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Yesterday, I went with some new friends from the Seattle Outdoor Adventure and Pacific Northwest Hiking Meetup groups for some cross country skiiing at Cabin Creek.

I’ve been wanting to go to Cabin Creek for some time and have been putting it off because I’m just not in the ski shape I used to be. (it’s not an “easy” place) but this opportunity presented its self and I just had to go.

After slipping and nearly falling on my tush just getting to my truck, I used the 4-wheel drive to safely get down the hill out of my neighborhood and onto the elevated (right next to the water) concrete ramp that is I-705 to get to I-5.

It was so much warmer and sunny a mere 39 minutes up the road at East Gate where we were all meeting (OK, I slid on some ice going around a corner) The weather reports said it was 20 degrees with freezing fog down here and it was 40-something up there. Go figure.

We divided up into carpools and hit the road to cross Snoqualmie Pass to head to Cabin Creek. The roads were actually better crossing the pass than they were down in Tacoma. The only issue was some wicked winds on the west side and heading up the pass. It was enough to blow you into the next lane if you weren’t careful.

It was a beautiful day on the East side of the summit.

My new friend Angela and I did the Berg and Viking Trails.

The snow was a bit more firm than I like for early in the season when I’m out of practice and out of shape, but it was beautiful up there.

I was very wobbly and made about every mistake that one can make on skis; getting stiff, not bending at the waist, knees too close, weight too far back, trying to muscle my upper body around, you name it. It was a bit frustrating for someone who used to teach. It was because I hadn’t been on cross country skis for so long and just wasn’t used to it, nor were the correct muscles used to being worked.

Here I am doing the herring bone up an icy hill. (which is a great hip workout when you haven’t been on long trad skis for a long time)

After doing those loops, we headed down to meet the group for lunch.

After lunch we did some skiing on the easy route because accidents happen when you’re fatigued.

All in all, we skied almost 7 miles (6.95 to be exact) and finished upright, which is a win in my book. Here’s our Garmin tracks.

There are more pictures here:

It was a great day and I plan on spending a LOT more time skiing this year.

Although my lack of confidence and stability on my skis is all about ME and my lack of practice/training/discipline, this last adventure has motivated me to finally replace my 23 year old skis.

Check out the graphics on these circa 1986 beauties…

I decided to stay with a trad ski rather than go with shorter fatter skis (I am moving down from 200s to 195s however) which make it difficult to go skiing on groomed trails with friends. (I already have fat full on telemark skis for straight back country touring)

I chose the Madshus Voss MGV+ I like this one because like my old skis, they are skinny enough to fit in a track, but still has some sidecut (which skis didn’t have in 1986) and metal edges for ice/back country skiing. These have ¾ metal edge which will soften up the tip and tail making them easier to turn and move around.

I’m going to try an NNN boot and binding. I ADORE my old Fabiano Italian telemark boots (as I told someone yesterday who wanted to buy them from me, “You can have these boots when you pry them off my cold, dead feet”) and will keep then for my tele skis as I’m not certain how enamored I am with my new plastic boots (will also keep my old three pin tele bindings in case I want to switch back to that setup.

I’m going for a beefier back country boot instead of a straight touring boot, in this case the lady’s Alpina BC 50L back country boot

and the Rotellfella NNN Auto back country binding. I’m really unsure about moving to this type of binding, which is why I’m keeping my old three pin bindings. (which also happen to be Rotellfella)

here are my old bindings

I am SO thankful that I can prodeal all of this and not pay retail.

Did I mention I was to do a LOT of skiing this year?

~L

Mood: Tired

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