OldRailfan

It's almost time to change back to "Normal" and our XC skiing venue is planning to open on Nov 5th. .
Snow is in the forecast for this weekend — up to 6" — and this morning I checked the venue's webcams.
The venue is at 1625 m, the snow level this afternoon is at 1200 m



It's a good start, eh?!!

Riding the bike? Just add one more layer — 5º C ( 41º F) at 09:00 — along with extra "grin and bear". .

PS Getting a bit of snow on our Thanksgiving weekend is nothing out of the ordinary.
Note to my fellow Canadians: take it easy on the turkey, eh!

jamesdak 

On my ride today, all the peaks surrounding the valley I live in got a fair amount yesterday.

BHG6

Sweet....just got my season pass to Silverton in the mail the other day. Love me some winter

jppe

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Way too early to even be mentioning that stuff. It was 81 degrees in NC today and I’m completely fine with that.

There ain’t nuttin I enjoy doing in that stuff. Although I used to take trips out to CO for some winter pleasure.

gthomson

Wow, old man winter is not wasting time! Here in southern ON, mother nature has other plans and is doing her best to keep old man winter away. Average temps. since the beginning of Oct. is over 20 C or low 70's for our friends to the south.

I can visualize the old Christmas special with Heat Miser and Snow Miser at odds against each other.

Skullo 

Snow on the peaks down here also.

Wildwood 

Hoping The Little Girl delivers a wet and snowy (above 1500’) winter to the Cascades east of greater Seattle.

edit: 1st snow at Stevens Pass at elevation 4,000’ was overnight.

ofajen

That reminds me I need new XC boots. Not a big fan of biking in snow: not enough traction to get a decent workout. Frozen and or muddy trails are fine and we have more of that than actual snow cover during most winters.

Otto

drsmoooth

What the ....., SNOW is a 4 letter word around here. I only want to see SNOW on the news. I stop riding a few days a year when it drops below 65 degrees. Only once did I start a ride at 63 degrees; if did get over 65 during the ride though.

Wildwood 

We likely won’t see 60* until maybe April next year.
Heat is a ride killer. Air conditioning sucks.

OldRailfan

Oh well, looks like a "normal" Thanksgiving Monday.



Good for a ride if and when it gets above 10º C ; presently 3º C

prj71

Fat Bike

Bald Paul

"That stuff" is precisely the reason we moved out of New England when I retired. After shoveling "that stuff" off of the garage roof to prevent a collapse (there was over 4' of it on the garage at the time) my wife and I decided SC would be a much better place.
We were correct.

OldRailfan

It's about location, location, location.
The Okanagan has 4 distinct seasons and the hot summers are dry. The needed, desired snow stays in the higher regions — that and 100+ km of XC trails up on Silver Star, from beginners tor experts means "what's not to like!?".

BTW we get a good number of skiers from New England heading out this way, early skiing on good snow. from Nov through Apr.

indyfabz

Glacier National Park closed much of Going to the Sun Road the other day because of snow.

gthomson

Me too! Do you know much about boots and fitting?
My wife and I just bought our retirement home which we can't move into yet (not ready to retire) but it's a few hours further north of where we are so a lot more snow. We X country ski and I still love ice hockey so hoping to enjoy that as long as I can.

ofajen

Not a lot. I got a basic outfit back in my college days and used it a fair amount for the first few years when we had good snow that stayed. Didn’t do so much for a while and the boots got old and didn’t hold together so well. The skis and poles are still fine.

My skis are the 75mm 3-pin type so I will try to find boots of that type. There are two other main types of Nordic bindings.

Oddly enough, we have a local store called the Alpine Shop even though we are in the central plains. XC skiing, OTOH, does make sense here; we have trails that are flat and some that aren’t so flat if you prefer.

Otto

gthomson

I still have my 3 pin bindings, skis and boots which always served me well and I'm thinking of going back to them because they worked so well. I bought a new set of Rossingol skis, bindings, poles and boots about 5 years ago and they were good to ski on but noticed a few years ago that the boot heel would rub like heck so that after an hour or so, my boot had rubbed a massive piece of skin right off my foot. I tried different socks, 2 pairs of socks but nothing seemed to stop it. The inside of the boot seems fine but something is trying to wear my heel right off.

Not sure what it is so will need to go back and get a new boot I guess.

Carbonfiberboy 

I have my over-70 season pass for Steven's Pass, 64 mile away. Only 3.5" so far but it's way early. Supposed to be a good snow year in the PNW.

Terex

Looks like a great area in many ways other than sunshine. Lots of snow also expected in Colorado in the next couple of days, but it could be a big problem for the snowpack this winter. Early snow and usually makes for an unstable base in the southern Rockies, creating a greatly increased avalanche hazard for the rest of the winter. Re XC skis, I'm going to try to get out a lot more this year here in northern New Mexico, and maybe make some trips farther north. I've got Alpina Alaska backcountry XC boots with NNN BC bindings and a couple pair of skis, one with metal edges and a bigger, floatier pair without. We have several areas where people XC ski around us, but can't say it's really big. Only one commercial XC area in the state, Enchanted Forest. Happy Thanksgiving!

OldRailfan

The membership at Sovereign Lake Nordic is just a smidgen short of 3200!
I do a lot of my distance (just over 1000 km last winter) during the week when others have to work. It's nice being retired, getting to pick the days, the time and avoiding the really busy weekend.
Just like cycling I'll set my pace and keep at it.
The plan for the coming season is a) take the action camera along on the brilliant winter days b) carry the bike computer on me to find out just how steep and fast those downhill sections are.

gthomson

My US geography is not that good but i would never imagine the location "Mexico" and cross country skiing would ever be used in the same sentence

rsbob 

check this out: https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/taos-new-mexico-ski

Terex

As you go up in altitude, it gets colder. . Our house is at 7,600' and we typically get first snow on the ground in September (last year) or October (this year). XC and downhill skiing is done between 8,000 and 12,000'. World class Taos Ski Valley is 20 min. from my house and I've had a season pass for a number of years. With a La Nina dry weather cycle this winter, going to shift to hiking and XC/snowshoeing when snow is available. A season pass at the Enchanted Forest XC area (about 45 min. away) for those 70+ is $52! Numerous other areas for XC and snowshoeing. It's been as cold as -17F at our house but usually not that cold. Winter days are mostly sunny and delightful.

OldRailfan

The ranges around Taos are part of the Southern Rockies.