Ski Weekend

It was a great weekend of adventure, and the perfect first entry for the new website.  

The day started off early, leaving Corner Brook at 7:30 for the Trout River Bowl to meet my friend Scott for a ski.   Sunny skis, good friends, and lots of nice snow. The majestic skiing in Gros Morne National Park has been calling for a couple of weeks now with the warm weather and the corn snow but the usual life commitments had kept me out of the Park this season.

We arrived at the parking lot at 10am and there were a few keeners ahead of us heading up the mountain.  The bright reddish brown rock of the Tablelands shimmered in the sun as I strapped my skis on in the parking lot to skin up the mountain. 

It was an easy up today with lots of grip and a firm snow pack.  The route was also simple follow trail to the river and then straight up the river to bowl.  40 minutes later Scott and I were in the bottom of the bowl looking up the huge cornice of snow overhanging the centre of the bowl.   It was decided that staying right would be the best approach and the best place to ski.

Its too bad that the skiing was so good because the camera did not get taken out to take pictures for me to prove how good the skiing really was but I did get a few shots of the landscape on camera and of Scott on his board doing a nice line down the mountain. There were lots of lines down the mountain that day.

By the time all was said and down we had the entire right side of the mountain covered in tracks.   Our mission for the day being accomplished we decided to head down the mountain get back in our cars and head to a face over looking the town of Trout River for the sunset ski.   

Now this was an interesting experience.  After about 10 minutes of walking Scott said, “did you see my keys?” hmmm let me think,  “nope”.  So we ended up back tracking to look for the set of keys only to find them firmly hidden the trunk’s keyhole.   After a few laughs if was back off across the baron landscape and up the mountain. 

It was 8:30 and the sun was setting down below us, the sky was red, and the tiny Town of Trout River illuminated by the house lights.   We watched a small fishing vessel off in the distance steaming for the safety of the port and far off in the other direction was the flashing lights of the Lobster Head Lighthouse.  What a view, what a sunset!

The ski down was a relaxed one with wide sweeping casual turns down the moderate slope. We were lucky enough to find a line of snow right to the road.

9:30pm and we are packing our ski gear into the car as some tourists pulled into the parking lot wondering what we were doing.   They seemed to be in disbelieving that we had been skiing.

We returned to a house in Woody Point where we were joined by some friends for good food, good wine, and some great stories from the day.  All in total 11 runs down the mountain and 3 different types of wine today.

For most people one hard day of skiing is enough, but we planned to head up again tomorrow.  Tomorrow came early but there would be no skiing in the bowl due to the very high winds and the snowstorm that was brewing.  The perfect excuse to chop up some fresh strawberries and to cook up some back bacon, hash brown, French toast, eggs, and a couple of pots of coffee.

It was decided to pack up and head home before the real bad weather started but as usual we were easily sidetracked by the fresh snow and the trail head markers on the side of the road.   A decision was made to go for a short ski tour down the wind protected Stuckless Wigwam trail.

The weather was horrid but as the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear, so we had a fantastic time gliding along the well packed trail, thanks to all the moose and snow shoe tracks.  After a nice ski through the fir and spruce stands we got back in the cars and headed home.

The snow was fierce, and the roads slippery, and lots of other cars without winter tires!   The nicely named hill called the struggle was just that.  By the time I was at the top I could have walked faster then the car was going but at least I made it.  An hour and a half later I was in the driveway and another weekend of adventure was behind me.