It took a while to clean all the klister off my skis and rewax for minus 6 (!!) I finally headed out to ski in the late afternoon, deciding that cooking dinner could wait!
And it was quite an exciting and fun ski. It was thrilling to be on real classic wax, in winter temperatures, after all the dirty snow and thaws of the last few weeks. It was still snowing when I started skiing, at least I thought it was snow. One other skier had set some nice tracks. Shortly after setting out, though, it became apparent that the snow had switched to ice pellets. (Think "mini hail".) My wax was still working, and the ice was not sticking to anything, so I decided to carry on, but turn back at the first hint of freezing rain.

Ice pellets are delightful to ski on! They pack much more densely than new fluffy snow, almost the way sand does, and that you feel that you are floating over the snow, but in complete control. And of course they are very slippery. I am still amazed that my grip wax worked so well. Skating would have been heavenly, too.

Ridge Road was very atmospheric, with howling pine trees and those constantly pinging ice pellets. By Huron, I started to wonder if it was smart to be out in the wind, and turned back.

The descent down Fortune was really fun, aside from the sting of the pellets - A skater had recently come down Burma and left his tracks ahead of mine. They were the longest skate tracks I have EVER seen - amazingly balance and glide!

At P10, the car was covered in pellets, not ice, fortunately, and the short drive was also ok, although it took me a while to warm my toes and fingers.

A memorable ski!