The Art of Living Simply: A Backcountry Trip Report, Part II

My cousin Johnny G. was cool to share his photos from the backcountry trip.  Rather than typing some overly-worded essay on the ethereal nature of backcountry skiing (did I really write "Gaia's temple" in the last post?  Note to self, cut back on drinking and blogging), I'll simply post up the pictures and let them speak for themselves (well, plus some captions; blogging is by definition narcissistic so I can't help but impart some Woods Hippie flavor).  Enjoy.

Yup.

Dreamscape.

Camping and skiing here is one of the coolest things you can do without involving a 9-iron, pack of condoms, and some illegal fireworks.

We're, like, totally hardcore and all, but you can't argue with chowda' bread bowls and cold pints!

Long distance runner, what you holdin' out for?
Caught in slow motion in a dash for the door.
The flame from your stage has now spread to the floor
You gave all you had, why you wanna give more?
The more that you give, the more it will take
To the thin line beyond which you really can't fake.

Fire! Fire on the mountain!

Saturday was a tryst between orographic snowsqualls and an emergent spring sun.  While the cosmos had yet to declare winter or spring as victor , we as riders won big.

Dear couch potatoes.  It's okay, we understand that you didn't want to miss the next episode of Idol.  We made sure all this powder got skied.  And by the way, while you were letting the television rob you of your mind and an actual life, we were thriving in the woods and continuing the great survivalist tradition.  It's cool though, but don't get mad at us and those like us when this society goes to shit and we procreate with your girlfriend and inhabit the woodlands while you sit uselessly on the couch, trying in vain to click a remote control at a blank TV screen while wondering what the hell to do with yourself...

I should have waited one more week to shave the beard.  It was friggin' cold out.

Winter is but a distant memory here in CT, and Johnny G. is onto the next thing, along with the rest of us.  Marquis nailed a top-10 finish in his first MTB race of the season, and my running shoes have been hitting the trails on the reg.

The Art of Living Simply: A Backcountry Trip Report, Part I

"Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them."

-Thoreau

Perhaps this post should be titled, "The Art of Simply Living".  Either way, the message is the same.  I am pleased to report that the Woods Hippie ski tribe plucked the finest of fruits during a recent extended excursion into the wilds of northern Vermont's backcountry.  In a fitting tribute to Thoreau's notion of economy (please read Walden if you have not already), we resided in a simple cabin with Spartan accomodation and our souls were enriched by tending to our most basic physical needs of food and shelter while living for days on end on skis and snowshoes.  We lived and breathed the ski lifestyle for a few ephemeral days, and, with the cares of a grinding civilization temporarily behind us, our thoughts were able to circle around to the direction of the wind, the condition of the fire in the woodstove, the tilt of windblown icicles on the high-mountain spruce, the interplay of sunlight and shadow on freshly-fallen snow, and...so as not to sound too erudite...the level of beer in the keg.  Replace the Gore-Tex with leather, skis with muskets, and fresh powder stashes with bison and we could have just as easily been a band of spirited mountain men in the pre-colonial past...both scenarios boil down to men thriving in wild pursuit of adventure in equally wild places.

The cabin was at once an incongruity and an extension of the mountainside...an incongruity in that such a crude structure should not reside in Gaia's temple; an extension in that its simplicity somehow just fit in with the woods, a permissible excursion of man's modest need for shelter in a cold place.  In many ways our small cabin was a modern version of Thoreau's; a shelter that serves to grow the spirit of wilderness travelers without unduly imparting itself on the experience.  Except, as Thoreau ultimately discovered, the cabin was so magically simple that we couldn't help but make it the centerpiece of our excursion.

Thoreau harvested beans and we harvested powder.  Other than that, not much else differed.
Kindling still needed to be split in 2011 as in 1845.

The crew was mixed this year with two seasoned vets and two cabin rookies, though the cabin rookies were no strangers to the outdoor lifestyle.  Johnny G. jumped into the fray with a fierce head cold and shone through by tending the fire and providing some rich venison stew.  Jamie joined the party with a 5-gallon keg of Trapps Golden Lager (hauled over a mile from the trailhead by Marquis de Richmond, I must add) and a home-grown ham dinner.  Marquis and I toasted the third successful installment of the cabin trip and lamented the absence of one of the founding triumvirate.  Everyone found a sheer delight in the remarkable late season snow conditions; late season by calendar only...Mother Nature gripped us in the full force of mid-winter with below-zero nighttime lows and howling daytime winds choked with copious orographic snow.

The woodstove stood as the silent sentinel over the day's activities; a source of heat and purified water and a catalyst for conversation.

The day's explorations unfolded with minimal forethought; we suited up and stepped into our skis and snowshoes and struck off on the high mountain trails, guided by the occasional marker until our search for powder and trees found us navigating the woodlands by map, compass, and dead reckoning.  After two years of teasing us with variable snow conditions, Ullr finally blessed us with shin-deep pow on top of a gracious base.  Skis and 'shoes expedited travel, but the base was firm enough to prevent postholing on late night latrine runs...

Johnny G. gettin' his.

By late afternoon on the second day, all parties converged at the cabin.  With woodstove blazing and night falling, the temperatures on either side of the thin wooden walls made their respective shifts, and our attention turned from skis and trees to cold beer and hot food.  The non-campers and spouses out there might ask, "What do you do on those camping trips?"  Jamie succinctly offered, "Mostly burping and farting..."

In all reality, a ski cabin trip is an age-old tradition in the vein of deer camps and fishing lodges.  I won't even attempt an explanation.  Those who know, know.  Those who don't, don't.

Marquis gettin' his.

Then he got an idea.  An awful idea.  The Grinch got a wonderful, *awful* idea!
Looks like all the Whos in Whoville will get their presents this Christmas...

Stay tuned for Part II, hopefully I'll figure out how to embed Johnny's sick GoPro footage.

The Evolution of a Backcountry Skier

If you've had anything more than a passing interest in New England skiing or snowboarding in recent years, you've undoubtedly noticed the blossoming of the backcountry riding scene.  It seems that every internet ski forum has elegantly photographed homages to the skin track and the accompanying backcountry lifestyle, and such popular tomes as Goodman's guide provide the roadmap to the better known off-resort stashes in the North Country.  Now, I realize that the backcountry tradition is strong and longstanding in New England but there seems have been a definite larger-scale acceptance in ski circles of late.  I can only speculate as to the reasons why, but I suspect that outrageous lift ticket prices, crowds, and homogenized resort experiences are contributing to the backcountry migration.  I say "migration" with tongue-in-cheek because in all reality, the masses will continue to ride the resorts with a select enlightened few making the transition the backwoods, so we need not fret about our pristine mountain escapes being overrun by hordes of greenhorns seeking freedom from resort monotony.  I have some confidence in that statement since the average skier, in my estimation, finds his or her way into the backcountry after a long apprenticeship on the groomers and chairlift.  I'm not trying to sound elitist by saying that the backcountry folks are the creme de la creme, but they have almost always sharpened their teeth over years, if not decades, of plying the manicured slopes.  The progression to the backcountry, at least in my case, was the direct result of that apprenticeship.

What is it about Tuckerman Ravine that makes
shorts and long tights socially acceptable?

The ski history of the Woods Hippie began circa 1988 by all accounts, at the tender age of 7 or 8.  Hell, I can't remember that far back but my mother claims to have had me out on the slopes at that point, and who am I to question my mother?  I do remember Mom riding some vintage '70's gear, which wasn't really all that out of date at the time.  Anyways, by the early 1990's my brother was old enough to ski and the three of us graduated from our local slope in central Connecticut to Loon and Cannon in New Hampshire, where I continued my two-plank education in earnest.  As my father reinvigorated his interest in skiing and my cousins came of age, the entire family clan took up the ski cause on the mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont.  Indeed, those pre-teen ski trips remain among my finest memories of youth.  As the 1990's progressed, my cousins and I, one by one, grew bored of skiing and made the switch to snowboarding, which is still my snow technology of choice!  At this point we were still shreddin' the ski areas but began exploring the gladed runs and all manner of trailside booters as if it were our job.  When I was a senior in high school, my parents treated my brother and me to a week-long ski trip to Utah where I was greeted with my first experience with deep...ridiculously deep...powder.  My brother, who was still on skis at that point, struggled in the deep pow while I figured out how to surf the shit on my snowboard.  He lives in Salt Lake now, so I guess he got the last laugh there...

Those crazy bastards sledded down Mansfield's Teardrop Trail!
(Photo by Marquis de Richmond)

The college years proved to be a hiatus of sorts from the scene; I would ride when the occasion presented itself but my passions were, understandably, consumed by the college lifestyle and all that entails.  The catalyst for making the hyperspace jump to a backcountry junkie came at an unlikely place - work.  Soon after joining the career world fresh out of college, I encountered two like-minded outdoorsmen in the company with predilections for the snowy season, and the rest is history.  With various backgrounds in snowboarding, alpine, and nordic skiing, we made an instant bonds and immediately began scheming up unforgettable adventures.  All of us had done some winter camping in various capacities (I hadn't since Boy Scouts a decade earlier), but our common interest sparked a fury of gear purchasing, and our individual campcraft congealed into a proficiency that allowed us to forge into the woods unencumbered by trepidation or inexperience.  Together, we pushed deep into the wilds of Vermont and New Hampshire, first on snowshoes with snowboards strapped to our packs, then on waxless backcountry nordic gear.  We made notably stupid descents of such classics as Teardrop and the Mt. Moosilauke Carriage Road on cross country skis, but we also killed it on snowboards at the Birthday Bowls at Smuggs and elsewhere in the Mansfield BC.  Each trip added to our catalogue of backcountry knowledge and ski ability.

Setting camp near Sterling Pond, VT.

Ever on the path of personal growth as snow sliders, we quickly turned to telemark skiing, which gave us the ability to climb and descend on the same gear.  Tele blew the whole thing wide open.  With our discovery of the telemark turn, free-pivot bindings, and climbing skins, we were no longer held back by the technical limitations of nordic equipment or the weight of traveling with snowshoes and snowboards.  And there's no stopping here; no reason to be held fast by a dogmatic attachment to one style of turn (no offense, TTipsters).  Tele is fun as hell and I've finally nailed it after five years of getting schooled by sore quadriceps and wobbly rear skis, but the future is aglow with visions of alpine touring gear and...*behold*...splitboards!  Ah yes, nothing quickens my heart like the thought of ripping turns and wild powder wheelies on a board and then breakin' it down and skinning up to do it all over again.

Morning life at camp on a four-day outing.

Though telemark is here to stay in the Woods Hippie repertoire for the time being, the clan's preference in backcountry accommodations has changed drastically.  The tent, that fabric enclave which sheltered us on many an excursion, has fallen by the wayside in favor of our latest discovery, cabin camping!  Unbeknownst to many, there are numerous backcountry cabins and shelters in the North Country that are available for a nominal or nonexistent fee.  Our latest digs affords us the opportunity to sled in Coleman stoves, lanterns, mini-kegs, and pots of stew and relax in the radiance of a woodstove and some tasteful iPod selections after a sick day of backcountry adventure.  Other than those concessions to comfort, we still have to melt snow and poop in the woods while wearing skis, but the bitter endurance of below-zero nights and cooking on a Whisperlite in a tent vestibule is a thing of the past for now, but not forever!  Consider it a temporary transition from Type II fun to pure unadulterated Type I fun.  The New England backcountry is so diverse that before long, we will shoulder overnight packs once again and strike out in search of the untracked line somewhere just beyond that next ridgeline...

Whisperlite at night.

The rich backwoods traditions do not end with us, the current generation.  Though the apprenticeship never truly ends, the next round of greenhorns always comes up behind us, thirsting for adventure and an escape from the rigors of their complex lives.  My cousin, an experienced snowboarder in his own right, will join the clan this winter on his first backcountry expedition into the wilds of Vermont.  With any hope, the tribal knowledge will pass once again; those little tips such as how to keep warm at night by placing a Nalgene full of hot water at your feet or between your thighs (which, by the way, means you don't have to melt snow in the morning), or how to prime a white gas stove, or how to strip skins without taking off the skis, or how to pack down the snow with skis before pitching a tent, or how to use snowballs in lieu of toilet paper (yup), or how the slope aspect can be the key to a fresh powder stash, or any other of the infinite bits of wisdom that have been accumulated over the years.  To circle back, the great P-tex riding hordes will not move into the backcountry en masse, but there will always be those willing few who love cold nights, spruce-flavored meltwater, hair-raising descents on sketchy snow, and grand fun in the company of great friends.  And that, folks, is the spirit of the backcountry.

Equipment Review: Rossignol BC65 Nordic Skis

The latest addition to my ski quiver is a pair of Rossignol BC65 POSITRACK 195cm backcountry Nordic skis.  I chose these to replace my aging Madshus Voss MG, which have seen me through thick and thin (snow cover, that is) for over five years.  The Rossis are designed to be a backcountry nordic ski and feature a full-length metal edge with Rossignol's Positrack waxless pattern.  The ski measures 65mm at the tip, 53mm at the waist, and 60mm at the tail, which Rossignol claims to aid in flotation and turning.  I chose Voile's HD Mountaineer 3-pin (75mm) binding since these are lightweight, durable, and are compatible with my nordic and telemark boots.  I ski the BC65s with Alpina BC 1575 boots, which are comparable to a medium-stiffness hiking boot.  Just like running SPD pedals on my road and mountain bikes, having one binding system makes everything easier.  My experience with system bindings, specifically the Salomon SNS BC, is that they are prone to failure and do not offer sufficient lateral stability for attempting turns...but that's a topic for another day. 

I got the skis and bindings online from Onion River Sports out of Montpelier, VT.  This is the second ski rig I've purchased from this outfit, and their customer service and pricing is spot on.  Check their website.  ORS will mount bindings free of charge upon request.

Float.  Since Christmas, New England has been blessed with at least three good snow wallops so I've had ample opportunity to test the Rossis.  The first outings found me breaking trail in up to 18 inches of powder over minimal base.  Did they "float" as advertised?  Well, not really.  Most of the time, the tips were submerged beneath the powder and occasionally porpoised above the surface.  I attribute this to the shape of the tips, which don't curve up very far in comparison to my previous skis (picture the tip of an elf's shoe).  Plus, any Nordic ski is going to punch through light powder.  Once I had broken trail, the goings were obviously much easier but the ski didn't track very well and kept wandering out of the trail.  To be honest, was more the result of my unfamiliarity with the ski rather than the side cut, but this ski, by design, won't track as well as traditional Nordic ski meant for a groomed trail.  But, I bought them to be BC skis, so no big deal.

The quiver.  The BC65s are 2nd from right.

Climbing.  Frankly I'm a little disappointed with the Rossi's ability to straight-climb even moderate slopes, by Nordic standards.  Keep in mind though; I have been skiing in cold, fresh, untracked powder, which is typically a challenging condition to get grip on any waxless ski.  Kick-waxable skis will outperform waxless skis any day of the week in fresh snow.  Once the fresh pow was packed down by skiers and snowshoers at my favorite haunt, the climbing became easier on the low-grade slopes but I still had to herringbone on the "steeps".  The metal edges gripped nicely on the climbs.  I have not had the chance to ski the BC65s on wet spring snow but I'm confident that the waxless pattern will prove its worth.

Turning.  Hey, it's a skinny ski.  It likes to go straight.  Just like any Nordic ski, don't expect to do any grand slalom carving; the best you can hope for is some awkward stem turns if the conditions permit, or maybe some kicked-out telemark turns if your boots are up to the challenge and the snow is light and fluffy.  Making shuffled-Alpine turns will be easier in the early spring when there is a light layer of corn over a solid base.  That said, I have a penchant for dropping stupid lines on Nordic skis (Mt. Moosilauke carriage road, Teardrop on Mt. Mansfield, and  Sherburne on Mt. Washington), and I fully intend to keep that trend going with these skis, regardless of how poorly they may turn in comparison to telemark gear.  Descents in anything but icy conditions will be slow because of the waxless pattern, and don't be surprised if you find yourself double-poling on moderate downhills just to keep moving.

Gabby dog prefers 3-pin, too.

Overall Impression.  I think the BC65 is a good ski for its intended purpose, which is exploring fire roads, hiking trails, and golf courses.  The ski manufacturers and retailers love to blow smoke about the multi-disciplinary abilities of backcountry nordic skis.  Be realistic.  It is a waxless ski so it will not climb particularly well and does not have the effortless glide of a waxable ski.  It will not turn like a telemark ski.  Therefore, do not expect to take these skis out alongside your buddies who are skinning and dropping slopes on tele or AT gear.  You will suffer and die.  However, the ski is well suited for day adventures on moderate terrain and can even be used on groomed Nordic tracks.  Aside from some occasional glide wax, there is no maintenance.  The construction of the ski seems rugged yet relatively lightweight, and I am anticipating years of trouble-free skiing. 

Welcome!

Welcome to the Wanderings of the Woods Hippie!  This is a blog about my outdoor experiences in New England, Connecticut in particular.  New England never gets credit for being an outdoor sports destination, but, as the natives well know, this corner of the country is rife with opportunity if you're willing to search it out.  The Connecticut outdoorsman has his pick of passions to pursue; our hillside roadways are well suited for cycling and motorcycling, there are ample state forests and conservation lands on which to mountain bike, hike, and hunt, there are miles of coastline and plenty of lakes and rivers to fish and paddle, and, if Ullr is so inclined, good nordic skiing is available almost everywhere.  The key is mindset...Connecticut doesn't have the biggest and best but it has variety.  The Connecticut adventurer quickly learns that the most fun can be had in those obscure places that often go unmentioned...

That said, my intent for this blog is to share my experiences in the Connecticut outdoors and wherever else my travels may bring me.  As you may have already surmised, my interests are varied and the heavy hitters include motorcycling, hiking, hunting, fishing, skiing, cycling, paddling, and camping.  So, let me jump right in to and shed some light on a pre-dawn ski mission...

As a 40hr a week cubicle farmer, my outdoor opportunities can be limited during the dark winter months, so I begrudgingly drag myself out of bed early on workdays to sneak in an hour's skiing at a state-owned conservation land near my house.  This morning greeted me with 3 inches of fresh fluff on top of the 24 inches that fell in last week's Nor'easter.  This is the first winter in MANY years in which CT is actually developing a snowpack...and many backwoods trails are fully accessible to those with nordic skis or snowshoes.

The drive in was hairy but manageable.

Conditions were just about perfect for nordic skis - the snowshoers had broken a nice trail over the last week and the fresh snow was silky, cold, and fast.  My headlamp illuminated the falling snow and limited my visibility to a few feet in front of my skis. 

Annoyed, I switched off the lamp and the whole forest became visible, like a scene from a waking dream.  The ambient light from the city was enough to outline the trees and frame the trail.  Unable to discern much detail at first, I navigated by feel by keeping the skis in the defined track.  The airborn snow diffused the light like a soft blanket as the dawn strengthened.  I paused in the cold and dark and listened to the increasing hiss as the snow turned to sleet.

This morning's jaunt was not about getting exercise; it was about enjoying winter in a context that most people chose to ignore.  The dawn twilight is a solitary hour, one shared exclusively with the landscape and a few hungry owls.  Most mornings I am greeted by an electric blue and magenta sunrise that ignites the bare tree branches from the east, but today I was content with a quiet grey backdrop.  After an hour's effort, I returned to the car and began my descent off the mountaintop and into the workday...with fierce beardsicles as the only evidence...