Skiing @ Crane Flat and Badger Pass

Saul at the Tuolumne Grove on Saturday.

Badger Pass looked fun.

That's me on the Glacier Point Road.

Me again!

Glacier Point Trail Map
Crane Flat Trail Map

I went up to Yosemite over the weekend. I stayed in a cabin in the valley, and it was sweet (you're jealous, no?). The weather was good, albeit a bit warm, and the food was good (thanks to Saul!).

We skied at Crane Flat on Saturday, but one, didn't have a map, and two, I forgot the wax for my skis. We went down to the Tuolumne Grove of the giant sequoias, and it was a bit steep so we walked a lot of it. We skied all of two miles.

On Sunday, we skied near Badger Pass on the Glacier Point Road and the old Glacier Point Road. Badger has well defined trails and and the road is groomed. So it went better. I found Nordic waxes and alot of advice at the Nordic Ski Center, but skied using some borrowed fishscales. We skied about 3 miles, some of it quite a bit more difficult than the road, mostly because it was loose, heavily post-holed, and heavily snowshoed old snow.

Bear Valley and

... remembering how to ski.

Andrew and I left the Bay before dawn to get to Bear Valley sometime around 9. I immediately rediscovered that snow is quite slippery by falling in profound slow motion ... right on to my a**. We bought a pass for the cross-country sky trails and set out -- me on my new skis and Andrew on snowshoes. He had a distinct advantage because I haven't skied in 15 years, and really didn't know that much about it then. Additionally -- I waxed my skis ... so they really didn't work all that well. So we were pretty evenly matched in pace initially -- only occassionally did he have to wait for me.

I learned a few things ... however ... aside from the obvious truth that I am not in skiing shape. Waxing skis is a bit mysterious and difficult ... and begs for either training from some one who's done it, or twenty to thirty lifetimes of trial and error. I am a quick learn though. When my skis didn't perform as I expected -- I didn't give up -- I kept skiing on them until I was exhausted. At some point I actually stopped and adjusted my kick wax up in temperature and polished the glide surfaces of the skis again. Things improved ... I wasn't able to zip around like all those skate skiers .. but I was able to kick and glide, and climbing was still difficult, go figure.

It was a pretty awesome day. Overnight about a foot of snow fell -- adding to a foot or so that had recently fallen. Although it snowed all day, it was never hard, and the temperature was reasonably 22 or 25 degress F. or so. Even after it warmed up a bit -- my guess is it was resoundly below freezing.

I skied about 7 km, or 4 something miles on flat terrain. My first ski since 1994? and I skied 4 plus miles. I'm good with that. It took a while and we ended up stopping around noon-thirty to eat.

We had lunch here, at the grocery store in Bear Valley. Yum, but ... there wasn't enough.

It wasn't all that great of a day for nature photography, being all grey and snowing ... but maybe it was. The cloudyness was great, the amount of snow was huge, it was gorgeuos ... and it was good.

My Mid-Life Crisis

Chuckle. I am starting to work on my bucket list. That's definitely a symptom. Anyway, I just bought some touring skis at craigslist prices. Why? You might ask. Because I always wanted to.

They are a metal edged touring ski circa old school waxable three-pin 75mm binding telemark like with Chamonix™ bindings, and they've been places I've never been, and they're in very good shape for being less than 37 years old. Specifically a Karhu Kodiak Edge,215cm. The book I have here (written in 1972) doesn't mention metal edge skis, or skate skis or randonee, or skins, but it does mention fiberglass and "waxless" skis, regarding them with absolute distain. Skins are described briefly, and choosing which animal they are from seems important.

The real mystery is the waxing ..." Or somethng like that. I bought boots and I have figured out that my racing poles need to be 142 cm -- which is exactly the maximum of my extensible poles, go figure. I watched videos on waxing. I investigated and I need either one wax or 32 total - to ski in California. It's a bit intimidating.

So -- when I bought the skis Rich said something like "Yeta, yeta, yeta, klister this something ... after that it's all blue or green wax in California. I spent the night in a snow cave ... there was an avalanche and I lost my skis, yeta, yeta, yeta" ... I gave him the money, and took the skis. See you later, Rich. I sort of want to call him back and find out how he got back without skis.

I went looking and calling around for klister or other kick waxes, and they aren't available around here, in fact, it's quite difficult to help the clerk understand what I want enough to find it. They all know about quick waxes though. The latest story is that I might be able to find them at REI in Saratoga ...

When I was younger I went on an overnight ski trip. I borrowed wooden skis and bamboo poles (umm and sweet low cut leather nordic three-pin shoes) from the elder brother and went off to Badger Pass with a hopeful girlfriend ... and well it was a lot more than fun. I should have froze to death. I fell about 500 times. But it was quite memorable. We had a minor accident, wrecking her car, and managed to survive skiing and the accident.

Now, I have these skis ... the boots are on the way from Norway or some other frozen planet ... maybe Canada -- where they still use these. I want to ski. To glide. If they arrive tomorrow it will also be a great mystery, and I'll be skiing Saturday. If I can find some wax ...