Mad River Rocket Freesledding

My newest winter pastime is freesledding.

Horn Pond Mountain is a short walk from my house. After a recent snowstorm I put in some new lines down Electric Avenue and Rehab Trail, and hucked the Reservoir Boulders. Caution: Hyperbole is to freesledding what oxygen is to life.

Here's how the pros do it:
http://teamsleds.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfoFFNb6d34

Here's how we do it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTZHWOhC2Ps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKPvCEAeVVo
http://picasaweb.google.com/phillip.stern/HornPondMtnBestLines?authkey=MUFl-9dk7xA#

Pack Monadnock and Temple Mountain adventure
On the way home, we hit black ice at 50 mph. We fishtailed across the road into the oncoming traffic lane, but managed to avoid the cars coming at us and the other cars that hit the ice and were stopped on both shoulders. We did a 180 and stopped inches from the snow bank on our side of the road.
The 180 was definitely the most memorable event of the day, but the sledding was a lot of fun too and, at the time, seemed more risky than driving to and from the mountain. We got to Pack Monadnock about 8:30 and geared up in the 3 degree F parking lot. Fingers numb with cold we began hiking up the summer toll road, now buried by a couple feet of snow. Soon we were sweating and peeled off our coats and hung them from our packs. At the top, we climbed the lookout tower and inspected the trails at Temple Mountain across the highway; we were going there after lunch. Then we unstrapped our sleds and headed down.
The trail was boot packed and not steep enough to be fun on our sleds, so we found short shots through the powder and very dense trees off the side of the trail. Unfortunately, the trail didn't switchback, so after every little run, we had to climb back up to the trail. But we had fun going off some little rocks covered in snow. Back in parking lot, another hiker told us we picked the "bad" trail. The other trail stays in the fall line and is more fun for hiking and, presumably, sledding.
At the Temple Mountain parking lot we ate a quick lunch and queried other hikers/skiers/snowboarders about the trails. Temple Mountain was a ski resort that closed in 1991.
At the top we met more snowboarders and found a short open run with a couple of drops. The boarders and sledders took turns watching each other get some air. I went off a big round boulder with about an 8-foot drop to the powder below. Then we split up and took different routes to the bottom. It was fun to have longer runs than at Pack Monadnock, but the trails just weren't steep enough. First tracks often meant using your hands to push along the flat spots.
From the picnic area at the bottom, we hiked straight up a ski slope, and it would have been tough going without snowshoes. The climb had me huffing and puffing, but it let us scout out a great second run. At the top we met the snowboarders again and took a video of them getting air off a 10-foot rock. I took my sled down the side of the same rock, in a series of 3 step-like drops. I climbed back up and launched off the other side of the rock landing in a tiny clearing between a boulder and a downed tree. These jumps were all seemed pretty scary while sitting at the top trying to get up the nerve to push off, but the snow was so deep and soft that the reality of the jump was a bit anti-climatic. Still, I did get a little rush each time. After playing around up top for awhile, we headed back down to the base. We followed a trail put in by a snowboarder sometime in the past week. On flatter sections we stayed on the packed trail to keep our speed up. On the steeper pitches, we shot into the powder next to the track and carved some turns. It was almost a top to bottom run, prevented only by a couple of wipeouts.

Phillip and John toast the good runs at Temple Mountain

Phillip climbing Mt Cardigan with his Mad River Rocket

Pack Monadnock and Temple Mountain adventure

Sunday (Jan 25) John and I loaded our sleds, crampons, snowshoes, and backpacks into the Mini Cooper and headed up to Pack Monadnock and Temple Mountain for a day of backcountry sledding. It was a great day, not the least because we survived the drive home.

We were heading south on US 202, driving close to the posted limit of 50 mph. It was a sunny, but cold afternoon. Visibility was good and the road was dry. Up ahead I saw a curve and two cars stopped on the shoulder of our lane. Across the road, an SUV was stopped on the shoulder facing the other way. As I entered the curve, we hit a large patch of black ice and started a four wheel slide towards the two stopped cars and the women standing beside them. Then the ice ended and the front wheels grabbed sudden traction; the rear end fishtailed and I countersteered to regain control. Then we were fishtailing the opposite direction but I countersteered again and thought I was about to drive out of it. By now we were across the yellow line into the oncoming traffic lane, and there was a car oncoming. I turned the wheel to get back in my lane and must have overcorrected, because next thing I knew we were 180 degrees around, in the correct lane, but going backwards. We passed the oncoming car by a wide margin, but were heading (backwards) towards the icy snowbank at the edge of our lane. I slammed on the brakes and we stopped inches from the snowbank. John and I just looked at each other and said "Holy Shit!" The smell of burned rubber and maybe burned transmission filled the air. We walked around the car but saw no damage. So I did a u-turn and we continued on our way. In the rear view mirror I saw the women walking across the road to talk to the people in the SUV. My guess is that the SUV also hit the ice, did a 180 and was facing the wrong way but on the other side of the road. Several minutes later a parade of emergency vehicles (ambulance, police car, maybe a firetruck) came flying towards us with lights flashing and sirens blaring heading towards the stopped vehicles. What they really needed was a salt truck. Several times on the drive home, we just broke into laughter, so relieved to have escaped without injury.

John at the base of Pack Monadnock.

The 180 was definitely the most memorable event of the day, but the sledding was a lot of fun too and, at the time, seemed more risky than driving to and from the mountain. We got to Pack Monadnock about 8:30 and geared up in the 3 degree F parking lot. Fingers numb with cold we began hiking up the summer toll road, now buried by a couple feet of snow. Soon we were sweating and peeled off our coats and hung them from our packs. At the top, we climbed the lookout tower and inspected the trails at Temple Mountain across the highway; we were going there after lunch. Then we unstrapped our sleds and headed down the trail to the sledders' left of the toll road.

Looking across at Temple Mtn from the top of Pack Monadnock.

The trail was boot packed and not steep enough to be fun on our sleds, so we found short shots through the powder and very dense trees off the side of the trail. Unfortunately, the trail didn't switchback, so after every little run, we had to climb back up to the trail. But we had fun going off some little rocks covered in snow. Back in parking lot, another hiker told us we picked the "bad" trail. The trail to the right of the toll road stays in the fall line and is more fun for hiking and, presumably, sledding.

At the Temple Mountain parking lot we ate a quick lunch and queried other hikers/skiers/snowboarders about the trails. Temple Mountain was a ski resort that closed in 1991. The only sign of the resort are the trails cut into the forest, which is quickly filling in those same trails with groves of little saplings. A sign in the parking lot says LCHIP, which is The New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program, "an independent state authority that makes matching grants to NH communities and non-profits to conserve and preserve New Hampshire's most important natural, cultural and historic resources."

Mario (with snowboard) and John hiking up Temple Mtn.

We met Mario, a snowboarder, and walked up the Wapack trail, which was totally packed down. We had on snowshoes, but could have just as easily walked up in boots. The Wapack trail must have been an old service road. It gradually wound its way up to the top and we didn't even get out of breath on the climb. At the top we met a couple more snowboarders and found a short open run with a couple of drops. The boarders and sledders took turns watching each other get some air. I went off a big round boulder with about an 8-foot drop to the powder below. Then we split up and took different routes to the bottom. It was fun to have longer runs than at Pack Monadnock, but the trails just weren't steep enough. First tracks often meant using your hands to push along the flat spots.

Phillip and John at top of Temple Mtn with Pack Monadnock in the background

From the picnic area at the bottom, we hiked straight up a ski slope, and it would have been tough going without snowshoes. The climb had me huffing and puffing, but it let us scout out a great second run. At the top we met the snowboarders again and took a video of them getting air off a 10-foot rock. I took my sled down the side of the same rock, in a series of 3 step-like drops. I climbed back up and launched off the other side of the rock landing in a tiny clearing between a boulder and a downed tree. These jumps were all seemed pretty scary while sitting at the top trying to get up the nerve to push off, but the snow was so deep and soft that the reality of the jump was a bit anti-climatic. Still, I did get a little rush each time. After playing around up top for awhile, we headed back down to the base. We followed a trail put in by a snowboarder sometime in the past week. On flatter sections we stayed on the packed trail to keep our speed up. On the steeper pitches, we shot into the powder next to the track and carved some turns. It was almost a top to bottom run, prevented only by a couple of wipeouts.

One of the best parts of the day was the people we met. We hiked with Mario the snowboarder and learned he is the Dean of Education at Lesley University and lives in the town next to ours. The two college-age boarders were Norbert and Andrew and it was fun to see what the kids could do on their boards and what we old guys could do on our sleds. We were all united in our desire to play in the snow and mountains without spending $60 to $90 for lift tickets. So we shared some information about potential sledding / boarding sites and exchanged email addresses.

Another happy encounter was with another older guy getting out his sled at the base of Pack Monadnock while we were putting ours away and getting ready to move over to Temple Mountain. He had a HammerHead sled, something like a hightech Flexible Flyer. He sleds headfirst lying on his stomach and says he really gets moving down the packed Toll Road. Probably a lot of fun but I prefer the off trail powder and freesledding made possible by the Mad River Rockets. Of course, if your knees aren't flexible enough to kneel on a Rocket sled, a HammerHead might be a reasonable alternative.

Anyhow, this guy was showing us his sled when he realized that one of the replaceable runners had fallen off his sled. It wasn't in the car so he was going to drive back home to see if it was in his basement. He was just saying that he hoped he didn't lose it last weekend when he was sledding at Pack Monadnock, when he looked across the parking lot and saw the missing runner stuck in a snow bank near the trailhead. I got a great feeling because this fellow was going to be able to enjoy playing in the snow instead of driving home on a fruitless search for a missing runner.

Phillip and John toast the end of a good day sledding.
Temple Mtn in the background.

After the last run of the day, we loaded the gear in the Mini, toasted our adventure with a Harpoon Winter Warmer (totally unrelated to the subsequent 180) and shared Julie's excellent cookies with the snowboarders. Then we drove to Harvard, Mass to hear a lecture by John's friend Richard Higgins, author of As High a Heaven: Meditating on Trees with Thoreau. We were wearing sweaty outdoors clothes and our hair was pretty wild, but when we explained we were just coming from hiking the woods we fit right in with the tree hugging crowd.

Fwd: Wildcat with Alexa

2 Wildcat lift tickets: $18
lunch for two: $17
transportation: $187 (driving at 55 cents per mile)
skiing with my daughter Alexa: priceless

It's been years since we skied in New England and, in the meantime, we have become accustomed to the conditions and terrain at Jackson Hole, WY.  So after the first run down the icy, cold (10F), crowded, gradual pitch slopes at Wildcat Mountain, I was about ready to have an early lunch and head home.  But after a couple more runs, the joy of skiing returned.  Even on less challenging terrain you can work on finding the balance point and holding a good edge.  We even had fun on the green trails, turning only when the trail turned on its serpentine patch through the woods.  An added bonus: the snow was better on these easier trails.  We spent about half the day on the ungroomed trails, relearning how to ski icy bumps.  A reasonable level of competency soon returned, until the added difficulty of thin cover and exposed rocks threw me off balance again.

We drove for 7+ hours to ski for 5+ hours, but it was worth it.  Wildcat was celebrating its 51st anniversary and offering $9 tickets (as opposed to the usual $60) so it was a not-to-be-missed deal.  I took the day off work (Friday), and Alexa was between mid-term exams and classes starting back up (Tuesday).  A nice mini-vacation.

The directions were so easy, I-95 N to 16 N, that I didn't even set the GPS.  Alexa and I were chatting about school and next thing I knew we were at the roundabout in Gloucester.  We flew right past the point where I-95 and 128 separate and ended up driving an extra 30 miles.

Coming home, we had no problems with the directions but we almost didn't get out of the parking lot.  In the morning we parked in a line of cars, bumper to bumper down the middle of the lot.  In the afternoon, we skied down the mountain and right across the snow-covered lot to our car, popped our skis off, loaded everything into the car, and drove straight ahead to what I thought was the exit.  Turned out it was the trail we just skied down and the front wheels sank axle-deep into the snow.  Fortunately, two college-aged boys came and pushed us out, without even commenting on my bonehead driving maneuver.

The trip up was 188 miles at 65 mph avg for 38 mpg.  The return trip was 153 miles at 55 mph avg for 41 mpg.  The Mini Cooper is a great 2-person adventure car, add a third person and it is very difficult to fit all the gear, whether it is skis or sleds or backpacks.

Fwd: Celebrating the Red Sox - 2007 World Series Champions

Like Papelbon, we were too tired to dance, but we still held a small celebration after the Red Sox won the World Series.
--pws

Fwd: Big weekend

Lots going on around here.

Julie and I just got back from a concert at The Real School for Music.  We heard Guggenheim Grotto, a duo that plays "a decidedly upbeat mix of timeless pop, folk and soaring melodies."  Hearing live music in an intimate setting is very special.  We were sitting in the front row about five feet from the musicians.  At one point they asked us to sing the refrain of the next song so they could sing a countermelody.  I whispered, "Uh oh!" to Julie and they heard me and made a joke about it.  Their whole concert was taped and we were told it was for MTV, so we'll keep an eye out for it.

The warm up band was Sev, who plays great guitar.  Mike Abbott, one of the Real School founders, sat in on saxophone and flute.  Sev is a musician and an artist with an interesting web site: www.sevhead.com.

The boys were planning to go with us, but wrestling changed those plans.  Too bad, because they missed an excellent night of music and would have benefitted from hearing what can be done on guitar.  It was really amazing.

But Michael wanted to go to bed early.  He is trying to lose 3 pounds overnight so he can wrestle in a varsity match tomorrow at 155.  He thinks of himself as wrestling in the 160-pound weight class, but I guess the coach thinks of him as a 152-pounder (plus the 3 pound allowance you get late in the season).  We all hope he gets to wrestle varsity tomorrow, but we'll have to wait and see.  He has done real well in his JV matches and wants to test himself at the next level.

Nick had a special wrestling practice tonight.  He is wrestling in his first tournament on Sunday.  It is a sectional and if he does well, he will advance to the regionals next weekend.  In addition to weight divisions, they divide the boys into groups by ability and experience: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Copper.  Since this is Nick's first year he would normally wrestle Copper, but his coach says he is "scrappy" and is going to have him wrestle Bronze.  I dream of him winning the tournament and getting bumped up to Silver for the regionals, but again we'll have to wait and see.

On the academic front, all continue to excell.  Once again Nick got all A's, except for that B in gym.  It astounds me that he is a good athlete, but gets his lowest grade in gym.  He thinks it is because the teacher gets him confused with another Nick that goofs off in gym.  Michael got A's on his exams and expects good grades on his report card next week.  Alexa got her first college scores back and got an A, and two B+, with a Pass in her freshman seminar.  She wrote an excellent book review for her Chinese History class and got an A- on it, so she is settling in to her classes quite nicely.

Julie offered free treatment for anyone on the wrestling team last weekend and Michael acted as her assistant.  Several boys came for treatment of various aches and pains.  At last night's wrestling meet, the parents were effusive in their thanks.  The boys all really liked the treatment and felt much better afterwards.  One mother said her son got up that night and started cleaning house, so maybe that is some kind of weird marketing angle Julie can use.  She is planning to run another clinic for the wresters next weekend.

I went sledding in the rain that followed the big snowstorm on Tuesday.  I'm attaching photos of a couple of my lines.  In the third photo, you can see the ice at the bottom of the reservoir.  I think those are the boot tracks we made the day Michael and I fell through the ice.  There is even a little hole of water that has not completely refrozen next to the tracks.

Fwd: snow day - flexing at least half day

It snowed all day Sunday and most of the night.  This morning we had over 12 inches of fluffy powder, so I decided to take the day off and celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day by playing in the snow (my version of ebony and ivory).

Julie, Michael and I went out for a couple of hours hiking and sledding before breakfast.  Horn Pond Mountain is just a short walk from our house; Horn Pond Mountain isn't as big or steep as the mountains in this Mad River Rocket highlights video, and we don't get crazy air, but we do have the Mad River Rocket Killer-B sleds and deep powder, so it was a good morning.

After breakfast, shoveling the driveway (the only downside of 12+ inches of powder), and Michael's wrestling practice, I went back out with Nicholas.  Nick a bit of a daredevil and coaxed me to go off some small jumps.  That went well, so then we went off some medium size jumps.  Then Nick upped the ante and went off a 12-footer and I decided that I'd rather just take the video.  (The video is from my cell phone so quality is poor, but you get the idea.)  In addition to several shorter runs, we did 5 top to bottom runs.  We are both exhausted now.  Not sure how we'll survive skiing Jackson Hole if we get tired sledding at Horn Pond.

We decided to start naming the trails. 

• Gubba Gully - the site of Nick's daring do.
  
• Yak Trak - the main trail up the front side of the mountain, because Nick found one of the traction devices Julie lost this morning at the bottom of this trail.
• Crossroad - crosses Yak Trak and runs past the Old Stone House.
  
• Backside Bowls - =tThe open face down the back of the mountain, but since the slope goes over steep slabs of rock and ends at the Head Trauma Center we should be able to come up with a better name.
• B&C - the area with the boulder and rock cairn.
• Flat Tire - the trail where we popped a snow tube a couple weeks ago.  The trail near B&C, not to be confused with the Downhill Jump trail, where Eric popped another tube the same day.
• Downhill Jump - a fun run that ends on Crossroad with a crazy jump that some downhill MTB dude must have built.
• Whole Paycheck - the trail we took to Whole Foods for a late lunch (need a better name for this one too)
  

The photos show Nick on the rock before the major drop, the old reservoir where Michael and I fell through the ice a couple of weeks ago, and a hill we sled down today with lots of rocks and trees to avoid.  I included the reservoir photo, because falling through the ice ruined my brand new camera and I had to shoot these photos and the video on my cell phone.

In case you haven't heard it, here is the "fell through the ice" story.

The reservoir is no longer used and we like to hike down into it and clamber over the rock sides.  Usually there is a marshy section at the very bottom; sometimes it collects water, but never more than ankle or knee deep.
So we walked across the ice at the bottom and as we got near the opposite side the ice cracked and Michael and I (who were in the lead) fell through.  A hole opened in the ice, about 6 feet in diameter and suddenly we were standing in water (very cold water) up to our armpits.  I tried to climb out, but the ice kept breaking (just like you read about).  Fortunately, there were tiny trees (maybe sumac bushes) growing in out of the water and we used them to pull ourselves out and back onto solid ice. 
We walked home quickly (about 10 minutes), washed all our clothes, and took hot showers.  No real harm (except to Michael's phone and my camera) and we learned first-hand about the risks of winter hiking, and my desire for an adventure was met.