Gradual improvements...

Skier Days: Sara(53), Caroline(24), Susan(27), Charles(42)

It is Sunday night again and I am looking back on an eventful week.   For a week that started out with some horrid tropical rain and ended up with some scary arctic air,  it turned out to be a pretty good one all and all.

Wednesday...

I had banked a lot of work time on Monday and Tuesday with all of the bad weather.  Sara was still at Sugarloaf until tonight so I was able to wake up early and jump right into my work routine.   At 8:35 I got my stuff together and headed out to try to make the first lift when it opened at 9am.  This was to be my first race in the Bud Light Locals Challenge.  This is a series of 10 weekly races for locals and teams representing departments of the mountain,  local bars and restaurants, and stragglers such as myself.     I got down to the lift at 8:50 and stood in line with a fellow early bird waiting for the lifties to get the call that the trails were all clear.  At 9:02 we were headed up.  

This was my first chance to really survey the damage from the big rain.  Surprisingly it did not seem as bad as you might think the damage would be from 2 1/2 inches of rain.   The worst issues seemed to be on those slopes that directly faced the sun and on those which were the targets of downward rushing water.  At the top of the Southridge Quad and the base of the junction of trails there was a long narrow chasm that had been dug into the snow.  The picture shows the much and stones that had been washed up and out and spread across the surface of the snow.  What you can't tell from the photo is that it is a couple of feet deep and goes straight to the bottom, which is where the dirt came from.

I got in two warm up runs and then my two actual runs of 35' and then 34 seconds putting me 45 out of 97 of the middle to later middle aged racers :-).  I got put on the "Single you?" team for all of the uncommitted folks.  It was really fun to get timed and now I have something to shoot for.  The conditions were marginal and so I did one or two more runs and headed back to work.   I got in a full day with my only real distraction being a the draw to watch Sara's race times come in on live-timing.com.  She did a pretty good job competing against the best racers in the state of Maine and has given herself another good baseline from which to build.  I ended up the day with a trip to the Matterhorn Ski Bar that was hosting this weeks post race event and a trip into Bethel to pick up Sara.  She and all of her teammates were in hyper-drive and 

At work I have been drawn into a little side project at work that has become all consuming.  I am modifying some old and complex but well structured code as part of a Proof of Concept.   It is coming along well, but each time I turn one corner I am confronted with a few more new challenges.  It is a good time to do such work as we are just about wrapping up one release and moving on to another. 

I finished the night as I close in on the end of "Pride and Predjudice and Zombies", yes I am the slowest reader in history...

Thursday...

Dawned cold,  very, very cold...  After the intense training and long days at Sugarloaf the coaches had given the team the morning off.  Sara slept in while I got another early day started.   I made her a big breakfast late morning and brought her down to school early so that she and her fellow students could finish up a project that was due the end of the week.   

I managed to sneak out after lunch for an hour or so to get in a few runs and to stop in down to get my boots adjusted a bit.  One of the coaches at Black Diamond is also a great boot fitter and he made a few tweaks to my boot that have made all the difference in the world.  It is truly amazing how a small shim can change your stance and make it possible to get your skis on the proper edge.   I went down to Bethel a little early to drop off the power cord for her laptop which she had left at home.   There was a "Rail Jam" on Main St. in Bethel with trucked in snow, lights and the whole deal..

Friday...

The wind came in overnight sounding like a freight train.  Sara started the day in classes and it is already noticeable how much lighter the sky is in the mornings when we drive down.  Despite the cold it is clear that spring will soon be nudging her way in..  I took a short side trip down Sunday River Road to take a few pictures on this bright and sunny day.  The cold biting at my fingers made me work quickly.

I tried to get out early this morning to ski, but the wind had shut everything down but the South Ridge Quad.   I was back at my desk by 10 after one footed skiing the beginner trails at the base of the mountain 4 or 5 times ..  Susan and Caroline showed up at around 6pm and we had a hearty dinner of spaghetti and meatballs.   Susan collected Sara at 7pm and we were together as a family again.

Saturday...

The wind had scoured the trails pretty clean and blown quite a bit of the newly blown snow from Friday into the woods.   The conditions were super hard and the temperature called for some serious bundling up.   I spent the morning with the race group and we had a blast.   I really felt like I had made a break through and my freshly tuned skis were gripping the hard and icy course really well.

Sara had a case of frozen toes and Susan drove over and got her to take her back to the condo where they whiled away the afternoon reading and hanging.   Caroline has continued improving her skiing this weekend and is starting to rival some of her teammates.  I skied for another two hours this afternoon and then headed in  to warm up.    Caroline had gone home with one of her pals that live just down the hill from the competition center in Viking Village so I dropped off some boots for her.   The family that she is with is one of the nicest you will want to meet and she and Kate have really hit off.  They have a family house that is the third to be built down in the Village and is truly an gem of a classic Maine camp.   It look out directly on to the recently widened creek that runs out of the snow making reservoir at the bottom of Barker.

I had been desperate for Cheese Fondue since th season had started and tonight was the night.   I had neglected to get Sterno and ended up running all the way in Bethel to get it do desperate was I.  Susan and I munched on the bulk of it with the girls not really finding the tangy cheese and Kirsch to their liking.    I took Maggie for her one last walk of the night and took my camera and tripod out with me to try my hand at some night photography...

 It was another early night and too bed..

Sunday...

Started out with my first chance to try out "skinning" up the mountain.   Last year I had picked up a pair of wide skis for those occasional powder days and to make it easier to get through the bumps and crud.   When I did so I purchased "AT bindings for them.  AT bindings allow you to release the heel and ski on these skis as if they were cross country skis.   To climb up hill you add a covering that allows you to glide in one direction but that stops you from sliding backwards.  They are now synthetic, but once they were made of animal skin and thus the term "skinning".   

Our friend Rod is a bit of an adventurer, and tele-skier that has some experience in this area and he volunteered to school me in how to use them.  We set up from the condo a little after 7pm and began climbing up Dreammaker.   By 8am we were at the top of North Peak and soaked with sweat.  It was a beautiful blue-bird day and it was a great way to start it out.   Susan met us at the top for a brief rest and to ski a few runs before Black Diamond started at 10.  We got in to the lodge early so that I could dry out my gear a bit more before heading out again.   We skied until 11:15 or so before heading down to watch Caroline's race.

When we got to the course Sara and her winter term classmates were helping out by setting up the finish area netting.  It was pretty entertaining to watch them rolling out the netting and drilling the holes in the snow for the poles.   They are a spirited bunch.

It was a great day for racing and this was Caroline's first chance to show off her new found skiing ability that materialized last weekend.   She lived up to they hype and her time was the third best time amongst all of the girls and second in the J5 age group.  The best girl times went to her J4 friends Natalie and Allie and her pal Colby.   Most importantly she was very consistent across both runs and you could clearly see that she had made a significant leap forward in terms of both form and aggressiveness.

The expression on her face as she tucks towards the finish line is pretty intense.  All of the girls have collectively decided to let out a war cry and a growl at the start and apparently during the race as well...

We stuck around for the awards ceremony after and it was really nice to see the girls all supporting one another when the race was over.  While the Carnival is a team event, there is definitely some healthy competition amongst the kids and it is a great lesson in sportsmanship to be able compete hard and still revel in the accomplishments of those that you compete against....