Flashes of Panic

Yesterday, just for kicks, I scanned the conditions at the cross-country ski areas. Despite the tremendous melting of the last few weeks, Notchview was open. It surprised me at the time, but on further reflection it’s not so shocking; down here in the Valley, we’re around 250 feet of elevation, whereas the Notchview parking area, way up in Windsor, sits at 2,000 feet.

With more snow forecast for last night, I figured I would take my day off as a ski day, and put my pieces together to head for the hills right after breakfast. (Our more local area, Northfield Mountain, is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.) When I woke up, though, A. deposited the cat on me and told me the snow was still coming down. Best to wait until they’d had time to groom the trails. And plow the roads, I suppose. The cat purred, and he and I went back to sleep.

We wound up leaving for Notchview shortly after noon, though between the drive, waxing skis, and other preparation activities, we didn’t actually head out on the trails until after two. As a member of the Trustees, I can ski for free at Notchview, but for some reason I hadn’t gone before, probably because they advertise fewer trails groomed for skating than Northfield or the now-defunct Hickory Hill. I think I visualized myself doing innumerable little laps around a single field. I should’ve done the math; 20K of skating trail at Northfield is probably more than I can ski in a day, and 8K at Notchview was plenty for A. and I today.

We did one big, hilly loop and established that both of us are pretty decent on easy grades, but neither of us can hold form while climbing. I can bull my way up with all the muscle I’ve built swimming and lifting, but it’s not pretty. I also discovered that one of my poles has somehow been twisted, such that the basket is about 90° off. I wouldn’t have thought that would make a difference, but it was hard to get a good push off that pole unless I held it “sideways” in my hand, so the basket was lined up properly. That brought home to me how much energy I’m putting in to driving with my poles, though I suppose my tired shoulders could have given me the message if I’d chosen to listen.

Another thing we discovered was that most of Notchview’s trails weren’t groomed as wide as Northfield’s are. It’s probably hard for racing skaters to pass on the side trails; with our wide climbing stances, we could hog an entire trail from edge to edge if we were going uphill. Fortunately, even though the staff thought they had a big crowd, there weren’t many people on the trails at all, from our point of view. I think I could count on one hand the number of times I had to give way on the trail.

After a cup of tea in the lodge, we went back out for two smaller loops around the “circuit trail.” The circuit trail is wider than most others, and aside from two healthy climbs features a lot of easy rollers and the sort of gentle descents you can really fly down. Starting the first loop, I saw something scooting across the trail. At first I thought it was a squirrel, but on second look it was too long. I think it was too small for a mink; weasel seems more likely.

At the lodge, I overheard another skier discussing the area with one of the staff. On the website they point out that they’re usually ten degrees colder than the valleys; apparently this translates into reliable skiing through March and into April. “Sometimes we can ski on the first weekend of May,” he said conspiratorially.

Hmm. On the way up, I’d been congratulating myself on getting to ski more than once this winter. Now I’m wondering if I can get up there once or twice more, now that I know my way around a bit.

Now Playing: Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before from Strangeways, Here We Come by The Smiths