Skiing at Tech

In the past few days I've gotten two free wristbands, personalized at that.  Unfortunately, I received the from the ER at the hospital.

It was anything but an ideal Birkie weekend for me.  For starters, the weather arrived a little late, in time to drive home in though of course.  Second, the Korte and anything but the Elites in the Birkie was no longer timed nor was it competitive at all.  The real downer though was that I won my first two citizen sprint heats and had to ski a third in the semifinal.  It was in that race, while coming back main street, that my knee gave way and I went down.  As of now it appears to be either a slight ACL tear or a slipping of my kneecap.  Tomorrow I am getting an MRI which should tell exactly what is wrong. 

Unfortunately, the timing of this injury, even if it is not overly severe, jeopardizes my Junior Olympic trip, which I am supposed to leave for this week. 

It makes me realize though, how much I took for granted.  By that I mean just being healthy and able to ski.  You really do realize how much you love something when it is taken away.

On a better note, it was still a nice trip this weekend being able to see my parents, sister, and cousins, along with many old friends.   I hope everyone had a good Birkie weekend even though it wasn't a full race.  From what I heard, being able to just go and have a fun easy ski with friends was just that, a fun an easy ski.

Enjoy the snow for some great post-Birkie skiing at home.  I would encourage everyone to think about racing in the Great Bear Chase up here in Calumet in two weeks.  Its a fun, low key race, with a 50 k or 25 k course.  I have always enjoyed skiing it, and there should be great trails.  Plus, now you all have no excuse not to with the great conditions you will have back home.

 
Kyle
 

There are two things that make no sense to me.

First off, the weather.  How can it be that it is freezing cold for the longest time, and then, right at the moment when you don't want it to get to warm... it does.  Of course, I am referring to the Birkie.  Let's hope that it can endure a day or two more of warm temperatures before it is supposed to drop below freezing.  For those in the front waves, it may be hard and well covered, but likely by wave 3 or 4, this race is going to be sloppy.

Even here in Houghton it has warmed up considerably.  Snow has melted and it is actually possible to see pavement on roads besides US41.  So instead of slippery snow covered sidewalks, we now have very sloppy, slushy sidewalks.  And thanks to the tons of sand that is added to give you traction when its cold... its not exactly clean slush, if there is such a thing.  On a positive note, we have plenty of snow here, and the trails are in amazing shape.  Fast and hard, maybe the best we have had all year.  

Since its been a while since I updated, let me fill you in on whats been going on in our racing schedule.  Two weekends ago, we went to Al Quaal in Ishpeming to have a skate time trial with NMU and UWGB.  The purpose of this was to race on the course in which we were going to be skiing on for NCAA Regionals the following weekend.  If anyone has ever skied the Olympic course at Al Quaal, you know how difficult it is.  If not, its hard to explain.  You get the feeling you're always going up.  It has downhills, and they can be quite fun, but they don't allow you to recover that much before the next steep climb.  Its not uncommon for people to end up in the woods and/or break equipment on the downhills.  My ankles hurt the whole race due to the very hard trail being kinda slick, so my race wasn't the best, but it was definitely good to ski the course before regionals. 

So this past weekend we traveled to Al Quaal again for regionals.  First off, I should mention that we will have 5 members of our team going to NCAAs out of a possible 6.  We would have had 6, except the last one has a slipped disk in his back and cannot go.  Saturday was a 10 km skate (interval start) for the men and was very difficult.  The hills take a lot out of you, and on my second lap it started snowing so hard I couldn't see where I was going.  That didn't speed up the course at all.  I had an alright race, finishing closer to some of the other people on my team than I have in recent races. Sunday was a 15km mass start classic race.  I was really excited for this race, never having done a mass start classic with such amazing competition.  I was not disappointed.  Unfortunately, due to my poor USSA points, which are a result of falling in my only sprint race this year, I started at pretty much the very back of the pack.  It took a lot of work to fight up into a position where I could ski with some people who were about the same speed.  My goal the whole race was to catch and stay with one of the members of my team that I haven't beat all year.  I could see him most of the race, but due to were I started (he started about 5-6 rows ahead of me) I just could not catch him, finishing a frustrating 5.4 seconds behind him.  Despite that, I felt it was the best race of the year so far for me.  I knew when I finished there was no way I could have possibly skied that race any faster.  It was clear that I pushed myself to the max the next day, having a pretty sore body, especially my back.

So, in a way, now that regionals are done, my first Collegiate season is done.  All I have left is the Birkie (I'll be doing the Korte actually), and Junior Olympics.  One of my goals for the year was to make JOs, and I couldn't be more excited to go.  On March 1st I'll leave for Salt Lake City to go race at Soldier Hollow, the site of the 2002 Cross Country skiing in the Olympics.  From what I have heard it is one of the most amazing places to ski in the world, and I am so excited to go.  However, this brings me to the other thing that just doesn't make sense to me.  Because of Junior Olympics, which lasts a week, I'll be missing a week of school.  So far this year I haven't been too busy or swamped with work, but as soon as I am about to take a week off, I get tons of work.  I not only have a lot I suddenly need to do before I go, but also a lot to do when I get back.  Timing... its just been awful lately. Despite that, however, I still cannot wait to leave for Junior Olympics.  It is something I have not been able to compete at yet, and I am looking forward to the challenge and excitement it has to offer.

Hope that everyone has a good Birkie, and that the weather holds out for us.

Ski fast,

Kyle
 

Nowhere else can it snow this much when it is this cold.  Nowhere.

Temperatures have been in the negatives since Saturday, and we've still been skiing.  Thanks to hose frigid temperatures and lots and lots of new snow, the trails are in good shape, but extremely slow.  It reminds me of when I was a little kid and you have to stride everything on classic skis just to move.  Really, gliding is like a memory from the past, a very good one.  Due to the cold, and the lake not being frozen over, it's snowed pretty much non-stop since last Wednesday or so.  Upwards of two feet maybe on the trails.  We canceled our time trial on Saturday, and even went inside to play floor hockey yesterday after skiing for an hour and a quarter in the -7 degree weather, not to mention the wind chill.

On another note, it was good to see Rex Grossman back to his usual self last night as the Bears more or less embarrassed themselves.

This week is officially Winter Carnival week here at Tech.  We get Thursday and Friday free of classes and many special events take place.  The end of the season Broomball tournament, concerts, lots of partying, all night statue building competition, the end of the month long statue building, and more partying.  The statues are pretty amazing to see.  The creativity and ability of the students here is unbelievable.  Typically the Fraternities have some of the best ones. 

This weekend we have a time trial with NMU and UWGB.  Should be a fun week trying to stay warm during practice.
Hope everyone gets snow in Green Bay and you all stay warmer too.  I just noticed that it appears the Green Bay schools are canceled for the day.  What the heck.

 
Stay warm,
Kyle
 

This past week has been mostly a recovery week for me, trying to get all my strength back before the races in Telemark this past weekend.  With exception to the one interval hill workout, everything was pretty low key.  With that said, I was still a little worn down heading into the races this past weekend at Telemark.

We traveled on Friday, meaning I got to miss my one Friday class (where I watch a movie).  The whole trip you could see snow along the side of the road, and so it seemed the course wouldn't be too bad.  From what we had heard so far, we would be skiing on a 5 km loop, 2 x's for the skate race on saturday, and 5 x's on Sunday.  When we got there we changed and headed out to review the course and do a light ski.  At first, while skiing on the Korteloppet trail, it seemed like conditions were pretty good.  For the most part a flat trail, hard packed, with only an occasional rock sticking up that was marked by some blue flags.  Then we turned off the Korte trail onto the World Cup trails, and basically I thought it was a joke.  It was like skiing on sugar covered moguls.  Grass and rocks were everywhere.  Downhills contained jumps, and were as difficult as anything else on the course.  

Despite those conditions, that remained the course for Saturday.  Not wanted to scratch up my new Fischers, I skied on my year old Salomons instead, which already have a few scratches (thank you Madison Square).  They now have a few more.  I didn't feel I had the best race on Saturday.  My ankles hurt the whole time and I couldn't get into any sort of rhythm where I felt like I was skiing well.  Basically, I was just happy to be done with that race.  

Sunday's classic course was changed to a 2.4 km loop or so that we skied 6 times.  The conditions on that trail weren't that bad, but it wasn't the fastest thanks to single digit temperatures.  At least it finally felt like winter.  Despite being cold, the sun was out and the wind was calm, so it really didn't feel bad at all.  My race went pretty well.  My kick zone on my new classic skis was a little small I think, so my kick wasn't as good as it could've been, but at least they were fast on the downhills.  I finished around the middle of all the older men skiers and was satisfied with my race.  I had a time of 44:08 for the slightly less than 15 km classic and I felt pretty good throughout the race. 

The question of where is the snow was answered on our way back to school as we drove through Hurley.  On Saturday night it snowed there, and it was pretty clear.  Snow banks were huge, and everything was a pure white color.  There isn't even that much here in Houghton.  At least it is cold now, and hopefully snow will continue to fall here, on the Birkie trail, and back home so you can all ski on good conditions.

This coming weekend we have off so we will actually all be here in Houghton for the weekend, something that is pretty unusual during the winter.  Winter Carnival (the biggest event up here at Tech) is in two weeks, and the famous snow statues are well under construction, even with the minimal snow they have to work with (compared to usual at least).  It is really amazing what they do, and I would encourage anyone who hasn't ever seen them to make a trip sometime to see the engineering and building talent that we have to offer.

Keep thinking snow,

Kyle 

First off, I should wish everyone a Happy New Year, although that seems a bit overdue now.  Along with the fact that not much was worth reporting over my Christmas break, since everyone pretty much can imagine the circumstances in Green Bay at the time, I've been pretty busy of late with school and adjusting to a new semester.

A Little Recap:

Over break I visited Wausau a couple times when they had snow, and roller skied other times when I wasn't working to make back some of the money I've spent buying new equipment this year. The first week of January I spent back up here in Houghton because I came back up to watch some of the Senior Nationals races.  A little hesitant and somewhat intimidated by the company of skiers that would show up I chose not to ski and to watch and learn this year. To say I didn't slightly regret it would be lying.  It is very hard to watch people do something you love and to not participate, but I must also say I learned some too by watching some of the United States best skiers fly by. At least I have next year yet since Nationals will be held here in Houghton again next year.  After the races, I returned home to snowless Green Bay for a week.  At the end of that week, on January 13-14 I traveled up to Munising for some Great Lakes Division Junior Olympic Qualifying races.  Partially due to the fact that I hadn't raced in over a month, and that the course was a brutal 12 km skate race, I didn't do quite as well as I had hoped.  The classic race, 5 km, the following day went slightly better.  Overall, I did well enough that as long as I keep it up I should be able to make the Great Lakes JO team.

A New Semester:

After the races I headed back to school to start my second semester of college.  Being back with the team was nice and skiing with everyone again has been a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, as far as classes go, this semester will likely be more difficult than last.  My schedule this semester is also more challenging and busy than last.  I am only taking one more credit than last semester (16 this term), but many of these classes have a lab which causes them to have more time.  The first week went pretty well so far, we shall see what the rest has in store for me.  As far as skiing goes, we received about 8 or so inches of snow between Thursday night and Friday night.  While most of the team traveled to Coleraine, MN, for the Mt. Itasca races to ski on a 2.5 km loop for 10 and 15 km races, I chose to stay in Houghton and do two local 10 km races.  Thanks to some great grooming and temperatures around zero on Friday night, the trails, even with the new snow, were hard packed for the skate race on Saturday.  Some of the Ashwaubenon team came up to ski in the race as well, and it was nice seeing them and racing with them again.  (Yes mom, it was nice seeing you and the rest of the family as well.)  The skate race was difficult and I was exhausted when I finished.  Not thrilled with the race I had, I had to understand that I was pretty worn down from all the training, and that it would only help me in the long run.  The classic race today went well.  I didn't have the best kick, although some of that could be due to technique when I start to get tired, but I was able to push through the race and win my age class and finish 2nd for the men.  Unfortunately, I was beaten by Lindsay Weier, an NMU senior who won the classic distance race at Senior Nationals.  Oh well, I guess I can live with that. 

Overall things have been going good.  Skiing is a blast, and we finally have good snow, the best trails we have had all year.  This coming weekend we travel to Telemark for the SuperTour races and Junior Olympic Qualifying races for both the Midwest and Great Lakes.  I can't wait to race again, but this week is devoted to recovering for those races.  My body is sore and tired from 20 km of racing this weekend, and I need to have a bit of a smaller week this week to let my body recover and get ready to push all out again this weekend.

 Till next time,

Kyle
 

It has been anything but a typical December week here in Houghton.  Snow is scarce, and the snow we've found has been anything but good.  Coming off a fun weekend of racing, skiing this past week has not been fun.  It rained earlier in the week as temperatures barely dropped below freezing, causing our trails to be closed so as to try and preserve them for this weekend and for Senior Nationals in January.  Maybe they have been preserved for Senior Nationals, but snow never really fell this week and our races were canceled, a huge disappointment for me.  Our workouts, therefore, consisted of skiing on some alternate trails on Monday (conditions were bad), taking off on a rainy Tuesday and running Wednesday and Friday.  Thursday, Saturday, and today we skied on Ripley.  Now, this may be a great opportunity for a workout, maybe one day out of the week, but trying to do an easy ski up a downhill ski hill is far from, well, easy.  Thursday and today were just easier skis, but Saturday we did intervals up the thing.  Several things made this difficult.  The icy granules of man-made snow and the crappy rock skis that I was on made this adventure quite a memorable one.  It was kind of humorous to watch everyone go down the somewhat icy slope on cross country skis, however.  Although most of us are probably pretty decent downhill skiers, we looked - and I know I felt - like beginners.  It is unbelievable that we do not have good snow to ski on, this is highly unusual around here.

 This coming week marks the end of my first semester of classes here at Michigan Tech.  Technically all my classes are done, but I still have 4 finals to take this week by Wednesday before I can come home on Thursday to go to the Packer game that night.  As far as finals go (mom if you're reading this, stop) I haven't studied much yet, which is why I should probably stop writing this and go do that.  Two of the four I feel will be difficult, the other not so much.  Despite finals week being upon us, it seems most people are not really stressed out.  Perhaps this is due to the fact than many of the men and women on the team are very good students, but I think being involved in athletics is an advantage around this time of the year.  Sure, without skiing we could all spend more time on studying, but in actuality, I feel it helps to take a break from studying to relax and get rid of some stress by skiing (or running).  This really isn't just an opinion of mine, but is a fact, exercising helps to get rid of the negative side affects of stress. 

My first semester of college has been great.  I've had so much fun being part of a team and skiing has definitely been a positive experience for me.  With that said, I can't wait to get my exams over with and come home and celebrate Christmas.  Pray for snow in Green Bay so I can get some training in at home.

Till next time,

Kyle
 

This weekend started out the 2006-07 race season, and for me it went pretty well.  Since the races this weekend were qualifying races for the Midwest Junior Olympic team, they were basically warm up races for me since I am trying to make the Great Lakes Junior Olympic team.  Nevertheless, I gave it my all at the races in Ironwood this weekend.

 Saturday: The race was a 1k freestyle sprint race.  It started with a qualifying round in which skiers went off at 15 second intervals and then the top 24 skiers from my age class (OJ) went on to the quarterfinal heats.  My qualifying round was going pretty well up until about 25 meters from the finish when I fell. I was pretty disappointed with my fall, knowing I had skied a pretty good sprint, but I was relieved when I noticed on the results that I was 22nd and would be going on. I was very surprised, and started to get pretty nervous since I have never gone on into the heats in the past.   Unfortunately, there were some problems with the timing, and I ended up being knocked out of the top 24 when some other people got moved up.  I was even more dissapointed then and couldn't believe my luck.  My emotions for the day went from down to up to down again.  Some of the other Tech skiers had very good days.  Two other freshman finished 2nd and 5th in the finals and one of the sophomore girls won.  For the older classes we had one skier finish 2nd, and another finish 8th or 9th.  It was a good day overall for us.

 
Sunday: The race was a 10k classic for the guys on a course that had seen better days.  The tracks were bad and the snow was spotted with dirt.  Due to the warm weather, kick wax and glide became very important, and for many, the kick was especially difficult.  For me it started out well. I had great kick and decent glide.  As the race went on problems began to arise.  Somewhere during the mile long stretch of climbing, my skis started to drag especially bad.  If you're not familiar with what I mean let me explain a little about what happened.  Due to the very wet and warm snow, it began to build up on the bottom on the ski in the kick zone.  I still had good kick, but when I swung my leg back through, it would catch the snow and stop.  I had to run almost for a little, and at one point was forced to stop for a second to scrape off some of the snow.  It made the remainder of the race difficult and somewhat frustrating.  Overall, however, I was happy with my results, finishing 13th in the OJ category, behind 3 other Tech freshmen.

 
The weekend was a lot of fun, right up until about 20 miles from Houghton.  I was following the team vans back with a couple people in my car (we drove since we did not make the traveling team this weekend) when we passed a Michigan State patrol car.  Apparently we were going a little fast, and he happened to notice.  He got behind me, took my plates, then got between me and one of the vans, and in a spectacular display of his skills, pulled the both of us over.  He asked me if I knew why he pulled me over, and I was thinking "What a dumb question, obviously its speeding."  He must be really good at conversations and making friends.  Well to make this painful situation short, the van and I both ended up with speeding tickets for 10 over and it put a damper on the weekend, although I think it will probably make for a good story down the road, or today.

 
This week we have some warm weather, hopefully some snow will fall to make sure we have a good course for the races this weekend.  They are on our trails and everyone is invited to come check it out.  Should be a lot of fun.  I know I can't wait.

 
Kyle
 

It's finally snowed here, and oddly enough Milwaukee and Chicago seemed to even have beaten us to be the first to have good snow.  Even though it has looked as if we were in a snow globe for the past couple days, the Tech trails are still not great.  Skiing today was still rock skiing, and earlier this week we skied when most people probably wouldn't have.  Most people have rock skis that are now for the most part unfixable.  Hopefully by tomorrow we will have good skiing.  Racing starts next weekend and I must admit I am pretty nervous for my first race in Ironwood.  I am very excited to get the season underway, but still a little nervous.  The hard work of dryland training is over, it is time to see how much I have acheived while I have been here and to give it everything in the races.

 As far as school goes, its unbelievable to think that only 2 weeks of classes remain in my first semester, before I take my first final exams here at Tech.  Most people think that it would be very hard to be an athlete and be in a sport and several people have told me that.  I think in a way, it can be helpful.  I can't speak for all sports, but the members of the cross country and Nordic ski teams are very disciplined and good students generally speaking. All of these athletes know the importance and quality education and being around this group of people can only affect someone in a positive way.  From the beginning of the year I have found it helpful to study with other people from the team and we tend to work on things together.  Being in a sport means we have less free time, and so, knowing this right away, we are very efficient with the time we have.  All in all, it comes down to discipline, and I think I have developed my self discipline while I have been at school, and I think I have become a better student, as well as a better athlete.
 

Kyle

If anyone has anything they would like me to talk about in next weeks blog, please write a comment. It would be great to have something to guide by blog and that way I know I am telling you something you want to know.  So feel free to ask me anything at all. 

This past week I was able to come home to Green Bay for a couple days, although calling Green Bay home is almost funny now since most of the time I actually refer to Houghton as home.  When I arrived back at school tonight and I asked one of my teammates how their ride home was, they figured I was talking about their drive back to Houghton.  Personally I prefer to think of Green Bay as home.  That was reaffirmed when I slept in my own bed for the first night, and ate home cooked food.  Dorm food has nothing on that.  There wasn't one night this past week where I wasn't stuffed after dinner.

After two practices last Monday, and one on Tuesday morning, I came home Tuesday night.  However, I didn't come home to relax, the first thing I went and did when I got home was go hillbounding.  Throughout the rest of the week I trained with the Ashwaubenon team, and I really enjoyed seeing everyone again and working out with them.  I enjoy being at school and love my team here, but I wish my vacation at home would have lasted a little bit longer.  I guess I didn't realize how much I missed seeing all my old friends till I got to see them and hang out with them again.  Being at home was anything but relaxing.  I was constantly doing something between working out and visiting friends and family; there is never enough time.  I guess I don't have too long till I get to come "home" again for Christmas... it's so weird how fast this year has gone already; I am almost done with my first semester of college.  It's strange to see how fast time goes by, a friend of mine in high school made me think about it when she stated how strange it was to be talking about how many years I'll be in college... and then what?....  Life goes by so fast it seems.

Well, on a less serious note, no snow in Houghton yet.  Maybe some will fall this week, hopefully.  We were supposed to have some races this weekend, but those appear to be canceled.  This week is a recovery week, and I could use it.  My body is pretty tired from hard training the last two weeks and could use a lighter load to recover and get back to normal. 

Think Snow,

Kyle

With the winter growing close, and the snow still not falling here in Houghton (unusual for this time of year) we've been sticking it out in dryland training.  Last week I put in 14.5 hours of training, including two OD days on Monday and Sunday.  The highpoint in the week for me, at least, was Ripley.  I pushed my body to the max, doing something I didn't I was physically capable of earlier in the year.  I endured 12 repetitions up Mont Ripley, keeping my pace very consistent, and finishing with a faster than average time for the day.

With the Thanksgiving week now upon us, this is now known as our "3rd Hell Week."  The first two were the first two weeks we were here, and consisted of 2 or 3 practices a day.  This week so far has been much of the same.  Sunday had two practices, a long 2 hr 40 min run and strength training in the evening.  Today had two rollerskis, classic ED in the morning about 2 hrs 15 min, and then Lactate Threshold rollerski intervals at night up a hill that takes about 11 minutes to climb.  I am definitely tired.

As for the rest of the week, I'll train here in Houghton tomorrow before heading back to Green Bay.  Not sure what time I am leaving yet, but it will probably be sometime in the afternoon.  Some training will definitely be done back home in order to get my large sum of hours in for the week, (I already had 4 hours today), and I am looking forward to doing some training with my old high school team.  

Well my bed is calling my name after a long day, and practice at 8 tomorrow morning also looms ahead.

Till next time,

Kyle

P.S. If there is anything at all anyone wants to know, feel free to ask questions to direct my next post. 

This past week has been nothing short of interesting.  Before I go into details on this past week, it is probably a good idea for me to inform you of the types of workouts we have done and what a typical week usually is.

Typical week:

Monday - Strength in the morning and an OD (over distance) workout in the evening.  Up to now we have run on for our ODs at times, but now that running season is over, we rollerski for almost every workout. Strength is done at 6:30 in the morning (no sleeping in) and consists of dips, core strength, squats or leg press, some benching or pushups, lunges, lat pull downs, pull ups.. and maybe some balance if I feel like it.  ODs are typically anywhere from 2:00 hrs to 3:30 and are done at a fairly easy pace.

Tuesday - Is usually a Ripley day.  Ripleys are probably the hardest workout we do.  Mont Ripley, for anyone who doesn't know is the local ski hill owned by Tech. A "Ripley" is when we ski walk up about 525 meters or so up the hill.  That may not seem overly long, but ski walking up the hill gets surprisingly difficult, and is done at about a 3-3.75 minute pace, depending on the person.  The most times I've gone up Ripley is 8 times, and that was exhausting.

Wednesday - Typically we have an ED (easy distance) workout on Wednesdays.  These are usually 1:15 - 2:00 hours in length, and like the ODs are mostly rollerskiing now.  Strength is also done in the morning.

Thursday - This tends to be another intensity workout.  Sometimes it is pole bounding, like what many of you have done at Bairds Creek, only pole bounding here lasts about 15-30 minutes at a time, jogging the flats and downhills, and going hard up the hills.  We have also done Lactate Threshold workouts (LTs), mostly running 3ks to this point, or doing VO max workout which in the past has been 1k repeats.

Friday - Typically similar to Wednesdays, sometimes without the strength in the morning.

Saturday - Always consists of a morning practice, anything from Time Trials, to bounding as it was this week, or ODs.

Sunday - Usually a day of rest, except that one day that we skied 3 hours up near Gay Michigan in 30 mph winds... bad day...

This week

Monday was a normal day. I went to strength in the morning and did my OD in the afternoon just like any other day... I had no idea what was coming.  I ate dinner, pizza.  Now, I don't always eat pizza at every meal, I usually eat pretty healthy, but I wanted pizza...

Turns out it was a bad choice.

Make a long story short.. I had food poisoning. I spent the next two days in bed unable to move for the most part with the worst pain in my stomach I have ever felt. My stomach felt like it had 100 knots tied up.  I didn't practice the next three days until I finally eased back into working out with a 1 one hour rollerski.

Lesson of the story... you never know when you are gonna get food poisoning from the food in the dorms.  Two other skiers ate the pizza and had the problem as well, although my case was the worse.

Till next week,

Kyle 

P.S. If there is anything anyone would like to know, leave a comment and I'll try to get back to it (it's not like I'm working real hard in school)

Also, as a little piece of information - to date I have skied on snow 6 different days this year. Oct 12-14 and Nov 2-4.