Whitegrass, WV 1/21-22/00

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/24/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>"Upper trails are rumored skiable through reliable crud puppy reports" - http://www.whitegrass.com, conditions report from 1/17. He was talking about me; I was the only one up there. Crud puppy my a$$; I'm a powder pig. On 1/21 and 1/22 I skied Utah powder in WV. It was deep, cold, smooth, and silent, nothing but a soft whoosh as the skis passed through. <BR> <BR>After weeks of no snow and dustings it finally snowed for real here in MASH. Thurs. the DC area got 1-3", tying the world's most powerful city totally in knots. I went to work anyway; took the train which was no sweat. As the day wore on with only a skeleton crew there, the idea began to form that maybe Fri. would be a good day to take leave. Whitegrass.com reported 6-8 and still snowing. Threw my stuff in the car after work and hit the road. Driving was generally easy on the hard packed, cold, unsalted snow and I pulled into a cheap motel in Burlington, WV at 11:30. For the final leg of the drive in the morning, across the high plateau from Mt. Storm to Davis it was an arctic wasteland just as it should be and usually is in winter. The wind blows unimpeded across the highlands and many times I was whited out for 30 - 60 seconds at a time as gusts lifted drifts and carried them streaming across the road in billows of white. Turned south on Rt. 32 in Davis and the old familiar curling 20 ft. cornices overhung the road in the usual places. Ahhh - snow!!! There were about 5 people in the lodge and they reported 12-20" with much deeper drifts. Sometimes you lose and sometimes - YOU WIN. Light snow continued to fall. I wolfed down a breakfast of coffee and oatmeal raisin cookies, stepped into my skis and started climbing. I took the Bushwackers (XC fishscale skis) and leather touring boots for lightness. <BR> <BR>The terrain flanks the open slope of the old abandoned Weiss Knob downhill area. On either side are woods with winding trails that carry you up at a mellow incline. Today they were the route of choice since they enjoyed the shelter of the trees. In the open areas the wind was blowing a good 40 mph and temperatures were in the low teens. I would not want to have been sitting on a chairlift. I would also bet that the nearby Timberline and Canaan Valley ski areas were skied off and windblown down to bullet proof ice by noon. Where I was the powder was 6" to mid thigh deep and as light and silky as anything I've skied out west. I skied the open slope & in the trees, it was all beautiful. Climbing was at times very tough. The trick was to look for places with a few blades of grass sticking through because they wouldn't be too deep. Deep drifts were a struggle. In this kind of cold you must be especially careful of temperature management and hydration. Rather than trust a Camelbak tube to remain unfrozen, I used water bottles in a pack and carried powerbars next to my skin so they'd be chewable. There are always a couple spare hats in my pack (for lending to teens on our Teen Winter Sports trips.) By this lucky accident I learned that using different weight hats is a good way to regulate temperature when it is too cold to take off layers. On the climb up a headband was generally enough. On rests during climbing and descents a peruvian hat worked. For longer rests and in the more wind exposed areas I used a balaclava with the hood of my jacket pulled up. In the backcountry you are on your own. I got two perfect powder runs in the morning. <BR> <BR>Lunch was hot thick split pea soup from the Whitegrass cafe, water and a bottled beer. I much prefer the Blackwater Stout on draft but the tap was frozen. (The only heat in the lodge is the wood fired stove which is cold at night.) In the afternoon I used power equipment (plastic boots & big skis) mostly so I could get some more experience with climbing skins. Interesting that while skins got me uphill straighter and faster, it is a whole lot less tiring to use featherweight equipment and take a zig zag route up. However coming down I could do _anything_ on the Volkl fat skis and big boots. I took a brief warm up in the lodge after one run. Back outside it was noticeably colder and I realized that fatigue had fogged my brain and I'd left my pack inside. The voice in my head said, "go up anyway, it's 4:00, get another run before dark". That kind of thinking is a sign that you are perhaps about to become a statistic, so I quit. It was a great day. The temperature began falling like a stone in midafternoon and it was now below zero. The wind knocked me over while carrying the skis to my car and I would guess it was gusting to 60. I have no idea what that is in wind chill. <BR> <BR>Sat. the wind had died and the temperatures were 10-20, perfect weather for XC skiing. It was day one of the annual NATO clinic by Dick Hall and company from VT. Just in case you wanted to know it is - North American Telemark Organization - dedicated to World Peace through telemark skiing. I decided, with some reservations, to sign up and take day one of the two day event and in the end was very glad I did. The powder had gotten wind packed and crusted, just the kind of conditions that drive me crazy with little skis. I had forsaken the power boards so that I could learn something . Clinic leader Mike made a project out of me and I got to a new level. I had known what I needed but it is hard to do it all on your own. Sometimes you need the guidance of a Jedi. By the end of the day I was ripping that stuff as well as anybody on any kind of equipment.