Skiing Sandy - Timberline & Whitegrass, West Virginia

Around this time every year, my urge to ski is at its peak. I've already watched too many ski movies, seen too many reports from out west, and pored over too many ski magazines.  So, when the offer came in for a West Virginia ski adventure, I was definitely in.

Tropical Storm Sandy did a ton of damage to New Jersey, Staten Island, and Long Island. But, true to Lionel's word, it dumped over 40 inches of snow in the mountains of West Virginia. While this presented a number of technical challenges, it didn't really impact our travels too much at all. The weather was actually pretty nice on the drive down:

We started to see snow in the mountains, just south of Keyser, West Virginia:

Up and over a mountain (I'll let Patrick tell that story if he wants), and into the town of Davis, which was completely without power and eerily shuttered.

We decided to do some reconnaissance, and visited Canaan and Timberline. Snow depths were looking good, but  Timberline had more pitch . . . That was our target for the next day.

Now, Patrick and I were two of the first skiers to arrive in the area, so I was fielding all sorts of questions about conditions, lodging situations, logistics, etc. Talking with Harv, I allowed him to set up a thread on his forum with updates, pics and information for people who were thinking of heading down. I do NOT want to make a habit out of real-time Trip Reports. Even though Patrick and I discussed the possibility that it may be the future of ski blogging, I don't want to make it a regular thing. I just thought it would be helpful for the people who were headed down to the area, especially because the situation with the storm was so unsettled.

Anyway, because of the real time nature of the reporting, some things got lost in the mix. Apparently, I should have mentioned that this guy asked US for cigarettes when we got there on Tuesday night, and then again on Wednesday morning! I hope somebody eventually got that guy some cigs.

Oh, you wanted to see pictures of skiing? Here's Timberline the first day:

So umm . . . That was a good day.

After skiing we drove around until we found an open store (30 miles away), bought some beer, and went back to the hotel for some food and a game of headlight/ski clothes pool.

The next day, we skied Whitegrass Touring Center, which had the coolest vibe, and the best people. We instantly loved the place. It didn't have the pitch of Timberline, but the tree skiing and cool, relaxed atmosphere were definitely awesome.

And here's the video from Whitegrass:

West Virginia from Matt Charles on Vimeo.

So, ummm . . . That day was pretty good, too.

All in all, it was 18 hours of driving (more for Patrick), for two days that were just about as good as any days I had in the east last year. Totally awesome, and totally worth it. Now I can relax again.

Recent Biking Adventures

Been on the bikes a pretty good amount lately. Trying to keep in shape for ski season. Did the Drops to Hops road bike race a couple of weekends ago. Here's some pics of that . . .

Getting ready before the start:

And just before the race:

Rode behind Ace at the beginning (until she pulled away):

I was riding pretty hard, but not hard enough so I couldn't take pictures:

Eventually, I caught back up to Ace, and we crossed the finish line at the same time. Pics here.

Then, I tried to make a run at Skiing on Columbus Day. It didn't work out so well, so it turned into a mountain bike adventure. Going into Vermont:

Brought Skis and Bikes, just in case:

Stopped for beer. Mmmm . . . Alchemist . . .

Enough Snow?

We decided no, and just did some Mountain Biking:

We got to do the sweet Kimmer's downhill, which was awesome. And here's a pic on the way home:

Thoughts on Manaslu

By now, everyone has heard about the Glen Plake/Greg Hill story on Manaslu. The best summary of the story is from Greg Hill at his blog here. Also, if you know who Plake is but don’t know who Greg Hill is, read this link. If you don’t know who Plake is, you need to repent for your blasphemy with 5 Our Fathers and 10 Hail Mohawks. The details are out there and I’m sure people will debate safety concerns, what should have been done differently, and the logistics of the rescue operation.

 But I wanted to talk about a comment I saw on the NY Ski Blog forums. Here it is:

serious ski mountaineering will eventually kill you. the odds are not in your favor. you can not control this very dangerous environment. 

Now, this statement is patently ridiculous (just substitute the words “driving a car” for the words “serious ski mountaineering”), but this argument is generally accompanied by the idea that rewards of ski mountaineering are not worth the tremendous risks. So I wanted to explain my (evolving) thoughts on that subject.

I’ve written before that I don’t think I would ever really get into the whole “ski mountaineering” thing. Well, after getting into rock and ice climbing last year, I ‘m starting to come around.

I love the idea of skiing the Trap Dike like the Famous Internet Skiers did (in fact, Greg from FIS listed it as one of East’s classic descents). And yes, people have died there – as they have on groomed resort trails, halfpipes, and other ADK backcountry routes I’d like to try.

I think the problem is that one day I’m skiing a little tree shot at Gore, the next day I’m thinking of skiing an enormous couloir in Banff like this guy. Everyone lives in their own little ski worlds (I talked a little bit about it here), and in order to expand your horizons, you have to make your world bigger. But if your first taste is 4 inches of snow on an intermediate run, it doesn’t mean you should try the 45 inches of snow over a weak layer on a 37 degree pitch. It’s cool to land your first little air in the mini park, but that doesn’t mean you’ll love ski BASE jumping.

It’s almost like a drug addiction – sure, some alcohol and cigarettes and maybe a little weed are okay, but do you really feel like you need to try LSD or cocaine or heroin just because they might give you some similar feelings? Why pull from outside of your comfort zone, when the thing that you really like is a nice beer at the end of a ski day?

And that’s my problem with really getting into ski mountaineering. I feel that the further I get from the things I love about skiing (powder/air/trees), I’m starting to get outside of my “thing”. I’d be buying stuff (crampons, ropes, climbing equipment, etc.) to use on days when I’d probably rather be charging at the resort. Yeah, I’d like to have a crazy adventure a few times a season, but I don’t really see myself getting into ski BASE-ing anytime soon (although the movie Action Jackson now available on the Ski Channel has some serious ski BASE stoke).

I definitely understand the need for something bigger, better, and badder, though. When you’ve accomplished as much as Plake, I’m sure you get to the point in your skiing career where you start to crave a little more . . . then a little more . . . then all of a sudden, you’re on Manaslu being dragged down a mountain in your tent.

It just seems like a lot of people are never content with what they have going. I’ve got a tendency to do this too – always asking myself questions like “What’next?” “Where to?” and “What else?” You'll never see me shutting down people’s wild ambitions. In fact, I like to encourage them. And I love new experiences, new places, and new activities. But sometimes, you have to look around on a sunny spring day, riding the chairlift after another run of soft bumps, and say to yourself  “You know, right now, in this moment, this is pretty damn good. . . .






At least until I hit the Trap Dike next week . . .






On shrooms . . . .”

New Phone, and MTB Trip to Pine Hill

I finally got my first smart phone, so I thought I'd try to write a blog post on it. Doesn't seem too great, but it might be good for a photo and comment type post. Here's some pictures from today's ride:

Mountain Biking - Ithaca, Shindagin Hollow State Forest

We took a trip out to Ithaca for a little mountain biking. Leaving Friday afternoon, our plan was to camp out Friday night. I read somewhere that there were a few free campsites along Bald Hill School Road. It wasn't too hard to find a spot to pitch our tent:

When we woke up in the morning, we were right on the trail system. Here's the map:

We were a little to the west of the green P in the top left area of that map.  So we started out on the yellow loop. Here's some pics:

It wasn't very technical overall, but there were some fun log features;

We did just about all of the Yellow trails in 45 minutes or so, so we moved on to the red trails:

We did a nice downhill on Y2 and came out onto the road:

Then went over to the blue trails. We especially liked B6, the "Creek Trail"

The creek itself was a little dry:

Still, though, the Blue trails were definitely the best trails there.  After doing a big counterclockwise loop (in retrospect, we should have done it clockwise), we rode through a nice little pine grove right before busting back into the parking area. Very cool:

We rode for about 4 and a half hours, then went into town for some awesome Mexican food.  Good times.