Now that we’ve had the first dusting of snow for the season, it’s time for a friendly reminder of one reason everyone needs to understand some physics.
Static friction is greater than kinetic friction.*
In other words, if you aren’t sliding, it is easy to stay not sliding. Once you start sliding, it is hard to stop.
So [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Today I rode Three Rivers Velo Sport Chilly Challenge. I missed the start, so I had to take a couple shortcuts to catch up with the group. It was snowing almost the entire ride. Then there was the wind. 18 mi/hr gusting to 35. It wasn’t too bad until the stop to watch the polar [...]
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 [...]
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.