Chasing the snow to Yellow Barn
A new mantra to spark energy during a frustrating winter.
Life as a cross country skier these days is tough. I spend my winter days constantly looking for snow, watching the weather and hoping for more snow. When I hear the word, “nor’easter,” I get excited. When it rains on the snow, I get disgusted.
As the President of the Cayuga Nordic Ski Club, I created a new mantra this winter to get our club members prepared:
Are you ready to chase the snow?
Living in upstate New York near the Finger Lakes, our access to skiable terrain with natural snow during the winter can be challenging. We have wonderful trails nearby where we can ski - a lot of them in state forests or on other publicly-owned trails. In the past, our winters were wonderful with lots of local snow.
Looking back, we were blessed. Did we take this all for granted? With the impact of climate change and varying weather patterns, these days it is hard to plan any kind of ski outing in advance - even one day in advance. You just never know if the snow will still be there the next day. The weather here can change on the dime.
Chasing the snow to Yellow Barn State Forest.
Somehow, everything fell into place on a very cold weekend recently. We did not have a lot of snow but it had been snowing a little bit each day for several days. The cold temperatures that week helped. Where could I find some decent skiable snow? On a Friday night, a decision was made with Jack, my co-leader, to lead a ski tour to Yellow Barn State Forest, a popular destination for local skiers. Yellow Barn sits at a higher elevation - over 1,800 feet and usually gets more snow. However, Saturday looked extremely cold so Jack and I chose Sunday morning hoping it would be a little less windy.
A windchill of -2 degrees on Sunday morning at 10 AM. Who would show up?
The roads were not good that morning - some snow had fallen overnight and the driving was sketchy. I was driving tentatively and running a few minutes behind to get to the trailhead for a 10 AM start. The Yellow Barn trailhead and small parking area sits at the top of a dead-end road. With about 2 minutes to go, Jack called me. Where was I? He said there was about 10 skiers already there and they were cold standing around.
When it snows, we chase.
A magical winter wonderland. At least 10 inches of light powdery snow greeted us. Breaking trail was bliss.
I guess we had been starved for snow. Although it was bitterly cold, we did not care. About 12 skiers braved the sketchy roads and showed up with plenty of unspent energy to get in some gliding on the trails. To be honest, most of us had not been skiing much this winter. Jack took the lead and headed out to break trail with most of the skiers. I took up the rear and acted as “sweep.” I like being the last skier - I feel it gives me more solitude to soak in the snowy forest, listen to the winter sounds and bask in the pleasure of gliding through the trees.
Our snow chasing paid off today.
At the end of the forest trail, we opened into a large field and broke more trail along the edge. Although the skies were cloudy and grey this morning, the luminosity instilled a kind of wintry brilliance. I was in snow heaven.
Snow stomping and a relay game kept us warm.
We found a relatively level spot in the field and took to stomping the snow down and then played a relay game to keep us warm. Since we had enough people, we broke up into three teams. I reveled in the camaraderie of adult skiers having fun playing a game in the snow.
A nor’easter is coming this week. I’ll be ready.