skiin' and readin'

Since Wendie is finally over her cold we decided to get back to doing some skiing. Yesterday we headed out on the Lone Star Geyser trail. It starts with two downhills. The first one is the one we practiced on during our ski lesson. I caught an edge on my way down and toppled over but Wendie took it cleanly. The next hill goes right down to the Firehole River before taking a sharp left. Somehow we both managed to nail this tricky descent and were over the river

while we left another couple at the top of the hill contemplating how to follow our lead.

The rest of the first half-mile or so of the trail is a steady uphill. Thankfully it is a gradual grade so we were able to ski up most of it. A bigger problem than the rise in elevation is the lack of snow on the trails. We haven't had any snow to speak of for about a week and the trails are all pretty slick, which makes sliding backwards a direct result of climbing to higher elevations.

Finally we made it to the top of the hill and had a nice view of not only the geyser basin down below but also of the trail ahead

Sadly by the time we reached the section of the trail that parallels the road, the trail, due to the lack of snow, had turned into nothing more than sheer angled wall of ice. So with that, and a check of the watch that told us it was getting close to work time, we decided to cut to the fun part: the downhill. Except for few flat sections, we took the whole quarter mile down without even so much as a push from our poles.

After pushing our way up the hills at the beginning of the trail we came out at the Old Faithful parking lot right after the geyser had gone off. As all the tourists hightailed to their snowmobiles and coaches we got our first glimpse of an Old Faithful rush hour, winter style.

We decided to follow up yesterday's skiing with a trip to Fern Cascades, a ski trail that starts right behind our housing location and is a bit of a rite of passage for winter employees. When anyone mentions Fern the first thing that comes up is the hills, and we learned why real quick.

The trails starts with a good quarter to half mile ascent that is almost vertical. We pushed onward, having to herringbone it from pretty much jump street

Despite the near perfect form demonstrated above, it took us a good while to get to level ground. From there, we traveled up and down some dipsy-dos until we made it to the cascade, from where we could see Biscuit Basin down below

After a mile trip through the lodgepole pines, we came to Fern's other hills: the downhill. Unlike the Lone Star trail, there is nothing gradual about Fern's descent; it goes just about straight down and it does so in a hurry.

Fighting the ice and gravity, we did our best to make it down in one piece, which meant falling on purpose a couple of times when we weren't sure if the drop kept going (it did). Our final descent was delayed by a couple that was actually trying to go up the one-way downhill that we were coming down. Somehow I managed to stop like an actual skier (I even sprayed some powder) so I didn't run into them. Wendie got stuck on the hill because, despite my ascertain that I knew what trail I was on, the couple decided they needed to disagree with me right at the bottom of the hill. Finally, after the couple told me we need to post better signs, Wendie too made a perfect descent all the way down to the trail head where we found a big sign saying, "This is a one-way trail." It pays to be able to read I guess.