Sicilian Snow in June

It was on a Sugarloaf chairlift this March that I started to tell someone that I skied at St. Lawrence, before quickly correcting myself.
“Actually, I used to ski for SLU,” I stuttered, my last season having come to an end the day before. I have since slowly gotten used to the reality of the statement, but while my career may be over SLUski certainly hasn’t left me yet, and hopefully it won’t for many years to come!


That said, I couldn’t resist the temptation to leave a little SLUski shout-out when near the top of the volcanic Mt. Etna in Sicily, Italy two weeks ago. A fellow ’09 grad and I saw piles of white stuff on our way up, but thinking snow was impossible we were unsure what it actually was. The temps at the bottom of the mountain were 30C, although at the top it was considerably cooler, and we thought the black, volcanic rock would prove inhabitable for the snow under what my skin certainly found to be a very strong sun. But it was!
As it turns out, not only can you ski the volcano and its lava flows during the winter, snow lasts straight through June. So she and I constructed a little tribute to SLUski.

Happy Summer from a still snowy Sicily!

Skiing in the Clouds

I think it was on the ride home from Shelburne that Steve mentioned to me that he thought rollerskiing up the Mount Greylock access road would be a good workout.  I nodded, thinking of all the times I’ve skied up it in the winter, realizing that he was right, it would be a good workout. 

            Interestingly enough, when I got around to checking email today after work, I saw that the local training group was holding practice on the toll road—level 3 intervals up Massachusetts largest and most rugged 3,491 ft mountain (its actually just 9 feet short of being considered a true mountain, but here in mass, its all we’ve got).  Excited, I thought it would be fun.  I jumped in the car and headed over to the visitors center at the bottom of the access road. 

            Though it had stayed dry in most parts of the area, it was a different story on the Greylock.  As we neared the top, the clouds grew thick and condensation began to fall.  Fortunately it never actually rained—mostly it was just a drenching mist.  Don't get me wrong though, it wasn't in the least miserable.  Rather, it was quite enjoyable. Skiing through the clouds, while catching up with some high school buddies--what could be better.  Despite the wet, we reached the summit in a speedy 1:30 and were shuttled to the bottom by some devoted parents. 

            It was a good workout and an even more enjoyable ski.  Fresh pavement and little traffic made the ride smooth and uneventful—definitely a new favorite.  So Steve was right, it was good.  And if anyone is in the area, call me up, and I would love to do it again. 

 

Adam Terko, 2nd place in Fasterskier photo contest

http://fasterskier.com/2009/06/the-get-your-sping-on-swixfasterskier-photo-contest/

Not sure if he was actually playing golf or just looking for some snow!

You want mulch with that?

A scan of this mornings local paper

It's raining again. The story of my summer so far isn't too interesting, but I figured I'd share it because there's not much else on my to-do list today. You see, I've been working at a garden center this year. I work a lot if it's nice out, and the only days off I get are when the weather isn't nice. Luckily for me that's worked out alright lately. When I'm working though, it's tough. I like to think of every day as a new strength workout because with the exception of a few day's here and there of lousy business, I spend 8 hours with either a shovel, axe, mallet, pitchfork, weedwhacker, rake or wheelbarrow in my hands. "Must be the chain gang they got going here" I've heard multiple times from customers. It's about right. It's a funny scene at that place. I don't wear the official Gardenside uniform (a Canadian Tuxedo) like my superiors, but even if I'm not lifting something into a car or shoveling gravel/mulch/compost/topsoil/manure, people still timidly ask "..do you work here?" They can tell from the smell. Thanks to a busted piece-of-crap weedwhacker from 1970-something, the tons of plants everywhere and my own laboring I come home smelling of equal parts sweat, dirt and gasoline. Oh, and then I have to train as well. That's been going along nicely though, and I stop my garden job monday for the less-stressful, less-strenuous job of being a custodian and cleaning swine-flu infected schools for the rest of the summer. I've found a bunch of new roads to rollerski on, and I've been spending a lot of time with my two new summer activities: mountain biking and rollerskiing up the Bolton access road. I'm not that good at mountain biking, but It's fun as hell. And skiing up Bolton is fun too, for someone like me. I also installed a pullup bar on the door to my basement/apartment (my parents want me living as far from them as possible). There's a 7-pullup toll (and increasing) now to go downstairs now. No excuses. Wake up and go upstairs to pee at 3am? My conscience won't let me through. Gotta pay the toll before going back down to bed, you lazy sack of crap! When it comes to pullups I'll steal a line Usain Bolt told Sports Illustrated. Simply put, "expect big things from me this year". I've been building up training nicely, stretching my arms out in the dugout this spring as opposed to last year when I was throwing fastballs nonstop and needed some serious relief by the time the 4th inning came around. Summer is in full stride though, so there's no excuses for not being much faster this year. I've been putting in my work. That's about it for me. I've accomplished most of my goals for the day: eat 9 chocolate chip pancakes, finish my book, and I think that's about it it aside from a short run and a core workout when I feel like moving.


Pete Hegman, John Dixon, Jared Supple and I on top of Camels Hump last week

Hiking Mt. Arab, snow in May!

As you can see in the photos Calvin was not very psyched about this little adventure.  He was quite the little siren by the time we headed down.  Thankfully Arab is a very short hike maybe an hour roundtrip.  It was pretty exciting at the top, strong wind gusts, hail, and then snow, preceded and followed by sunshine.  

Graduation 2009

Congratulations to Matty and Kristen on graduation this past Sunday.  It was not coldest commencent I have been to but it certainly wasn't warm.  I think near the end there were more people watching from the Library and other surrounding buildings than on the Library quad.  Kristen and Matty toughed it out and walked though.

Knut also recieved his Masters in Education degree, unfortunately I couldn't find him after the ceremony so missed getting a photo.  5 more years until you are a skiing master though Knut!

More Skiing

I think the last time I skied in any form this spring was an epic trip to Haystack Mountain at the end of March or in early April. I decided have one more go at it with a trip to Tuckerman's Ravine on Mt. Washington, probably my favorite place to ski. It also gave me a chance to try out carrying skis with the new team backpacks, which worked out pretty well, but my shoulders are kinda sore now. Compared to last year, there were really only a few options for continuous skiing and a lot more crevasses and rocks. I went for left gully first, which proved to not have a whole lot of snow and was a little more terrifying than I thought it would be. I tried the chute next, which is the next obvious ski run over from left gully. The snow cover was good all the way from the top and the skiing was great despite being really soft. It was good enough in fact, that I turned around and went right back up again and fortunately only had to share the run with a handful of other people. I managed to get a pretty good burn on my forehead as I forgot to put sun screen there and was wearing my hat backwards, which left a funny burn line. Not quite like Adam's Stowe adventure, but just the sort of fun I'm looking for before I get back to work training (I did rollerski this week, though). I'm off to British Columbia next week with my glacial geology class, then up to the county to train with MWSC, then off to North Dakota for a geology project. Hopefully I'll find time to do the presidential traverse with the sluski crew. We've been talking about it for a while and I want to see it happen. Its gonna be a busy summer and I feel like I'll back at school before I know what happened.