Cross
Country Skidays
Bloomington Indiana 2002 / 2003
Cross
Country 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 snow
for late night skiing. This skier did not get out, but I expect that
some did.
Dec 5th, What a beautiful morning. We were only supposed to get 1 to 2 inches of snow. We got 4-1/2" Up all night fighting I-69 on the COUNT US! 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 you come here to check on the ski conditions, get out and Enjoy! Send a report to this site if you are so moved. Unfortunately I did not ski 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 got
out 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 and
a bright sun with plenty of snow. the temperatures stayed below freezing
in the very low 30's in the heat of the day. The snow was moderately
soft and the glide was reasonable though not great. I wish I had
gotten 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 we
will hope that enough snow will survive for sunday skiing. I would
recommend getting out early in the morning the next two days. I am
finding skiing not as enjoyable lately. I need more skiing friends.
Drop me a line if you want to ski some time.
|
Dec 8th, Sunday morning the temperatures were below freezing all morning an the bright sun had no effect on melting any more snow until about 1 PM. That was the time that I went over to Karst Farm Park. The ground was still about 80% covered with snow, but the areas that were clear of snow in some places were very clear. Still as long as a skier stayed on what 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 fields were great. I would have expected the nature trail to have had good snow because it is more shaded, but the opposite was the case. I have had no problems with snow sticking. Skiing today on yesterdays trails was impossible, but fresh snow skiing was good to very good. I look forward to skiing Monday morning before work.
December 9th and 10th, If you enjoy skiing for the exercise, then get out and do it. The temperature has stayed in the mid 20's or below since Sunday. 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 mostly white. Not the beautiful wonderland that we love with our best skiing experiences, but plenty of slide to work up a good sweat if you stay on track with previously undisturbed snow. This would be a great base for another snowfall, and remember any snow in southern indiana before Christmas is a bonus. We are off to a great start on this winter that was predicted to be a warm one. We have equaled the total number of skiable days from the 2001/ 2002 season already.
December 11 and 12, I am rushing off to ski with a new friend. Let it be said now that we got freezing rain on the night of the 10th, which ended in 3 inches or so of new snow by morning on the 11th. It warmed throughout the 11th, but on the morning of the 12th, we are still very skiable. This snow left very slowly, but the brown spots greatly overshadowed snow after the 12th.
December 24 and Christmas, 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 by 10 pm and snow was still coming down hard when I went to bed. By 5:30 AM the television news was reporting this "the most snow ever reported on a Christmas in Indiana". We were traveling south for the holiday with 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 more of heavy snow. The new snow was slow, but setting tracks for others to 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 gets out most skiable days. I hope he will send us a Bloomington ski report soon and often. Sorry his picture turned out a little blurry, but it's better than a totally white page.
December 26 and 27th, Bikesmiths has not reordered skis for our inventory since the winter of 2000/2001. Last year (2001/ 2002) seemed like global warming had rendered us out of the snow belt. Now that we think about it, the cold temperatures were plenty, we just failed to get the moisture on the right days. This year has been great ... Thirteen skiable days already! Two more days of 5 to 7 inches of snow. We had to work after driving back from Christmas with the family and then went to work until dark, so skiing was again theoretical on the 26th, but no question we are still ski worthy today on the 27th. I will hit Karst Farm Park on my way to work.
December 28 and
29th, The temperature went to 36 or 37ºF. on the 28th melting
a lot of snow. Conditions in the morning were still very good for
skiing 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 morning
temperatures 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 season
is 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 we see a little dusting of new snow. We expect conditions to be similar to 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 for several days and the earth is frozen hard. The snow started at 2pm in earnest, one could ski by 4pm, maybe. The moon was nearly full with shadows clear and sharp on the snow the night of the 16th. We tried Karst park at 4PM on the 17th, and there was not enough snow. We did not count these two days as skiable, though we had enough snow in our own yard and were told there was good snow as near south of Bloomington as 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 on Saturday afternoon. We now have 2" with a really solidly frozen base. It was skiable late afternoon and a still nearly full moon made this a great night for night skiing. I almost went out at 1:30 A.M., but rolled over and pulled the covers up tight...It is cold 5º at 9A.M. on the 19th. Great skate ski conditions! Our goal is for 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 CARR and our neighbors. The meeting went from 9 am to 1:30 pm. We got snow from 8 am or so until around 10 am. A nice light fluffy snow. 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 our westerly facing slope surrounded by trees. The depth of the new snow is 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 temperatures in the 0 to 15ºF. range most of the time. Local schools had a 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 have been skiing for ten days in a row. Oh well.
January 31th and February 1st There was enough snow to ski shortly after sunset on the 30th, but it was a very dark night with a heavy sky, so we are not counting the 30th here. Saturday the 1st I got out to Karst park by mid day. The loft of the snow had diminished some, but it was still a rather fluffy 1" of show. Barely enough, yet enough. This was perhaps my second favorite glide of the year as I did a round of the nature trail of Karst park and several of the soccer fields. The walking paths were actually best. By Sunday, the temperature went up in the mid fifties for one day. We might have been able to ski on that morning, but I forgot to check.
February 6th and 7th It snowed lightly all day on Thursday the 6th. The temperature was near freezing all day and there was little snow to show for 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 a neighborhood walk, but did not put on my ski's. Everywhere was skiable, even the Greene county road that passes my house. We had another ground covering that is only just enough. We are longing for a deep snow, while the normal persons are grumbling about "being sick of all the snow" for the first time in two years. This has been the season of lot's of skiable days,... barely.
February 8th and 9th Truthfully, I didn't get out on the 8th, and when I drove to the IU Golf Course on Sunday the 9th, it seemed pointless as there was almost no snow along the US-37 bypass, still the snow in my yard at home made me think I should check it out. It turns out these days were skiable. 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 of duty to this page I put on my skis. I would estimate 60% of the land was 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 was 25º F. By later in the day, the temperature went up enough to remove most of the little snow. But then, by 10:30 PM. we were getting another snowfall.
February 10th Indy television was reporting the snowfall this morning at 1/2", but I saw 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 me inside. The snow fell lightly all day and added even more to the total than expected. The road was so slick I nearly spun out on my way to work. If nothing else, the Greene County road in front of my home was skiable.
February 11th & 12th Ah a beautiful snowfall. More than predicted, close to 4 inches of fluffy white snow. It looks fantastic, still when I got out around 3 PM, frankly, it sucked. The first snow to stick on my skis in over a year. The joke about the road being skiable turned out to be the fact. I found the best skiing in the middle of the Green County roads. They never put out sand here. This time 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 was sand free. My neighbor's field and Karst Park all had unfrozen earth under the snow that led to sticky no-glide conditions. Three college students were walking around Karst park with skis on their feet for their first outing of the year. It looked the best for the year and was actually 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 the sun had managed to melt though areas of snow that had stuck to the prior days skis, but for the most part, this was a more typical ski outing than any other day this year.
February 13, 14 & 15th, The morning of the 13th would have been ok, but by mid 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 as to not look inviting. A freezing rain moved in on Valentines day by late in the day conditions may have been skiable someplace, but again this skier did not try. By the 15th there was so much sleet on any snow left to be reasonably skiable. This was true of any snow each of 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. A skier 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 close as the Indianapolis Airport, so little travel could have resulted in great snow.
February 16th, So much freezing rain an sleet has fallen for over a day that it is expected that the ground is quite skiable. By early afternoon this skier went out to test the "waters". IU Golf Course was only about 80% covered in 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 grass had a decent glide. The down hills were fast! Many areas were almost fully hard frozen sleet that required keeping ones skis straight with ankle control. Up hill climbs were more difficult because of the icy nature of much of what was skiable. It was best to look for areas 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 the gravel driveway and on Greene/ Monroe county line road was no problem. The tall grass of my other neighbor's field worked great too! This is the best snow of the year so far and wow... we are up to 34 days and only half way through February! Bikesmiths has sold one pair of ski boots and one stick of ski wax this year. No one is picking up this sport...too bad.
February 18th, 19th & 20th, This has been a great snow. This thin layer of snow is like a bicycle helmet foam. It is so tight and compacted with the over a days worth of sleet in it's base. I didn't get out on the 18th, but on the 19th, I traveled to my friend Jeff Frey's house on Knobstone Road in Lawrence County. We skied seven miles of trails in the hoosier national forest over to 446 and back. I am so mad that I didn't take my camera. The pictures of the year were there for the taking as we skied trails through beautiful pine forests with a beautiful 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 was no sticking. I was surprised how deep the snow was for forested skiing. It rarely gets any better than this. The morning of the 20th was very cold again. Great skate ski conditions. I need to get some wax on mine and put some more effort toward becoming a competent skate skier.
Friday the 21st might
have been skiable, but most of the snow had been lost, and I attended to
other 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 hardest
packed of the ice, got melted. By 3pm on Saturday, it turned
into snow, and by dark it was a bunch. We got about 5 inches by Sunday
morning. Friday and Saturday are not counted in our cross country
ski days total because even with a lot of snow on Saturday evening, I am
sure 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 and
24th. Sunday, the 23rd I missed another photo opportunity at
the I U golf course. Jim Rosenbarger and I skied a large loop at
around 2 PM 'till 3:30 PM, taking in most of the central portion of the
facility. When we stopped for a picture, my digital had no battery
life. The snow was deep and mostly very fun, but there were areas
of sticking snow. It easily scraped off the base of one's skis without
stopping, by pushing down hard on the forward stroke. By Monday morning
February 24th, Wish TV indianapolis, where they got less snow than us was
calling this "Winter Blast 2003". It was a "blast" we had 9-1/2"
accumulated snow our home. The snow is beautiful, all the schools
around are closed. Thirty Nine days of skiable snow and the television
reported on this day that the average last snowfall of the year for Indianapolis
is March 30th! This year will be remembered.
February 25th and 26th: 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 people are using the IU Golf course, which is good, because this is a snow that we need set trails. Lot's of people have done the work of making tracks 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 had about ten cars from skiers out at 4 pm on Tuesday afternoon. I would guess 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 that is getting lots of runs these days. |
This teenager enjoyed an IU down hill as her mom watched. Two other skiers used the tracks set on top the ridge behind her. |
February 27: More of the same... 42 days... let's see, "not enough snow around here to justify the purchase of skis". 365 days in a year, divided by 42, equals one ski day every 8.66 days this year. If we make it to 52, that would be equal to one day of every week of the year, or one out of every seven days. Gloat, gloat, gloat. Bikesmiths sold two pairs of poles yesterday and had one person looking for boots. I have 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 that this did not work out as at least a somewhat viable business but I will reapply myself next season, or not. Drop me a line if this page is at all helpful to you.
February 28th, We got a light dusting of snow on the night of the 27th, just to keep things pretty. The temperature was close to freezing, so the snow was wet, but lots of snow everywhere was still great skiing. I got out late in the day, around 5 to 6 PM. Karst park was almost exactly as I would have expected. A wet snow that was very skiable everywhere. For some reason there were a few melted spots on the very back side of the nature trail, but they were easy to ski around. There were trails most areas that I was happy to reuse.
March 1st & 2nd, Saturday the 1st had temperatures in the mid 30's and enough rain to make for fun skiing for those who ventured out. The loft of the snow was lessened by Sunday morning, but the snow which is very packed and starting to disappear was still plentiful for skiing. Overcast skies and near freezing temperatures made for a wet snow all day, but not more much loss of what remained. A very light dusting on Sunday evening may 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 everywhere by the weekends rains. The snow was covered with diamonds from overnight temperatures below 10ºF. that made for very hard snow on the morning of the 3rd.. The little dusting of snow from Sunday night had a small positive benefit, but the direction of ones skis had to be held straight with ankle strength. This day was on for skate skiing even if you were wearing old in track waxless skis. This was perfect skate ski snow and very fast. When I did ski in track, the only tracks available were made by someone with a stance so close together, my boots sometimes hit as they passed each other. I did find using one of these, yesterday's tracks and the other on top of untracked snow worked well. On Tuesday the fourth, the temperature was in the mid to upper 30ºs. I wore a very light top, fleece hat and gloves. The snow was about 50% coverage and finding a route of snow cover took scoping your route out some distance ahead. Still this was a fast fun snow. I used 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 might have been the last day of cross country skiing this year was a thought as I wrote this. There was a forecast for 40% chance of a snowfall on Wednesday night that might be gone by Thursday afternoon if it comes at all.
