Just two weeks of cross country skiing left!! Where did the winter go?

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

Well  the countdown is starting. ..just 2 more weeks of skiing at Mount Washington Alpine Resort. Hard to believe that it is the first day of spring since on Sunday , March 20 it was cool , windy and snowing on the cross country ski trails at Raven Lodge, Mount Washington’s Nordic Centre. We had a nice ski but it felt more like mid winter with the snow accumulating on the trails. We usually expect some sunshine and warm temperatures about this time of year and that might come later this week. 

 

But there is lots of skiing left and next weekend is Mount Washington’s first Nordic Fest on Saturday March 26 and Sunday March 27.  It features a variety of activities from waxing clinics, to snow shoe tours and lesson options including an adult performance xc ski camp. You can even try out the biathlon range and test out the Nomadic Sauna. Many activities need to be booked in advance so check out https://www.mountwashington.ca/events/event/1179-nordic-weekend-festival.html  for more information.  So get out, enjoy Nordic Fest and the final days of skiing. Its been great season!

 

Tempo variations in Free Skate in Cross Country Skiing

 By Keith and Heather Nicol
We may want to vary the tempo of many cross country skiing techniques depending on our objective and this blog post looks at free skate. If we want to go fast in the free skate we will want to have a high turnover and keep our torso directed straight down the track as you can see in photo 1. You still want to land on a flat ski and you want to swing your arms directly down the trail. Alternatively if you want to conserve energy you might want to glide further with each skate and in this case you want to land on a flat ski but then balance on that ski longer to take advantage of the glide. This requires that you move your head over the ski to help you stay balanced as seen in photo 2.  Another way to feel this `head over ski`feeling is to do the speed skater drill as you can see in photo 3.. In this case I put my hands behind my back and really try to get a long glide like long track speed skaters do. Notice how my head is directly over the glide ski to help me stay balanced.  See this video for more information-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtoLtWkw46o

Help – I can’t stop on my cross country skis

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

I often get letters from viewers of my you tube channel and here is one I got earlier this year from Lee. “I really struggle with the snow plow.  My snow plow doesn’t seem to slow me down enough. I struggle to get enough of a “V” - the back of my skis are not very far apart. I exercise/train regularly but can’t figure out how on earth to get the strength to push out the back of the ski to snow plow to slow down. If I could slow down on a downhill, it would open up a number of new areas but I’m stuck on beginner sections for now. “

Thanks for the note Lee and I know those trails at Cypress—they can be steep and when they get icy it can be a problem to slow down. Since I don’t have a video of your skiing I can only guess at what might be problem but here are some of my suggestions.. you likely need to widen your snowplow by pushing out with your heels. Remember you need to widen the plow to slow down. You say you don’t have the strength to do this which suggests that you are trying to snowplow with knock knees (see photo below) . I have difficulty pushing my skis out to slow down if they are too much on edge which is what adopting a knock kneed stance with do. Instead try to adopt a stance where the legs are angled naturally – see photo below . This will produce a small amount of edge which will make it easy to widen your plow to slow down. Try to imagine that you are scrapping dirt or gum off the heel of your ski boot to widen the plow.  If we adopt a stance that is too bull legged this will flatten the ski and the result will be little edging and you will not slow down very much (see photo below). Also remember that when the trail gets steep and icy that the snowplow will only slow you down..it may take a long time to actually come to a stop.  Check out this video which illustrates these concepts.- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eFLIPNXDI4&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

Temperature Inversions at Mount Washington Ski Resort are a nice surprise

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

    The Comox Valley is in a foggy cool period right now which has lasted for a few days and is suppose to go on until the weekend. But it pays to check out the web cams at Mount Washington Ski Resort since while it is cold and foggy in town it is sunny and warm at Mount Washington.  For instance, on Monday morning Jan 24 the temperature in the Comox Valley was around 1 C at 8:00 am where as at Raven Lodge and the Nordic centre it was about 5 C at the same time. Normally temperatures cool with elevation and the typical difference is around 6-7 C cooler on the mountain compared to Comox or Courtenay. But these ridges of high pressure come in with falling air which produce temperature inversions which means that instead of cooling with elevation the temperature gets warmer!! But despite the warm temperatures the snow stayed very good for skiing and we certainly enjoyed having lunch in the bright sun on the deck of Raven Lodge where the temperature came close to 10 C. So if the fog and chilly temperatures  are getting you down in town  , head for the hills and you might find it is alot sunnier and warmer than in town.  And the views are spectacular with layers of fog below and snowy mountains rising above them (see photo below). To check out the web cams at Mount Washington have a look at: https://www.mountwashington.ca/

Fog in Courtenay may mean sunny conditions at Mount Washington Alpine Resort

 By Keith and Heather Nicol

On Thursday, January 13 the fog had seemed to settle in for the day in Courtenay but around 11:00 am I mentioned to my wife Heather that perhaps we should check the web cams at Mount Washington since often fog in the valley means clear skies above. And on this day it was certainly the case. The Raven Lodge web cam showed clear skies and 5 C so we decided to do some spring skiing in January. Another up side of fog in the valley is that it often keeps the crowds away since people in town often think that it will be the same foggy –cloudy conditions on the mountain.  The Nordic skiing was great and it was nice just being in the sun. So next time you see fog in the Comox Valley check out the web cams  at Mount Washington since it might not be the same up there. In the photos below you can see the fog just below the level of the nordic ski trails at Raven Lodge. Here is the Mount Washington web site and you can easily navigate to the web cams- https://www.mountwashington.ca/

 

Cross country skiing at the Exhibition Grounds in Courtenay, BC

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

We usually cross country ski at Mount Washington but with the cold temperatures and recent snowfalls we have been cross country skiing at the Exhibition Grounds in Courtenay. This area has some wide open fields so gets lots of sun and we have set some tracks in one area. The powdery snow has meant that the tracks needed a few passes to compact but now we have some nice tracks to ski which are just 5 minutes from home. If readers have other places where they ski locally in the Comox Valley let us know since we are interested in trying out some other areas which may have some ski tracks on them.  Not sure how long the local cross country skiing will last this year but rain is forecast for Sunday , January 2. So we plan to get out some more today- Dec 31 and again tomorrow before the rain changes everything.  See you on the trails.

Checking out the waterfalls in some Vancouver Island Provincial Parks

 by Keith and Heather Nicol

With all of the rain that has been falling on Eastern Vancouver Island recently we decided to check out the waterfalls at two provincial parks near Parksville on Friday, Oct 29.  So we left Courtenay and headed south on the Inland Highway in some rare bright sunshine. First up was Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park and we parked at a small parking lot at coordinates 10 U 0387129 E and 5463551 N.  We walked around a 2 km loop that featured a couple of bridges (see photo below) and several roaring waterfalls of varying sizes (see photo below). We loved all the shades of green in the vegetation and the gorge cut by the river is very impressive. The trail is suited to a wide variety of hikers and we saw several groups enjoying the fall colours. Next up was Englishman River Falls Provincial Park which is located about 30 minutes away near Errington, B.C. We parked in the main parking lot (coordinates 10 U 0403651 E 5459385 N) where there are a variety of picnic tables and shelter. They also have a looped trail that is about 1.6 km long and two scenic waterfalls.  Again the trail is suited to a wide range of walkers. The upper falls has cut an interesting knife like gash in the rock (see photo below) and below the second bridge there is a side trail to be a deep pool that would be nice to dip into in the summer on a hot day. These areas are well worth a visit at any time of year but there are still some fall colours which will brighten your trip.