CrossCountry SkidaysBloomingtonIndiana 2002 / 2003
CrossCountry Skidays Larry Pejeau enjoys a Christmas morning ski outing. | December 4 2002,It began snowing in the early afternoon, by 10 pm there was enough snowfor late night skiing. This skier did not get out, but I expect thatsome did. Dec 5th, What a beautiful morning. We were only supposed to get 1 to 2 inchesof snow. We got 4-1/2" Up all night fighting I-69 on the COUNTUS! website, by 10 AM, I had still not got my skis out of the attic,I will! If I were not the boss, I would fire myself. If youcome here to check on the ski conditions, get out and Enjoy! Senda report to this site if you are so moved. Unfortunately I did notski this day that had better snow than all of the 2001/ 2002 season. Dec 6th, Finally on our second full day of skiable snow, this skier finally gotout to enjoy. I sat at this computer until about 2 pm on my day off,looking out the window at a second beautiful day of very clear skies anda bright sun with plenty of snow. the temperatures stayed below freezingin the very low 30's in the heat of the day. The snow was moderatelysoft and the glide was reasonable though not great. I wish I hadgotten out earlier and will plan to do that tomorrow on saturday. The temperature is expected to rise to the upper 30's on Saturday, so wewill hope that enough snow will survive for sunday skiing. I wouldrecommend getting out early in the morning the next two days. I amfinding skiing not as enjoyable lately. I need more skiing friends. Drop me a line if you want to ski some time. |
Dec 8th, Sundaymorning the temperatures were below freezing all morning an the brightsun had no effect on melting any more snow until about 1 PM. Thatwas the time that I went over to Karst Farm Park. The ground wasstill about 80% covered with snow, but the areas that were clear of snowin some places were very clear. Still as long as a skier stayed onwhat was white, the snow that had little loft, was pretty good for gliding. I had a better time today than on Friday. The large soccer fieldswere great. I would have expected the nature trail to have had goodsnow because it is more shaded, but the opposite was the case. Ihave had no problems with snow sticking. Skiing today on yesterdaystrails was impossible, but fresh snow skiing was good to very good. I look forward to skiing Monday morning before work.
December 9th and10th, If you enjoy skiing for the exercise, then get out anddo it. The temperature has stayed in the mid 20's or below sinceSunday. When you are in town, it looks like the snow has all melted,yet at karst Park and we assume the Golf Courses the ground is still mostlywhite. Not the beautiful wonderland that we love with our best skiingexperiences, but plenty of slide to work up a good sweat if you stay ontrack with previously undisturbed snow. This would be a great basefor another snowfall, and remember any snow in southern indiana beforeChristmas is a bonus. We are off to a great start on this winterthat was predicted to be a warm one. We have equaled the total numberof skiable days from the 2001/ 2002 season already.
December 11 and12, I am rushing off to ski with a new friend. Let it besaid now that we got freezing rain on the night of the 10th, which endedin 3 inches or so of new snow by morning on the 11th. It warmed throughoutthe 11th, but on the morning of the 12th, we are still very skiable. This snow left very slowly, but the brown spots greatly overshadowed snowafter the 12th.
December 24 andChristmas, I didn't get out for skiing on the night of the 24th,but no question there was plenty of snow. We had about 4 inches by10 pm and snow was still coming down hard when I went to bed. By5:30 AM the television news was reporting this "the most snow ever reportedon a Christmas in Indiana". We were traveling south for the holidaywith family, but got out at 10 AM for a real report on skiing conditions. If you got out on these days, send your report. We got 6" or moreof heavy snow. The new snow was slow, but setting tracks for othersto enjoy is often like this. The temperature was 23ºF at 9 AM. I met Larry Pejeau as I arrived at the IU Golf Course. Larry getsout most skiable days. I hope he will send us a Bloomington ski reportsoon and often. Sorry his picture turned out a little blurry, butit's better than a totally white page.
December 26 and27th, Bikesmiths has not reordered skis for our inventory sincethe winter of 2000/2001. Last year (2001/ 2002) seemed like globalwarming had rendered us out of the snow belt. Now that we think aboutit, the cold temperatures were plenty, we just failed to get the moistureon the right days. This year has been great ... Thirteen skiabledays already! Two more days of 5 to 7 inches of snow. We hadto work after driving back from Christmas with the family and then wentto work until dark, so skiing was again theoretical on the 26th, but noquestion we are still ski worthy today on the 27th. I will hit KarstFarm Park on my way to work.
December 28 and29th, The temperature went to 36 or 37ºF. on the 28th meltinga lot of snow. Conditions in the morning were still very good forskiing with the snow compacted, but still covering most of the ground. By Sunday, the 29th a lot of area is no longer snow covered, but the morningtemperatures were below freezing and the snow left was very skiable. It is predicted that there will be no skiable snow left by the 30th. Still our goal is always for 30 skiable days in a season. This seasonis still very young and we are half way there!
January 5th, It seems we did not loose any snow on Saturday and by Sunday morning wesee a little dusting of new snow. We expect conditions to be similarto the forth early, but melting was complete by afternoon.
January 16th &17th, Darn, we did not get the 6" predicted, but we got enough,or not. This was the night for night skiing if you got out. The snow was barely enough, but the temperatures have been very cold forseveral days and the earth is frozen hard. The snow started at 2pmin earnest, one could ski by 4pm, maybe. The moon was nearly fullwith shadows clear and sharp on the snow the night of the 16th. Wetried Karst park at 4PM on the 17th, and there was not enough snow. Wedid not count these two days as skiable, though we had enough snowin our own yard and were told there was good snow as near south of Bloomingtonas Bedford. This is a crunchy base, waiting for a top layer. The truly good snow was south of us in Kentucky and even Tennessee.
January 18th &19th, A beautiful light powder snow on top of the base above fell onSaturday afternoon. We now have 2" with a really solidly frozen base. It was skiable late afternoon and a still nearly full moon made this agreat night for night skiing. I almost went out at 1:30 A.M., butrolled over and pulled the covers up tight...It is cold 5º at 9A.M.on the 19th. Great skate ski conditions! Our goal isfor 30 skiable days in a season, that is 1 out of every 12 days of a year,skiable, a full month.
Sunday January 26,2003, Still fighting I-69 we hosted a breakfast meeting of CARRand our neighbors. The meeting went from 9 am to 1:30 pm. Wegot snow from 8 am or so until around 10 am. A nice light fluffysnow. To be honest, I only got out to test it in my couple acre yard,and we always have more snow than everybody else for some reason our ourwesterly facing slope surrounded by trees. The depth of the new snowis about 2 inches, barely enough, but the power is sweet, with a nice glide. This snow is welcome after the better part of a week with temperaturesin the 0 to 15ºF. range most of the time. Local schools hada two hour delay two days this week, because of the bitter temperatures. Saturday and Sunday had high temperatures in the lower to mid 20ºs. If we had only gotten the snow we were promised on the 16th, we would havebeen skiing for ten days in a row. Oh well.
January 31th andFebruary 1st There was enough snow to ski shortly after sunseton the 30th, but it was a very dark night with a heavy sky, so we are notcounting the 30th here. Saturday the 1st I got out to Karst parkby mid day. The loft of the snow had diminished some, but it wasstill a rather fluffy 1" of show. Barely enough, yet enough. This was perhaps my second favorite glide of the year as I did a roundof the nature trail of Karst park and several of the soccer fields. The walking paths were actually best. By Sunday, the temperaturewent up in the mid fifties for one day. We might have been able toski on that morning, but I forgot to check.
February 6th and7th It snowed lightly all day on Thursday the 6th. Thetemperature was near freezing all day and there was little snow to showfor the day by nightfall, but the snow kept coming till past midnight. By 8 pm our part of the world was very skiable. I went out for aneighborhood walk, but did not put on my ski's. Everywhere was skiable,even the Greene county road that passes my house. We had anotherground covering that is only just enough. We are longing for a deepsnow, while the normal persons are grumbling about "being sick of all thesnow" for the first time in two years. This has been the season oflot's of skiable days,... barely.
February 8th and9th Truthfully, I didn't get out on the 8th, and when I droveto the IU Golf Course on Sunday the 9th, it seemed pointless as there wasalmost no snow along the US-37 bypass, still the snow in my yard at homemade me think I should check it out. It turns out these days wereskiable. At 11:30 A.M. when I arrived, it looked a little sparse,and I almost turned around to check out Karst Park, but instead out ofduty to this page I put on my skis. I would estimate 60% of the landwas covered well enough for exercise skiing if not pleasure skiing. Every stride brought glide although there was enough grass showing through,most everywhere, so it was barely O.K. The temperature was25º F. By later in the day, the temperature went up enough toremove most of the little snow. But then, by 10:30 PM. we were gettinganother snowfall.
February 10th Indy television was reporting the snowfall this morning at 1/2", but Isaw about 1-1/2" looking out my window. It looked very skiable, barely,again. We intended to get out for a try, but "bills due" kept meinside. The snow fell lightly all day and added even more to thetotal than expected. The road was so slick I nearly spun out on myway to work. If nothing else, the Greene County road in front ofmy home was skiable.
February 11th &12th Ah a beautiful snowfall. More than predicted, closeto 4 inches of fluffy white snow. It looks fantastic, still whenI got out around 3 PM, frankly, it sucked. The first snow to stickon my skis in over a year. The joke about the road being skiableturned out to be the fact. I found the best skiing in the middleof the Green County roads. They never put out sand here. Thistime the roads were so icy, that they actually did in select spots. Luckily my house was 1/4 mile from any of those spots and the roadway wassand free. My neighbor's field and Karst Park all had unfrozen earthunder the snow that led to sticky no-glide conditions. Three collegestudents were walking around Karst park with skis on their feet for theirfirst outing of the year. It looked the best for the year and wasactually the worst. The snow by Wednesday had frozen ground underneath,and enough depth that skis would glide better in established tracks. There were a few areas of no glide in tracks set the day before, if thesun had managed to melt though areas of snow that had stuck to the priordays skis, but for the most part, this was a more typical ski outing thanany other day this year.
February 13, 14& 15th, The morning of the 13th would have been ok, but bymid day so much snow had melted that most areas looked not skiable. We did not try, but driving by Karst park showed so much melted area asto not look inviting. A freezing rain moved in on Valentines dayby late in the day conditions may have been skiable someplace, but againthis skier did not try. By the 15th there was so much sleet on anysnow left to be reasonably skiable. This was true of any snow eachof these three days, the trouble was that my favorite spots near home,did not have as much as other areas that I could observe from my car. I have added 1 day to the total number of days for these three. Askier looking for any opportunity to ski could have found snow all three. The 15th brought 8 inches of snow to areas north and 5 inches as closeas the Indianapolis Airport, so little travel could have resulted in greatsnow.
February 16th, So much freezing rain an sleet has fallen for over a day that it is expectedthat the ground is quite skiable. By early afternoon this skier wentout to test the "waters". IU Golf Course was only about 80% coveredin white and even much of that had a good amount of grass showing through. There was 20% that was totally not skiable, but the mixed white and grasshad a decent glide. The down hills were fast! Many areas werealmost fully hard frozen sleet that required keeping ones skis straightwith ankle control. Up hill climbs were more difficult because ofthe icy nature of much of what was skiable. It was best to look forareas where the blowing snow had collected in low spots.
February 17th, Finally enough snow on top of the ice to make really fun skiing. I skied over to my neighbor's house for breakfast. Skiing over thegravel driveway and on Greene/ Monroe county line road was no problem. The tall grass of my other neighbor's field worked great too! Thisis the best snow of the year so far and wow... we are up to 34 days andonly half way through February! Bikesmiths has sold one pair of skiboots and one stick of ski wax this year. No one is picking up thissport...too bad.
February 18th, 19th& 20th, This has been a great snow. This thin layerof snow is like a bicycle helmet foam. It is so tight and compactedwith the over a days worth of sleet in it's base. I didn't get outon the 18th, but on the 19th, I traveled to my friend Jeff Frey's houseon Knobstone Road in Lawrence County. We skied seven miles of trailsin the hoosier national forest over to 446 and back. I am so madthat I didn't take my camera. The pictures of the year were therefor the taking as we skied trails through beautiful pine forests with abeautiful mist. It was raining for at least half of our outing. All skiing is water skiing, so of course the glide was good and there wasno sticking. I was surprised how deep the snow was for forested skiing. It rarely gets any better than this. The morning of the 20th wasvery cold again. Great skate ski conditions. I need to getsome wax on mine and put some more effort toward becoming a competent skateskier.
Friday the 21st mighthave been skiable, but most of the snow had been lost, and I attended toother business. Saturday morning we woke at friends' home in Indianapolis. As we drove back to Bloomington it was pouring down rain. I thought,"If this were snow, it would be a bunch!" All but the most frozen and hardestpacked of the ice, got melted. By 3pm on Saturday, it turnedinto snow, and by dark it was a bunch. We got about 5 inches by Sundaymorning. Friday and Saturday are not counted in our cross countryski days total because even with a lot of snow on Saturday evening, I amsure that it would have totally stuck on the base of one's skis. Maybe some wax ski person knows the secret to these early snow conditions,but not me.
| February 23rd and24th. Sunday, the 23rd I missed another photo opportunity atthe I U golf course. Jim Rosenbarger and I skied a large loop ataround 2 PM 'till 3:30 PM, taking in most of the central portion of thefacility. When we stopped for a picture, my digital had no batterylife. The snow was deep and mostly very fun, but there were areasof sticking snow. It easily scraped off the base of one's skis withoutstopping, by pushing down hard on the forward stroke. By Monday morningFebruary 24th, Wish TV indianapolis, where they got less snow than us wascalling this "Winter Blast 2003". It was a "blast" we had 9-1/2"accumulated snow our home. The snow is beautiful, all the schoolsaround are closed. Thirty Nine days of skiable snow and the televisionreported on this day that the average last snowfall of the year for Indianapolisis March 30th! This year will be remembered. February 25th and26th: This is what it is like to travel and cross country ski. We finally have some depth to the snow and the temperature is cold! Temperatures dropped during the day Monday the 25th. Lot's of peopleare using the IU Golf course, which is good, because this is a snow thatwe need set trails. Lot's of people have done the work of makingtracks for us to follow. I did a little of this work on the 24th,myself. On the these two days I enjoyed those already laid down.Temperatures were 0ºF on Tuesday the 26th. The parking lot hadabout ten cars from skiers out at 4 pm on Tuesday afternoon. I wouldguess that several more were parked behind the student foundation. I felt too short of time to do the downhill to the lake, I'll bet thatis getting lots of runs these days. |  Thisteenager enjoyed an IU down hill as her mom watched. Two other skiers used the tracks set on topthe ridge behind her. |
February 27:More of the same... 42 days... let's see, "not enough snow around hereto justify the purchase of skis". 365 days in a year, divided by42, equals one ski day every 8.66 days this year. If we make it to52, that would be equal to one day of every week of the year, or one outof every seven days. Gloat, gloat, gloat. Bikesmiths sold twopairs of poles yesterday and had one person looking for boots. Ihave not reordered ski equipment for two years, so our stock is very limited. JL Waters has given up too I think. It makes me a little sad thatthis did not work out as at least a somewhat viable business but I willreapply myself next season, or not. Drop me a line if this page isat all helpful to you.
February 28th, We got a light dusting of snow on the night of the 27th, just to keep thingspretty. The temperature was close to freezing, so the snow was wet,but lots of snow everywhere was still great skiing. I got out latein the day, around 5 to 6 PM. Karst park was almost exactly as Iwould have expected. A wet snow that was very skiable everywhere. For some reason there were a few melted spots on the very back side ofthe nature trail, but they were easy to ski around. There were trailsmost areas that I was happy to reuse.
March 1st &2nd, Saturday the 1st had temperatures in the mid 30's and enough rainto make for fun skiing for those who ventured out. The loft of thesnow was lessened by Sunday morning, but the snow which is very packedand starting to disappear was still plentiful for skiing. Overcastskies and near freezing temperatures made for a wet snow all day, but notmore much loss of what remained. A very light dusting on Sunday eveningmay help Monday mornings remaining snow conditions.
March 3rd and 4th, These were very different days. Karst park was about 90% snow covered,but the 9 inches had been melted down to about 1 or 2 almost everywhereby the weekends rains. The snow was covered with diamonds from overnighttemperatures below 10ºF. that made for very hard snow on the morningof the 3rd.. The little dusting of snow from Sunday night had a smallpositive benefit, but the direction of ones skis had to be held straightwith ankle strength. This day was on for skate skiing even if youwere wearing old in track waxless skis. This was perfect skate skisnow and very fast. When I did ski in track, the only tracks availablewere made by someone with a stance so close together, my boots sometimeshit as they passed each other. I did find using one of these, yesterday'stracks and the other on top of untracked snow worked well. On Tuesdaythe fourth, the temperature was in the mid to upper 30ºs. Iwore a very light top, fleece hat and gloves. The snow was about50% coverage and finding a route of snow cover took scoping your routeout some distance ahead. Still this was a fast fun snow. Iused the narrow tracks of probably the same skier as the day before again. The on foot in, one foot out system worked best again. This mighthave been the last day of cross country skiing this year was a thoughtas I wrote this. There was a forecast for 40% chance of a snowfallon Wednesday night that might be gone by Thursday afternoon if it comesat all.
