were disappointed to find that the trail didn't take us to Timberline ski area (maybe we just didn't go far enough through the woods). Peter and I took a detour on the way back to check out a side trail while Suzanne headed back. Some time in the afternoon the snow stopped, but the winds remained pretty strong.

Late afternoon we left Whitegrass and after a quick stop at my inn to change (and yes, to check email) I headed over to the Purple Fiddle to meet up with the group. In addition to the hotel part of the Purple Fiddle, there are dorm type accommodations and a common area over the club portion - a kitchen, living room and pool table. We took over the living room area, broke out all the snacks and beverages we had with us, and ordered a stack of pizzas. Our original plan was to head downstairs to watch the band, but we wound up having such a good time just hanging out that we never made it down to the club - and heck, we could hear the band pretty well from upstairs anyway. I'm not sure how much pizza and snack food I had, but it was a lot - including a particularly wonderful blueberry goat cheese courtesy of Gina. I drank my share of single malt scotch (courtesy of Rob and Gina) and wine as well. Finally, one by one people started to peter out. I mean this literally, as Peter the elder was the first to go, falling asleep on the couch. Next Nelson and Carolyn headed to bed. Then came those of us who had to drive somewhere. Needless to say, plans for Sunday morning were left a little fuzzy.