Snow, Snow,Snow!

December 30, 2012

It was a beautiful snowy Christmas in Rangeley. The storm hit the day after Christmas, and we were shoveling ourselves out of the camp! We got over a foot of new snow! It snowed all Thursday and was fabulous skiing at Saddleback Mountain on Friday.  Saddleback was on wind hold for the duration of the storm, but it didn’t stop my parents from Nordic skiing behind the camp on the trails. They skied through the storm and falling snow out behind the camp to the snowmobile trails, where there was not a single snowmobile yet. The laid the first tracks in the powder and explored up to Ephraim Ridge, which took about four hours round trip. At the east end of Nutting Pond they followed some snowshoe tracks to the top of the ridge and had a great run down. I kept the fire going at camp and watched the snow and wind howl while drinking my tea.

On Friday, when the wind had died down and the snow had slowed, there were plenty of fresh turns to be had in Casablanca Glades at Saddleback Mountain! They opened the glades for the first time this year and I was one of the first to bust past the dropped rope and break trail out to the glades. It was fabulous conditions. Ducking between the snow-laden branches and into the glades I dropped a knee into the light powder and cut through uncharted freshies spraying snow behind me.  Even by the end of the day, when my legs were burning and I could hardly stand it, there were still soft puffs of powder to blow through. I was amazed that the snow held out all day and didn’t get skied off. It was a great start to the season!

The settled snow around the camp measured 24 inches on Friday and we’ve been getting more all weekend! The drifts are already coming up to the windows—always a good sign for the coming winter. Fortunately I had come up a few weeks prior and burned the old scrap wood piled by the fire pit, so the fire pit was clean and ready to be buried in snow.

As I sit busily writing this blog my mother is replacing the last of the old shag carpeting on the stars and my dad is putting in a new vanity light in the bathroom. It’s always fun to tinker at things and have a project for camp, and it has been very nice to have their help.

Well, the snow is piling up and we must be off to play in it….

~Leah