Thanks to everyone who helped out in this one. I think it went very well. Especially Michael and Ray who went up Fri to help get us into camp but could not stay the entire weekend. Ski lesson was excellent. Most of the boys did some community service after the lesson – blowing up the balloons for an upcoming GGT kiddie event and a little trail brushing on Hairball Passage. Had an hour of yo-yoing up and down the tubing hill learning wedge turns and tele turns. Scouts were having a blast! By default, ,against the instructor’s advice, with one less layer of liability, the Saturday afternoon backcountry tour included everybody. We did about 1 hr. breaking trail up on the mountain behind camp. It was a Mt bike singletrack trail called The Outback. Plenty of challenge for most of the kids and leaders, with the climb and the final drop through a steep glade of powder snow. Mr. getchell will attest it was way easier on skis than on a bike. The scouts all had skis on their feet most of the way, so you might say they skied it. As for awarding the mb – some guys certainly qualified on every point. Most scouts showed a level of preparedness necessary to keep an outing like this safe and fun. Some scouts showed that a lack of preparedness can affects everyone. A scout is respectful. Anyway, let’s hear it for teamwork, patience, and perseverance. If we hold a quick waxing clinic we can wrap this mb up by the end of March. I will do a sit-down with JP some Thurs. nite on the indoor stuff he missed if he’s still interested in the merit badge.
Afternoon free time was a good time to dig out tents and the fire pit, go snow tube, a few of the boys did some skiing. After dinner everyone enjoyed an easy 45 min snowshoe on ungroomed trails and thru the Great Dipper Swamp. The boys all did well, dropping into only a few fir traps and only one or two lost shoes. The dog teams came by several times in the early evening. Swift and silent. Very impressive. After the night hike, on to a crackerbarrell campfire, plenty of sweets, and another tale from Nick Howe’s book, Not Without Peril (Derek Tinkham freezing to death on Mt Jefferson) Was still snowing lightly when the scouts turned in. In all over a foot. Stars out by 10 PM. We did miss our tentmate Ray Saturday night. Michael and Nick ended up in their own tent, JP and Mackenzie I’m sure enjoyed another night in the cabin.
Sunday AM was white-out conditions in the meadow, sunny with a strong northwest wind. We had all we could do to get to the stages on time – 7:30. A 2nd driver and coach had been reserved on Saturday to accommodate all 13 of us. Starting out Sunday, some of the boys had wet clothing, inadequate footwear and mittens, and the usual, lame-brained cotton underlayers. That eliminated any plan of being outside higher on the mountain for any length of time, so we scuttled the orienteering/bushwhack portion of the morning. We might have left two adults behind with the unprepared boys and sent 2 leaders with 6 prepared scouts, but how could we make that call on Saturday? Only two deep leadership in the backcountry is risky anyway. A $200, round-trip, luxury snowcoach ride on the mountain is not a model scout activity in my book and I am frustrated by how this played out. That said, the ride up and down was fabulous. Lots of drifting. Had to follow the snowcat blading through the drifts ahead of the coaches. Views were good – clear up to about 5,000 feet. Be sure to check out the photos in the web album link on the troop web page By the time we got down in the coach, the boys had little interest in anything but heading home. It was all many of them could do to walk into the wind and blowing snow the last 1500′ back to camp. Impact on the boys? Every kid will remember one or two personal conquests and a couple hopefully learned it takes all of your resources to plan for and spend a weekend out in some real winter weather. Torin and Ethan C. mastered the tele turn in powder and were relentless looking for powder chutes everywhere they went. Sean and Sam had the tele turn down on the groomed hill by lunchtime, Nick Laravee seems to be a natural skier. For a young, 6 month scout, he had himself quite a weekend. Mr. Ethan Hill is skiing well, and has come a long way to handle a trip like this. Dmitry on his skinny racing skis in the powder….well, only Dmitry could pull that off. best crash of the day – Mr. Dewar’s face plant. Thinking about it, the mountain really didn’t throw its worse at us. It was a good starter dose of winter, mountain weather. Thankfully I never had to break out the down parka, goggles, expedition mitts, or put my pile pants on under my snow pants. And that cabin…saved the trip didn’t it? Torin joined Sam, Ethan, Dmitry and Mr. Dewar in making the extra trips to the parking lot and rental with sleds to return all the extra troop gear. We should mention Scott’s midlife crisis. He went nordic for the first time at how old? Is it true blonds have more fun Scott? Mr. Chalmers, the ex nordic racer, modestly displayed his norpine finesse on the tele training hill and urged the rest of us sissies on to greater things in The Outback. (and he didn’t mean steakhouse) JP, in his own inimitable way, got through his first day ever on skis, linking his first wedge turns on the tubing hill and surviving the back-country slog. As disabled as he claimed to be by his skateboard and snowboard expertise, he was able to pull the rabbit out of his hat and and get to the skinny of nordic skiing. Mackenzie skied well, but stayed pretty much under my radar. If he didn’t get it on the snow, I am certain he found enlightenment with the cabin broom keeping our floor snow free for the entire weekend. No doubt the sweep came in handy when he had to get his stuff together to go home.