 |
| My favorite skiing holiday photograph from this season. The Young Master and Bad Dad (his nickname for me) in Northern Michigan during a brief pause from gliding up and down the trails during mid-January 2023. |
 |
| The trails this morning around Lake Lansing, just five minutes from the house. Quite a few other skiers out today taking advantage of the warm temperatures (Upper 30s F.) and possibly final (???) appreciable snowfall for the season in our part of Lower Michigan. |
Starting the 15 Fife & Drum jaegers in earnest this evening -- They have been base-coated for some several weeks now. -- with fleshtone on the hands and faces, possibly continuing on to the basic dark green coats and light tan breeches if things progress well. But this morning, The Grand Duchess and I each managed to slip away for an hour or so of skiing local trails very close to the house in the wake of our snowfall last night.
The rest of this post is not wargaming or painting related, so feel free to stop reading now. Or stay tuned to hear me blather on incessantly about our cross-country skiing activities this winter.
----------
For non-olympians or pro-circuit racers (Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Jesse Diggins, Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson anyone?), our family has nevertheless enjoyed a pretty good XC-ski season for 2022-2023. We've been fortunate enough to clip into our bindings many times between mid-November and early March. Three trips to far Northern Michigan and dedicated Nordic ski centers, as well as numerous forays to more local trails very near us in Mid-Michigan. Both groomed and ungroomed. Plenty of places to cross-country ski if you look around and manage to clue into the local ski culture. Yes!
It's been a really good season in other related ways too. After a year of waiting, I finally took delivery of a very light, fast pair of carbon Madshus skis from Norway in January. My first upgrade in over 20 years, and it was definitely time. You just breathe, and you're flying down the trial on these.
Admittedly, it took a few tours to become acclimatized to them. I liken it to suddenly having Lamborghinis clipped to your feet, albeit the Norwegian version thereof.
We also took a couple of lessons in mid-February this year from qualified PSIA instructors to help us perfect our respective technique(s). Already a good skier, the Young Master really took off this year, and you ought to see the Grand Duchess on her skate skis. She has skiied downhil and 'classic' style cross-country for about 40 years, but skate skiing requires a different technique to move forward at speed. She's really something on 'em now though.
Not to be outdone, yours truly continues to work on balance and weight transfer to improve glide, especially on my non-dominant left leg. One-two-three-Glide! ONe-two-three-Glide! Meanwhile, I've also been learning the ins and outs of glide and grip waxing, a fascinating topic by itself.
As you might or might not expect, cross-country ski equipment and the various accoutrements have advanced quite a bit since the late 90s when I first learned the sport on the trails outside of Trondheim, Norway. The technical side of things provides an interesting sideline to the sport. Much to the amusement of the Grand Duchess, I've become an inadvertent ski gear head!
Now, at the risk of sounding like the late Freddy Mercury, and wanting it all (Sounds terribly spoiled, I know.), I envy those lucky so and sos who live in places where the season stretches into late April and even early May (the Lake Tahoe region and Western Colorado among others for example) because I'd sure be out there taking advantage of those spring trail conditions if I could.
That said, we've had a very respectable showing in our neck of the woods this year, so no complaints. And as I remarked to another skier on the trails late this morning, "Any snow, is good snow. I'll take it."
----------
We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog content. The first of nine days of Spring Break (akin to Half Term Break?) here, and I plan to work on the jaegers a bit every evening to make some headway before classes start up again the week after next. Stay tuned.
-- Stokes
 |
| Sonja trying out my new skis back in January. Visitors who are married or in committed relationships will instantly recognize the need for spousal/partner approval. The smile says it all. |
 |
| The Young Master and Bad Dad, February 2015. |
 |
| The Grand Duchess and Young Master Paul, Christmas Eve 2022. |
Comments
Kind Regards,
Stokes