The day started with a dispiriting trek through several inches of slush and water in the car park, This only lasted 5 minutes before we were on snow. The rain may have dampened spirits a bit, but after lunch in the warm inside, and blue skies appearing, we forgot the damp and skied on to Syote. This is in the middle of a national park and is very beautiful.
But we all took up a new sport of water skiing - there was a couple of inches of water on top of the ice on the river.
The rapidly disappearing snow made conditions "challenging". First I need to explain my experience (rather lack of). I only thought about this when comparing notes I realised some people ski more in a season than I have in my life. Over the last 40 years, I have about 6 weeks downhill skiing and prior to my first RR 9 weeks cross country skiing, nearly all in the last ten years or so; with three RRs previously, that experience is now up to 15 weeks.
By challenging, I mean that the tracks can be quite narrow and sometimes that snow can be soft. For someone with a natural balance on skis who can correct quickly this causes no problems. My skiing is more like that of a supertanker - it takes a long time to change direction.
I have been puzzled why, despite my lack of fitness and training, there are some things I am doing better. For example, in the past I could only sustain double poling (pushing yourself along only with your poles and not "kicking" with the skis) for a very short time; this trip, I can sustain it for tens of minutes. Finally, I think I have the reason - there are two reasons - the first is the fitness classes Kevin runs for our running club on Thursdays, and the second is that I have spent a lot of time working on my wife's new equestrian facilities. Moving 40 tonnes of wood chip (two deliveries a couple of weeks apart) is definitely a good upper body workout, as is putting in fence posts.
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