Section 2 XC water-skiing trip report

[sambartlett]

Saturday Jan 12 seven desperate skiers, aged 44 to 80, headed north from Harriman Dam. A week of warmth and rain had opened many of the southern slopes, but we (foolishly believing our optimistic trip leader, who is happy on any conditions as long as he has skis on his feet) were hoping to ski 11 miles to Rt 9. Luck was with us in most places. We had every known New England ski condition (except powder): loose corn, frozen corn, breakable crust, unbreakable crust, bullet proof icy snowmobile tracks, mud, water, rocks, rock hopping, leaves and sticks. In places the snow was a strip 2 feet wide, with leaves or mud on both sides. The ground water had opened up many of the wet spots on the old railroad bed, and had made many 1 or 2 foot gaps in the cover, some could be skied over, some needed side-stepping. Since it was above freezing, many took to simply wading across these spots. The 5-mile "No snowmobiles" section was mostly loose corn and made for a nice set of tracks. After a 2 mile frozen snowmobile track descent, two of our group decided to use the bail-out car, the rest skied the new section from Medburyville to Rt9, with many sitzmarks and numerous stream crossings.
One more day of warm weather would have made this trip into a lot of hiking and messier stream crossings, but with 6" to 12" predicted Sunday night, it should once again be fine skiing.

[Todd H]

A few shots from saturday's water-skiing and ice-skating.
a very fun outing.

#1: note trio of skiers on skating track (softer than it looks)
#2: grading by old railroad builders
#3: excellent creative trail routing by Sam, on "new section."

[Lynn Fisher]

Oh Sam and Todd, I am so very impressed with your intrepid (read: insane) efforts. Thanks for the great pics and laughs. You know I would have been there, too if I were closer and more desperate.

In case anyone's interested, there's now decent skiing to be found near route 4. Unlike the conditions my southern comrades encountered, we did not lose all of our base so before Monday's storm there was still white almost everywhere. We received 4 - 6" of new snow on top of what's now a very icy and uneven base. This means that the flat areas are quite lovely to ski, but there just isn't a lot of flat in the backcountry. Woodstock Ski Touring's Mt Tom Trails are lovely. The steeper hills in Bridgewater and on the CT adjacent to route 4 remain extremely hazardous.

Expecting more snow on Friday but it doesn't sound like enough for the more challenging sections. The moderate terrain should be great, though.

Lynn