The Nugget

Yesterday my man John, my buddy Steve, and I snowmobiled over to a secret little back country ski spot, we are calling "The Nugget".  Well, that is what Steve calls it.  It is a sweet little chute that is fairly accessible if you are willing to work a little to get there, Caratunk's own little private stash of back country skiing.

"The Nugget" - that white line down the center of the mountain

As you can see, we are in full on winter still around here.  And I know it looks all sunny and warm, but yesterday it there was a high of about 20 degrees with a windchill factor of WTF (for you Jon - ha ha). Seriously, it was not typical spring skiing weather at all, more like mid-Feburary than mid-March.

We snowmobiled across Pleasant Pond (my swimming pool, to give you an indication when I will be getting into open water to swim) and on a local snowmobile trail. Someone had to ride in the tote sled that was behind the snowmobile.

We picked Steve because he was the only one with a helmet.  Things went well for the most part.

The purple sled is for wind protection.  We are all about safety.

Except we dumped him out of the sled twice.

I made him lay back down to re-enact the crash.

After John and I were done laughing made sure Steve was OK, we loaded everything back in and kept going to The Nugget.  We put our skins on our skis (these attach to the base of your ski, so you can ski up hill)

Climbing skins

It was a short 15 minute ski to the bottom of the chute. 

The Nugget, lower portion

It was a good 45 minute climb to the top with really awesome views to the northeast. 

Check out the wind blowing the snow around.  It was blowing pretty hard.

We had tons of fun skiing down, conditions were really nice, some powder, some ice, some crud.  Lots of face plants (funny, we didn't take pictures of that!)   If this weather stays cold like it is supposed to, this hill will be skiable into April.  We will definitely hit it again this year.

I love where I live, I love that I can ride into the woods for 20 minutes and find a place to ski that is this good, and I just really feel fortunate that I am surrounded by people who love to be outside as much as I do.

After a 10 mile run in the morning and this playing around in the afternoon, I was pretty wiped out and ready for this rest/recovery week. 

117 days until Ironman Lake Placid!