Today we skied up Airy Creek FSR to the diminutive Shaker Cabin below Airy Mountain. A good day for training both physical and mental. It's a long slog up the road, probably about 10 or 11 km to roads end and about 4,100 feet of elevation gain. From roads end, a further 500 feet of elevation gain and 2 km leads to a flat area in the woods and the cabin. Not a particularly tough day, but somewhat grueling on a number of counts. The road was sledded into hard ruts, the temperature was cold, there were large sections of alder covered road that took some push to get through, and, most trying of all, skiing up logging roads is tedious and boring.
By the time we had a late lunch by the cabin, the sun had already dipped below the mountains and the temperature was bombing again. We did not have enough daylight left to gain the ridge above the cabin, a further 2 km and 300 metres of elevation gain, so stripped our skins and skied out. That took some toughness too, as it was probably one of the less pleasant descents I've done. Above the road was reasonable, although the 10 day old snow is getting very stiff. The road, however, involved a face whipping from alder, and a hard rattling descent down a narrow sled track with your legs frozen into position.
Like I said, a good training day.
Doug at the Shaker Cabin
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