Noel Schutt » Ski

First snow (kinda)

Noel — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:20:26 +0000

We had almost enough snow to ski yesterday. I went skiing anyway. There was just enough snow that I could kinda ski on the fairways at Foster Park. Each kick would hit grass, but I was able to get a little glide. It wasn’t much, but at least it was skiing earlier in the year than usual.

2007-2008 skiing wrap up

Noel — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:11:21 +0000

Skiing is over for 2007-2008. This winter I upgraded from waxless skis, improved my technique, and explored new trails. The past three winters I spent almost every skiable day working at Fox Island, so I didn’t have a chance to ski other places. This year I worked at Fox Island over Christmas break. The rest of the winter, I drove to the closest snow as often as possible. I went to Michigan three times, but was able to stay in Indiana most weekends. I finally made it to Chain O’ Lakes and Pokagon. One week I had to drive south to snow. I wasn’t able to make it to any races this winter, but I was able to improve my endurance. Last year I usually skied an hour before and after work. This winter–other than Christmas–my skiing was four to six hours a day on weekends. I’m not quite as strong as I was at the end of last winter, but my endurance is much better.

My hill-climbing technique on classic skis is much faster than it was at the start of the season. I now have much more glide for less effort. Since I had never skate-skied before this winter, my skating technique has improved even more than my classic technique. Over my first two days of skating, I became much more efficient. My style still needed a lot of work. A week ago I made a major improvement to my skating. I was doing a loop that was taking me twenty minutes at 90% effort. I tried some changes to my style and my time dropped to fifteen minutes and my effort dropped to 85%. I then spent a few hours waxing my skis, and my time and effort dropped even more. I think that I switched from a V1/V2A hybrid to a better almost-V2A technique. My V2 and V2A style really needs work, but I’m a lot closer now.

Last week was spring break, so I had time to iron many coats of wax into my skis. They should be much faster next winter. I finished with a thick storage coat of wax and put my skis away for the winter.

Skiing at Love Creek

Noel — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:16:40 +0000

I went up to Love Creek on Saturday. Love Creek County Park is in Berrien County Michigan, just north of South Bend. Being east of Lake Michigan, they get plenty of lake-effect snow. They have well-groomed tracks for both skating and classic skiing. I skated 27.5 km and classic skied 6.5 km. I doubled the time I have spent on skate skis. I really improved my skating technique. I had planed to spend most of my time on classic skis, but I was having so much fun skating that I just kept going. I only did two laps on my classic skis. I spent most of that time stopped adjusting my kick wax. I later found out the temperature was several degrees cooler than I thought it was. I still haven’t figured out why one ski gripped, while the other one slipped. They were both prepared the same way. Skating sure was fun.

Skiing at Hartwick Pines

Noel — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 16:26:13 +0000

I spent Saturday and Sunday skiing at Hartwick Pines State Park in Michigan. The park has plenty of good old trees and nice hills. The temperatures were between 0 and 10 °F, so the downhills were really cold. A former racer helped me improve my technique. Using waxable skis instead of waxless skis requires better technique. At first I was slipping on some hills I could ski up on waxless skis. Moving my center of mass a little further forward helped me climb much faster. Hopefully, we’ll have some snow closer to home soon.

Comparing skis and exploring new trails

Noel — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 02:28:57 +0000

We had three skiable days this week. On Wednesday, I took my new classic skis to Fox Island. There was just enough snow to ski. After an hour, I ran out of new trails to break, so I switched to my old Fischer BC Country Crown skis. This was my first direct comparison between waxable touring skis and waxless ‘back country’ skis. It is amazing how much faster the waxable skis are.

On Thursday, I spent some time on the Country Crown skis at Foster Park. There wasn’t enough snow to go over my tracks more than once. I ended up skiing in a spiral around the golf course. I missed the extra glide of the waxable skis. Foster Park used to be my standard skiing spot. The past couple years I spent most of my skiing time at Fox Island.

Friday, a few guys from the Fort Wayne Kayak (and canoe) Club went skiing at Chain o’ Lakes SP. I have spent lots of time canoeing at Chain o’ Lakes, but had never been there in the winter. The snow map showed twice as much snow there, so I decided to join them. I arrived late, but caught up quickly. The conditions were better than predicted. There were enough sticks poking through the snow that I decided to use my old skis. I skied with the group for a couple hours, then by myself for a couple more hours. It was a great day. The snow was (mostly) good, there were snow covered trees, cirrostratus clouds, and fresh trails to break. Chain o’ Lakes is a great place to ski. There are easy flat trails and some good hills. The winter traffic is much lower than I expected, so the snow was still in great shape. I skied an easy 25 km.

I was going to try the trails at Pokagon SP this morning, but the warm weather and rain started early.

Skate skis!

Noel — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:41:58 +0000

Last week I went north to snow for two days. I alternated skiing fast by myself, and not–so–fast with my sisters. It was a good trip. I was able to skate ski on proper equipment for the first time. It will take a while to get used to the new style. It is easy to go fast, but I use too much energy in the process. After a couple hours, I was much more efficient—and tired—than when I started. My inline– and ice–skating experience probably helped. Until I hit the uphills. I could take the hills faster on classic skis than skating. I bought a pair of Atomic skate skis. They aren’t race skis, but they should be good to learn technique. I also bought a clearance pair of classic skis. They also aren’t race skis, but are much faster than my old skis. Now I need to build a waxing bench. It is snowing now, so I hope to get some more practice soon.

Oh yeah, the mandatory “Happy New Year!”

White Christmas?

Noel — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:52:43 +0000

I found an interesting NOAA NCDC page about snow: Will we have a white Christmas? There is also a basic map:

This map defines ‘white’ as one inch of snow. The pdf includes better information. I don’t count a white Christmas unless I can ski.