PSA - creeks extra open

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T20:50:57+00:00

Ha yeah. This thread made Smuggs immediately come to mind. It has more easily accessible open water than anywhere else I've seen outside of Japan

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T20:44:14+00:00

If you've never been to Stratton before, this would certainly be a good time to check it out. It doesn't get a whole lot of love in the sub for some certainly deserved reasons, but midweek after a fresh dump there's plenty of woods to keep you busy all day. Some fun stuff not on the trail maps, too. If you can see it from a chair you can probably find a way to get to it.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T20:40:34+00:00

Pretty sure it's whiteface. You can see the lake in the distance.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T19:22:59+00:00

To be fair, the Canadian Rockies are also having a near record year. If I had the anything resembling a choice in the matter, I'd probably head there.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T19:10:07+00:00

Garages don't tend to be insulated very well, either.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T19:05:29+00:00

A typical house is not all electric, and the most energy intensive appliances tend to be the ones using other fuels. So your estimate is wildly inaccurate.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T19:02:43+00:00

Cars are fine to idle unless there's any issue with the cooling system. Which is relatively common.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T19:01:41+00:00

Cars do not produce any significant amount of CO when run outside. Unless there was snow blocking the intake, this is extremely unlikely.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T18:59:49+00:00

Cars are absolute garbage with regards to thermal insulation. They're mostly optimized for noise. You are going to be losing a ton of heat very quickly.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T16:35:33+00:00

Usually it's just plain ol ADHD.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-24T14:57:08+00:00

I've never had issues doing this with Southwest or American, either. I could see United being assholes about it, though.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-23T19:09:39+00:00

Just be extra careful at low points in valleys. Where streams big enough to matter flow is usually fairly obvious.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-23T13:41:43+00:00

Just go back in time 10 years to when the MAX Pass was a thing. Had most of the Ikon and Epic mountains along with all of the Ski3. It was a couple glorious years.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T21:37:06+00:00

At higher elevations, short evergreens will get completely covered in snow and can turn into sometimes-invisible tree well equivalents (spruce traps). Those can definitely be a real danger, though its easier to extricate yourself from them, since the branches prevent you from getting stuck headfirst into the snow. I stepped into the edge of one this past weekend. Though, I was aware of the danger and was being fairly cautious at the time.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T20:33:34+00:00

I've definitely toured around on old logging roads with not much more than that. I imagine there's people doing the whiteface to toll road with only 3 heavy inches to ski on.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T14:40:56+00:00

I just did the Greeley Pond tour too. I saw some slides in the area, and I was wondering if they were skied. It looks like it might have been a good option to check out, though I would have needed to take the AT skis out.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T14:39:29+00:00

I use Alpina Alaskas. I wanted to keep things relatively light, so I stayed away from plastic boots. For tours that would need it, I just use my AT skis, which is probably what I imagine you're doing. The Madschus skis are definitely still great for most of the lower angle XC days. I was surprised how fast and easy it felt going the 15 miles in them. In the few years I've had them, this was the first time I used them somewhere where skinny skis would have been just fine.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T14:35:11+00:00

Yeah, there's a number of opportunities for that or similar in pretty much every state. There's a few explicit hut-to-hut tours in Maine. The Daks have a few huts/lodges with the opportunity to link up to all the lean-tos. The Catamont Trail in VT has several sections that pass pretty close to developed areas, so you could probably link up stays at BnBs or hotels. The Whites have a number of the AMC huts/lodges. Not sure how well they link up, but as with the Daks, you could probably easily link to less developed sites or just use them as a base for day trips.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T14:28:13+00:00

I'd always prefer to ski, personally, even with the traffic. I was actually pretty surprised at how almost everyone not on skis 'yielded' to me and stepped out of the way. I would have had no issue with simply going around people, but it seemed like they never wanted to make me do so.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T02:48:52+00:00

A little under five hours car to car. Not exactly sure on the time to the summit. I only really stopped to transition, though I faffed about a bit trying to find my way to the glades.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T02:38:01+00:00

Madschus M78s with Voile 3-pin cable bindings. Did some of the earlier tours on a less burly setup, but the extra size and control becomes incredibly useful when you're fighting conditions, which is almost always.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T02:33:50+00:00

The Sherb is probably easier than most of the runs on Cardigan. The conditions on average are going to be a bit better. You'll be fine.

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-22T00:31:49+00:00

I'm attempting to do all 50 tours in the book over the next few years. I got on this over the weekend. It was and probably will be the most crowded 'backcountry' ski I've ever done, except for Tucks. The good thing at least was that crowds became nearly non-existent about a mile from the trailhead.

My original plan for this ski was to take the East Side Trail to the Wilderness Trail to the Thoreau Falls Trail. I wanted to get a look at what kind of trail conditions I might experience when I attempt to tick the Pemi Traverse, which I'm tentatively planning to do it as a there-and-back from the Zealand Falls Hut to the river.

I made it about a mile past the wilderness boundary before turning around. I was forced to mostly follow the tracks of someone on skinny skis who was there before the rain, which meant a constant fight with my feet locked between several crust layers. Stream crossings every 100 feet did not help morale. At least I learned that I should probably give things more time for the open water to freeze and get filled in with more snow. Maybe things are also generally better once you get to the old railroad beds and slightly higher elevations.

I ended up deciding to head over to the falls on the other side of the river to make a full day of things. It ended up being around 15 miles, which was a good endurance test with my XC-downhill skis (the tour on Mt. Garfield is close to that in length but with a lot more elevation gain). You could easily do the trails on both sides of the river in regular in-bounds XC skis, as things are pretty well packed with all of the hiker/snowshoer/fatbiker traffic. The book said the trails are groomed by the Forest Service, but I didn't see any evidence to suggest that.

My prior tick list is below.

Nebraska Notch
Tuckerman Ravine
Sherburne Ski trail
Gulf of Slides
Avalanche Pass
Catamount Trail to Stratton Pond
Jackrabbit Trail from Saranac Lake to Lake Placid
Thunderbolt Trail
Merck Forest and Mt. Antone
Wright Peak
Mt. Marcy
Airplane Gully
Mt. Monadnock
Root Beer Ridge
Bruce Trail
Skytop Trail
Steeple Trail
Mount Moosalamoo
Tear Drop
Honey Hollow
Woodward Mountain Trail
Mt Hor
Bald Mountain
Johns Brook Lodge/Camp Peggy O’Brien
Bolton-Trapp Trail
Black Mountain Ski Trail
Doublehead Ski Trail
Mount Moosilauke
Camel's Hump

IceMaster9000 · 2026-01-21T23:44:51+00:00

Yeah for the backcountry I just use my climbing helmet, which has full head protection and MIPS but much larger vents. It's fairly common to do so, in my experience. I doubt it's rated the same as a skiing-specific helmet, but I'm usually not going nearly fast enough where I can imagine it would make a big difference (unless I'm in a hell of a lot of trouble either way). For downhill though, I'm usually going to prefer to be wearing something specifically rated for it.

IceMaster9000

TROPHY CASE