Skiing the Dukes trail on Cardigan - 1/5/08

[David Metsky]

With great snow falling during the week, sunny skies on Saturday, then warmer weather coming in to start the next week Saturday was the obvious day to try for. I got one friend to carpool with up from Boston and another to meet us at the Cardigan Lodge around 9:00 AM. Tom, the caretaker suggested Dukes which is what I had in mind, hoping to hit the ledges on Firescrew up top.

We put skins on at the parking lot, where many other skiers and boarders were headed up, though most were headed for Alexandria. There were only two tracks coming down and some fresh skin tracks headed up in front of us. The coverage was excellent, and the snow was in fine shape. Dave K, on lighter gear and in better shape, was setting a fine pace. Lafe and I, on heavier gear and in sad shape, were bringing up the rear.

We met two skiers at the top of the Whitney trail who were headed down the 80Z, then another couple coming down from the top who reported that the ledges were unskiable due to ice and breakable crust. At treeline this was confirmed, but we went up a bit just to be sure. They were right. It was pretty nasty up there. We took a few pictures and then dropped down to treeline to get ready for the descent.

I removed skins, the other two kept them on until they got a little lower. The snow was excellent, the turns were a lot of fun. This was the best skiing I've ever had at Cardigan. You could use the entire trail and the woods on either side. It was mostly untracked but there were several folks coming up the trail that would ski it up pretty well by the end of the day. At the bottom we took a few laps on the Practice Slope to get some good pictures and called it an early day around 1:30.

The rest of the pictures are HERE.

-dave-

 

[bubba]

Sweet. We ran out of snow today!

 

[DaveSunRa]

Nice photo's Dave. I believe I ran into your group on the upper part of the Duke as I was heading you and your group skiing down. I was by myself in very like gear, BC XC skis and NNN bindings. I followed your tracks up the Whitney trail then up to the top of Duke. There was another skier with a dog coming up somewhat behide me.

This was the first time I tried skiing at Cardigan, what a great place. Was kicking myself for not taking my beefer tele setup.

 

[David Metsky]

Another group came up Whitney, we followed the skin track up Dukes. We met a skier with a dog lower down on Dukes, but I think there was another somewhere in there.

Which way did you ski out?

-dave-

 

[DaveSunRa]

Skied out via the Duke. I meet the skier with the Dog on the top of Duke, cool dog with a red coat. Did one heck of a head drive at the bottom runout of the Duke. Had to dig snow out of my ears .

Afterwards had to drive over to Hanover NH. Doesn't seem to be any easy way to get there from Cardigan.

 

[Mimi]

Great pics !

Love the sequence pics of you Dave skiing in what looked like perfect snow day ! The one with the skis & the baby on backs is a very special one too !!!

 

[Jazzbo]

Those trails don't brush themselves

Dave

For last three years I've been one of the volunteer maintainers on annual brushing of the ski trails that happens every October week before Halloween at Cardigan. I've been meaning to ski those trails one of these winters. Looks like I missed my big opportunity this winter. I noticed some brush sticking up in one of those pics. That must have been the steep slope on Lower Dukes just above the lodge. We never seem to get that slope. I hope you guys liked our work. Loved the pics. Thanks for sharing!

Ray Caron

 

[David Metsky]

Trust me, I know the work it takes to keep the trails in shape. I keep meaning to join the Halloween weekend and contribute back to the trails. Jeff B does it most every year, and we cut blowdowns during the backcountry ski workshop we run there every year.

I have high hopes that conditions will get better after the thaw. There's a good base that a few days of warm temps won't destroy. Keep thinking snow!

-dave-