Training Log Archive: cmorse

Event: CNYO Snowgaine #15
 

CNYO Snowgaine with Frank Boscoe from Albany. Rain all the way up, until we got within about 5 miles of Winona, then snow reappeared quickly. Drove up to HH and did a little test of conditions to see what the best options were, then back to Port Ontario to our motel.

Half hour for briefing, map study and to file intention sheets - we quickly whipped up a loop figuring we'd do half a day on skis, half snowshoe to see how it went.

#67 - attacked this a bit later than I would have otherwise, but a clean route in across a smallish marsh behind another team (eventual winners), exited via the route I though we should have come in on - saved a couple minutes probably, but I fell and dropped my map and had to retrace my steps to find it, so we probably lost 5-6 minutes backtracking...

#43 - 75% snowmobile trails, clean attack, no problems

#32 - didn't have this on the original itinerary, but added it on the fly - S to ski trail (not broken out, but easy skiing), overshot attackpoint slightly probably cost 90s, otherwise clean.

#72 - retrace route on ski path, some serious downhills in rough terrain (I'm not a backcountry skier at all). Parts of the trail were melted down to bare earth and running water. Had to circumvent a lot of deadfall, but otherwise ok.

#63 - slow leaving #72 - terrain vague, felt longer than it should have. Eventually out to ski trail and snowmobile road, down to river crossing, then in along forest boundary. A lot of steep difficult hills in here - more than shown on map. Eventually got there...

#55 - slow exit from #72, skied on shoulder of road, then up and around - long way around, but skiable all the way as opposed to very steep and a questionable stream crossing on the direct route.

#71 - ski trail for a bit, then contoured around hill - lots of fallen trees, slow going...

#46 - another team had skied the forest boundary so we went that way on exiting - much cleaner, but more climbing. Back to snowmobile road then up across broad hill - seemed to take a lot longer than it looked like on map - pretty vague hilltop, but knoll with control quite obvious when we finally got there.

#40 - steep descent (bare booted this one), stream crossing then headed N (should have gone due E to road), next stream crossing had to be bare-booted and waded - no fun at all... followed by a steep climb up to control.

HH - (about 6 hours in) north to road, some road skiing, then walked to HH to swap skis for snowshoes. Lost time on out and back and transition
but my legs had good strength, but the backcountry skiing was taking a serious toll on ability to control skis (ie I fell down a LOT).

#50 - ran road, the snowshoes on snowmobile paths to just above control, into woods and post holing 3-4 feet in some places, ok in others.

#60 - back to snowmobile trail, cross river then north up slope - going ok but Frank noted that his heart rate was much higher than when skiing. Probably better per/km pace, but at too high an effort to maintain?

#70 - sketchy ski-trails (not maintained apparently), both getting tired at this point.

#51 - pretty straight shot and easy, beginning to worry about time - try for #30, or stick to roads and run back (slightly longer, but faster).

#30 - seemingly easy control about 1000m N of hashhouse - made the decision to go for it even if we incurred a couple minutes penalties. Got to the control just fine, only to find no one else had been here all day. So there would be no convenient herd path back to the HH and on top of it the snow was really soft and post-holing extensively. At one point crossing a stream on a snowbridge/downed tree I went straight through and into the stream - probably took 2-3 minutes to extricate myself and continue the slog. Wound up 19 minutes overtime which would mean almost an hour delay for starting on Sunday. Damn...